October 2, 2018 — A billionaire East Coast investor and six-figure donations from corporate giants are helping fuel assertions from both sides in the Stand for Salmon debate that out-of-state money and motivations are driving opponents’ campaigns.
The industry-led opposition to the ballot measure says large corporate contributors, such as ConocoPhillips, are rooted in Alaska and have the state’s best interest at heart. They charge that Outside nonprofits with questionable intentions have played a key role in the measure, which seeks to strengthen fish protections in Alaska.
“I think this is an anti-resource-development agenda” from Lower 48 groups with national ambitions, said Willis Lyford, a Stand for Alaska consultant.
The measure’s supporters, meanwhile, say the multinational giants are more interested in global profits than protecting Alaska’s environment.
The fight over Outside contributions is coming “from people who want to drill for oil, mine, do all these activities in Alaska that will irreparably harm our salmon,” said Stephanie Quinn-Davidson, a measure sponsor and former state biologist.
One measure supporter is John Childs, a billionaire investor from Boston with a luxury fishing lodge in the Bristol Bay region, where the Pebble mine prospect would be developed.