Why is the Climate Denying Trump Administration Rushing Through an Alaska Green Transition Project?
By Hal Shepherd
Why is the Climate Denying Trump Administration Rushing Through an Alaska Green Transition Project?
President Donald Trump has had a lot to say about climate change in 2012, he tweeted, “Climate change is a big scam for a lot of people to make a lot of money.” He has called efforts to transition to alternative energy sources “the Green New Scam?”
But if climate change is nothing more than a hoax, why then is the Trump Administration rushing through an Alaska-based mining project whose primary purpose is to provide graphite for electric car batteries? The Canadian-based mining company Graphite One seeks to extract ore from what may be the highest-grade and largest graphite deposit in the United States.
At this time, the Army Corps of Engineers is conducting an Environmental Assessment (EA) to determine whether the proposed project may have significant environmental effects. At the conclusion of the EA process, the agency will determine whether preparation of a more comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement is warranted or issue a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the project. Because the mining company has also obtained Fast-41 status and, under pressure from the Trump administration, the Corp has indicated that it will likely issue a FONSI to issue the permit by September 2026 – just one year after the application was submitted.
The failure to analyze the impacts of a mine on the scale of Graphite One is unprecedented. The mine, for example, will include an acid-generating open pit that will be over a mile long and approximately ¼ mile deep, with substantial impacts on one of the most biologically rich watersheds in the State. Similarly, the mining company projects removing 22.5 million tons of ore at a rate of 2,740 tons per day, along with an additional 50 million tons of waste rock. A flotation processing plant located at the mine site is projected to produce 53,600 dry metric tons of concentrated graphite per year for transport via a new road constructed through the Kigluiak Mountains to the Port of Nome and subsequent shipment to battery manufacturing facilities in the lower 48 states.
What is being called by some the “Pebble of Northwest Alaska,” the Graphite One Mine would have similar impacts to the controversial mine in the Bristol Bay region. The company intends to dump “treated” effluent from the mine into two salmon streams within the 1,176-acre footprint. The mining company claims that the pristine Glacier Canyon and Graphite Creeks are devoid of salmon. An ironic claim, given that all other rivers and streams within 2 miles of the mine contain abundant salmon.
While it appears that, at least at the staff level, the Corps is attempting to include the Tribes in the decision-making process regarding the permit, it is clear that the final decision on whether to draft an EA or a full Environmental Impact Statement will be made at a higher level in the Trump administration. This is illustrated by staff who are deferring to upper-level decision-makers to answer questions about completing the final jurisdictional determination, and by the administration’s work on gutting protections for wetlands and waters. Yet, in contrast to Trump’s contempt for anything beyond oil and gas consumption, the mining Company states that the primary purpose of the mine would be to supply graphite to meet the nation’s green energy needs.
According to Graphite One, the mine “would supply the electric-vehicle, lithium-ion battery, and energy storage markets as well as other high-grade graphite products.” In fact, the company recently announced that, due to increased demand from electric car manufacturers, it now plans to expand operations from 53,000 to 183,000 tons of graphite concentrate per year or about 10,000 tons of ore/day (about four times more than the original plan of 2,500 tons/day).
Unlike the oil and gas industry, however, the mining industry did not contribute that much to either of Trump’s election campaigns. Yet, Trump’s January 2025 Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential Executive Order, which included language for opening up vast acreages of public lands to mining, and as in the case of the Graphite One mine, the climate-denying president is also awkwardly calling for increased domestic production of critical minerals.
Another illustration of the contradictory and catastrophic Trump administration’s environmental policy.
Good write up thank you