A judgment on the fate of the proposed Pebble Mine in Southwest Alaska is expected by the end of this year. The Canadian-owned mine, located on state land upstream from the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery, would be among the world’s most massive open-pit copper mines.
The Pebble project is now blocked by two federal actions: the EPA’s 2023 veto, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ November 2020 denial of the mine’s key Clean Water Act discharge permits.
Litigation is centered in the U.S. District Court for Alaska where plaintiffs, including the State of Alaska, are seeking a judgment to overturn the federal government’s actions.
Dan Sullivan only came out against the Pebble project in 2020, three days after a “Pebble Tapes” scandal when project CEO’s Thom Collier and Ron Thiessen were revealed discussing their “very close relationship” with Renee Reeve, Sullivan’s State Director at the time, who Collier said “kept him informed.”
Collier said that Sullivan would “remain quiet” about Pebble until the 2020 election and bragged that his silence was strategic and would allow the permit to be approved without Sullivan “making bad news stories.” Collier resigned shortly after the tapes were released.
Sullivan also promised to donate campaign contributions from mine advocates to charity. According to Federal Election disbursement reports, that has never happened.
“Women for Dan Sullivan” stacked with Pebble supporters
Now, Renee Reeve is among more than a dozen Pebble Mine advocates in a newly formed “Women for Dan Sullivan” coalition that hopes to help push Pebble over the finish line.
The coalition includes prominent and influential former mine supporters who have pressured elected officials to advance the project and continue to donate to Sullivan’s campaign.
The “Women for Dan” members were announced last month and have hosted events with Sullivan’s wife in Soldotna, Fairbanks, Anchorage, Wasilla, and Southeast Alaska – all far from the people and places that would be affected by the open-pit mine.
Other pro-Pebble coalition members include:
- Shalon Harrington, Pebble Partnership Chief Of Staff from February 2018 to March 2021 who advised Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy on promoting and fighting the EPA’s veto of the mine. Harrington also wrote pro-Pebble talking points for Dunleavy to use during a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence.
- Elizabeth Stevens, whose husband, Ben, was Dunleavy’s “top deputy” and left the Alaska Senate amid a corruption scandal. He was paid $50,000 to serve on Pebble’s “citizens’ advisory council” in 2019.
- Marit Carlson-Van Dort, Director of Regional Affairs for the Pebble Project from 2013 to 2018.
- Deantha Skibinski,Executive Director of the Alaska Miners Association, when the organization joined an amicus brief seeking to overturn the EPA’s veto of Pebble Mine. She co-signed a public statement with mine owner Northern Dynasty Minerals urging the Trump Administration to approve the project.
- Rebecca Logan, current CEO of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance, signed a letter urging the Trump administration to remove the EPA’s veto of Pebble Mine saying “Alaska’s economic future will be threatened” by the veto.
- Alicia Kresl, Executive Director of the Association of General Contractors of Alaska, joined a 2025 letter urging EPA Administrator Lee Zelden to overturn the EPA’s veto of Pebble Mine and wrote multiple op-eds opposing the EPA’s veto in 2023.
- Leila Kimbrell, former Director of the Resource Development Council, co-signed a letter opposing the EPA’s preemptive veto of Pebble Mine and called it a “good project” during a 2023 interview.
- Mary Kathryn Thomas served on the board of the Truth about Pebble organization from at least 2010 to 2012 and publicly minimized the mine’s environmental impacts, claiming Pebble opponents were “lying” about the mine.
- Ginger Johnson was a board member of Truth about Pebble from 2007 until at least 2011 and wrote multiple editorials in support of Pebble Mine.
- Marleanna Hall testified to the EPA as the Executive Director of the Resource Development Council for Alaska in support of withdrawing the preemptive veto of Pebble Mine in 2017.
- Kelly Merrick received $700 from Pebble Mine while she served as an Alaska legislator in 2020. Campaign finance records indicate that Merrick did not join colleagues in returning or donating Pebble donations amid the Pebble Tapes scandal.
- Kati Capozzi, CEO of the Alaska Chamber of Commerce, co-wrote a pro-Pebble letter to the Anchorage Daily News and co-signed a public statement with Northern Dynasty urging the Trump administration to approve the mine in 2020.
- Charisse Millette, while a representative in the Alaska legislature, wrote a letter urging the EPA against a preemptive veto of Pebble in 2012.
Silent Sullivan
Senator Dan Sullivan, whose first campaign manager was Ben Mohr, formerly of the Pebble Limited Partnership, has held his office since 2015.
He has a long relationship of advocacy for the mining project since he was selected in 2009 as Attorney General by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. He defended Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources and the Pebble Partnership in a lawsuit that challenged the state’s process for issuing permits to the Pebble Limited Partnership.
The “Women for Dan” coalition exposes his decades-long pattern of obfuscating his advocacy for the project, while breaking promises to Alaskans and continuing to rake in campaign cash from Pebble Mine advocates.
While the Trump administration defended the 2023 EPA ruling against the Pebble Mine, signals indicate that it might be open to a reversal. As Trump scrambles to secure domestic supplies of critical materials like copper, notably for burgeoning AI data centers, Pebble could be a key to satisfying the nation’s huge appetite for copper.
Meanwhile, Senator Sullivan has remained silent on the current Pebble Mine lawsuit as he seeks re-election in November.
