Trump is all in on mining in Alaska. With one glaring exception: Pebble.
Lawyers for the Trump administration are defending a Biden-era decision to veto the controversial Pebble project in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.
For as long as Donald Trump has been president, he has been talking about unleashing Alaska’s natural resources and boosting mining across the state.
His administration’s lawyers, however, delivered an entirely different message in a new court filing about the controversial Pebble project in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.
After sending mixed signals last year, the Trump administration appears now to be firmly backing a Biden-era decision to veto Pebble, a huge proposed copper, gold and molybdenum mine that would be built near streams that support the state’s most lucrative salmon fishery.
It’s the clearest indication yet of the second Trump administration’s position on the mine proposal, and it puts Trump officials in an unusual position — on the same side as Alaska environmental groups and against the administration of Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Trump ally and Pebble supporter.
The filing caused the stock price of Pebble’s parent company to plunge by nearly 40%, from over $2 per share to $1.23 — a sign that investors viewed it as a blow to the project. (The stock price has since rebounded to $1.52 per share, as of Feb. 24.)
In a 129-page brief in Alaska’s federal district court, U.S. Department of Justice attorneys echoed the views of Pebble critics, saying the project could harm salmon habitat and threaten fishing in Bristol Bay, which generates as much as $2 billion in some years through commercial and recreational harvests.
The watershed is “a largely undisturbed, globally significant economic, ecological, and cultural resource,” wrote Laura Brown and Mario Luna, lawyers with the Justice Department’s environmental defense section.
Vetoing Pebble, they added, was “reasonable, and amply supported by the robust record.”
The filing marks the latest twist in a decades long fight over the embattled mine project, owned by a subsidiary of Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty Minerals.
The massive mineral deposit sits near some of the state’s most productive salmon streams, but supporters say building a mine there could create high-paying jobs and stimulate the rural region’s economy. The proposal has long fueled debate locally and across the state.
And it has stood out as a rare resource development project that hasn’t received Trump’s full blessing. While the president has vigorously promoted other major Alaska industrial projects, including a trans-state gas pipeline and the Ambler Road, he has remained silent about Pebble.
His first administration initially appeared supportive of the project, reversing Obama-era policies that slowed it. But some high-profile conservatives and Trump advisers — including his son, Donald Trump Jr., who’s fished recreationally in the region — spoke out against the project, and regulators denied Pebble a key permit in 2020.
The Biden administration took further steps to block Pebble, invoking a rarely used authority under the federal Clean Water Act in 2023 to veto the project.
But the developer hasn’t given up: Pebble sued federal regulators in 2024 and has been spending millions of dollars a year on legal fees, according to filings with Canadian securities regulators.
After Trump took office a second time, his administration, in court filings, initially signaled an openness to reconsidering the decision and reaching a legal settlement.
Max Graham
But the parties were unable to reach an agreement. And, now, with the new filing last week, the administration is squarely defending the decision to block the project.
The news has been met with praise from environmental groups that typically fiercely oppose Trump’s actions.
The Justice Department’s filing “makes clear that the Trump administration understands the proposed Pebble Mine is the wrong mine in the wrong place, posing unacceptable risks to one of America's most valuable fisheries and those who depend on it,” Mary Catharine Martin, communications director for the conservation group SalmonState, said in a statement.
Pebble officials, meanwhile, say the administration’s position is short-sighted and more aligned with anti-mining groups and Democrats than a Republican president.
“This veto runs counter to the pro-development, pro-mining and pro-energy policies of this administration,” John Shively, Pebble’s chief executive, said in a statement.
“America needs the minerals at Pebble. Alaska needs the economic activity it would generate,” he added.
Pebble continues “to keep the lines of communication with the administration open as an administrative resolution remains an option,” the company’s vice president of public affairs, Mike Heatwole, said in a text message.
Pebble spent $490,000 on federal lobbying efforts last year, according to federal disclosures.
Susie Wiles, who is now Trump’s chief of staff, previously worked as a lobbyist for Pebble. The company now uses a different high-powered firm, Squire Patton Boggs.
