Earth Equity News

Palin Supports $600 Million 'Other' Bridge Project. By Garange Burke, AP, September 16, 2008. "Gov. Sarah Palin may eventually have said 'no thanks' to a federally funded Bridge to Nowhere. But a bridge to her hometown of Wasilla, that's a different story. A $600 million bridge and highway project to link Alaska's largest city to Palin's town of 7,000 residents is moving full speed ahead, despite concerns the bridge could worsen some commuting and threaten a population of beluga whales. Local officials already have spent $42 million on plans to route traffic across the Knik Arm inlet, a narrow finger of water extending roughly 25 miles northeast of Anchorage toward Wasilla. The proposal exists thanks to an earmark request by Republican Rep. Don Young, whose son-in-law has a small stake in property near the bridge's proposed western span. A Democratic council member in Anchorage will try Tuesday to spike the city's sponsorship of the project, which Palin supports with some reservations. 'This is basically an incredibly expensive project that doesn't help commuters, doesn't help create jobs and may drive whales to extinction,' said Justin Massey, an attorney advising environmentalists opposed to the proposal. 'It is also a project that serves the area where the governor is from, which is near and dear to her heart'... The governor initially championed the first so-called Bridge to Nowhere, which would have connected the southeastern Alaska town of Ketchikan to its airport on nearby Gravina Island. She later pulled the plug on the project after it became a national symbol of extravagant federal spending... Palin still supports the second bridge, officially named Don Young's Way in honor of the congressman. She called for a review of the bridge's financing plans and raised concerns about its financial risks for the state. Still, the planning process is marching forward."