Mining flourishes in interesting times

If you pay any attention to the popular press, it is difficult to avoid critical references to President Trump. He has become the effigy for everything from political division to global iconoclasm. However, as is the case with so many national issues; the impact of the intense debates inside the Beltway have only an attenuated resonance on the Last Frontier.

The on-going controversy between elitist progressive governance and populistic resistance surfaced with the 2016 election. That contest apparently amazed the percentage of the electorate that had complacently confused general compliance with the mandates of a strong central government with a broad-based trend.

The history of the United States is replete with instances of national division, followed by a redirection of the ship of state toward a more moderate, mid-channel course.

I can personally recall at least five rifts that have, at that moment, threatened to rend our country in twain. They include the "Red Scare" that followed World War II, the Civil Rights movement, the war in Viet Nam, the Watergate crisis, and the impeachment of President Clinton.

Now we again have pre-impeachment proceedings pending in the Capitol against the incumbent. Those proceedings seemingly have a preordained outcome. The House of Representatives is anxious to impeach and the Senate seems unlikely to convict.

We may reasonably ask wherein lies the good news. It is in the experience of the nation. To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." If it is fair to say that we have had an internal national crisis every generation, it is also fair to infer that no matter how painful it was at the time, as a country we have also evolved because of the experience.

Notably, the inability of the Congress to agree on impeachment has resulted in retarding the perceived damage of preceding governments. If Congress does not have the time to do anything, it lacks the time to do the wrong thing. That leaves governance to the Executive, and while President Obama ruled by executive fiat, President Trump has heavy-handedly used the same tool to dismantle much of his predecessor's misdirection.

Three years into this administration, federal agencies have slowly fallen into line with the Trump reorientation. As the new directives have been absorbed into the system, the sea changes are beginning to take hold. Where regulators had been emboldened in the past, temperance has begun to emerge. Palpable examples for Alaska include the revisitation of constraints on mineral development associated with the application of the Roadless Rule to the Tongass National Forest and the forward progress of the Pebble project.

Other large projects like Donlin and the Ambler Road are likewise overcoming inertia.

Notably, no one is arguing for rampant destruction of the Alaskan countryside or risking one resource to the detriment of another. Instead, the objective implication is that there is a race for the middle ground.

Alaska will still have majestic mountains and bountiful wildlife resources even if it is randomly sprinkled with high-value mines in truly remote locations. The wail of the NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) won't be lost in the rush to bring minerals to market as future mines attain payback, just as the mines of Greens Creek and Red Dog have not stifled the critics of Juneau and Kotzebue.

Alaska has an excellent track record, especially over the past 50 years, of feeding its miners as well as its fishermen. That bounty is not at risk and there is no reason to conclude that the falderol in Washington will hijack the values embraced by productive Alaskans.

The crystal ball analysis of the current emergency on Pennsylvania Avenue is that this too will pass. When looked at in the light of our national history, divisions not only are commonplace but, in broad general terms, they have often produced an agreeble consensus. The Civil War produced emancipation, Civil Service Reform reduced corruption, Suffrage expanded the electorate, bootlegging repealed Prohibition. The list goes on.

Robert Kennedy admonished us to "live in interesting times." It is incumbent on us to relish the opportunity that today's interesting times present.