EPA in ‘regulatory overreach’ with renewed Pebble project veto, says proponent

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Thursday veto of the contentious Pebble copper-gold project in Alaska has again irked the proponent Northern Dynasty Minerals (TSX: NDM; NYSE American: NAK).

In a statement on Friday, Northern Dynasty president and CEO Ronald Thiessen accused the EPA of “regulatory overreach” in once more recommending a pre-emptive strike. When the same tactic was deployed in 2014, it drew a rebuke from a federal judge last year that sent the issue back to the EPA for reconsideration.

The company and its U.S.-based subsidiary Pebble Limited Partnership’s (PLP) proposed Pebble mine in southern Alaska has been controversial for years. Under former president Barack Obama, the EPA proposed restrictions that would rule out the project even before the company had applied for any permits or filed supporting scientific data.

But the agency later withdrew the proposed controls after a legal challenge.

“The EPA tried this in 2014 and was forced to settle and allow Pebble to proceed through the normal, well-established permitting process in the U.S.,” said Thiessen.