Via Lucianne:The people of Bristol Bay, Alaska, had little use for the energy exploration business back when a salmon was worth about the same as a barrel of oil.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, when state officials and oil companies pushed for onshore and offshore drilling, many residents in the sparsely populated region fought back.
"A sockeye salmon was going for over $2 per pound, oil was $14 a barrel and the Exxon Valdez had just gone up on the rocks," said Tom Hawkins, chief operating officer of the Bristol Bay Native Corp. "People made a good living from fishing and asked themselves, 'Do we really want to take this risk?'
**SNIP**