As Bloomberg (subscription required) reported this week, executives of Pebble Partnership, which is developing the Pebble Mine project in Bristol Bay, Alaska, were caught on tape bragging about their political influence.  The recordings were made by the Environmental Investigation Agency, which somehow convinced the Pebble executives that the EIA “investigators” were actually investors considering putting money into the project.

For those of you who are shocked, shocked, that political lobbying was part of the strategy of Pebble Partnership, I have a bridge you might want to buy.  Of course, it may not have helped that Pebble apparently ran ads on Fox News “urging President Trump to ‘stand tall, no politics in Pebble mine review process.’”  It’s the old adage, “Do as I say I do, not as I actually do.”

Tom Collier, Pebble Partnership CEO, has resigned over what will surely soon be called Pebblegate.  Presumably, the basis for his resignation was his rank stupidity in failing to do any diligence on the supposed investors before revealing to them the shocking notion that Pebble was using its political influence to advance the Pebble’s prospects.  It surely wasn’t because Pebble believes that political influence should have no role in permitting the Pebble Mine.