Wishbone Hill Coal Mine Air Quality Permit Revoked

The Matanuska River near Wishbone Hill

According to a reliable source, the air quality permit for Usibelli's Wishbone Hill Mine project "has been withdrawn as of today."  Additionally, the Friends of Mat-Su is involved, through a contracted expert, in providing state-of-the-art air quality modeling data to the state, and to the Department of Environmental Conservation.

More coming on that developing news.

Tuesday evening, a number of people staged one of the biggest protests at a Mat-Su Borough Assembly meeting in Valley history.  The protest was in response to Borough Mayor De Vilbiss and the assembly "shut[ting] down the meeting before everyone had a chance to voice their opinion" on an assembly resolution in support of the Wishbone Hill Mine.

Here's a picture:

And another one:

Friends of Mat-Su executive director Jeremiah Millen described the demonstration and meeting:

Local residents showed up in full force last night to voice their concerns about proposed coal development in the Mat-Su, and to send a strong message to the Assembly that they refuse to be silenced any further. Though this was a  symbolic gesture in nature, largely as a response the Mayor's recent pro-coal resolution and stifling of public process, many of the folks who were not allowed to speak in the past, spoke out at the meeting last night.