ANCHORAGE, AK – Members of Truth About Pebble expressed outrage today at the misrepresentation of comments made by its co-chair and former Alaska House Speaker Gail Phillips. The anti-Pebble Renewable Resources Coalition produced a print and television ad circulating today that calls out Phillips by name, saying “Attention Gail Phillips ... we are not un-American. We are not un-Alaskan.”

Truth About Pebble Chairman Dick Cattanach said, “What Gail said was that limiting due process was un-Alaskan and un-American. It is very clear that she has never called any person or group un-Alaskan or un-American.”

Cattanach pointed out that the polling firm of record for the Renewable Resources Coalition revealed that 79 percent of Alaskans agree with Gail’s position in a March survey conducted for the House Finance Committee.

“Despite what the RRC may claim, there is no Pebble Mine,” Cattanach said. “There is a Pebble Project that has the potential for moving forward into the permitting process.”
Phillips’ original statement, which has circulated in print and at speaking engagements, was, “What truly bothers me are the organized attempts underway to block the permitting process from moving forward for the Pebble Mine. This attempt to limit due process is so unfair it is truly un-Alaskan and un-American.”

Phillips first made the statements at a Resource Development Council meeting on January 18, then they were published in the RDC newsletter in February. These are the same statements that Phillips has made at all of her recent speaking engagements, including her remarks to the Alaska Miners in Juneau in March. She repeated this statement in an op-ed that appeared in the Anchorage Daily News on January 3.

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