DNR is the landlord. DNR is in the development business, period. They have no credibility as an enforcer of their own environmental regulations, and I don't think that we should expect that from them. The fact that they would even consider a proposed coal mine that would strip mine and destroy for all time miles of a salmon stream - Chuitna - simply reinforces what we know about them. In spades.

We need scientific, objective oversight of these mine projects and proposals, and DNR is the fox guarding the henhouse. I would look to the Department of Environmental Conservation, but I don't think that there is much hope there, either.