Comments (29)

Anonymous wrote on August 1, 2007 1:46 PM:

He'll have a heart attack from all the press/media and blame that on the democrats! He thinks he is powerful in stopping the ethics bill, but that seems to be an oxymoron ethics and Stevens.

time to retire, sir! Just when they think your not looking...they weasel their slimy wording in some bill!

Anonymous wrote on August 1, 2007 2:11 PM:

Just BTW, Akutan has close to, if not, THE largest fish processing plant in the world....kinda need the runway

bwindrip wrote on August 1, 2007 2:16 PM:

The internet has turned Alaska into a much smaller and much closer state.

Ted still doesn't get it.

And his career is about to go down the "tubes".

Kuparuk wrote on August 1, 2007 2:19 PM:

Seems the processors should've used some of their lobbying budget to build their own...

eugene wrote on August 1, 2007 2:40 PM:

Greg Palast is doing great work, but he is now broke. we all need to send him some money so he can keep on doing the job the msm won't

Massachusetts wrote on August 1, 2007 2:45 PM:

Seems like Teddy forgot who he works for.

One more time Teddy, you work for We The People!

hiflyer wrote on August 1, 2007 2:51 PM:

ahhh akutan...the trident plant that the northwestern uses on the deadliest catch...that is what it is...it is a norwegian consipiracy...grin

MikeS wrote on August 1, 2007 4:00 PM:

"Just BTW, Akutan has close to, if not, THE largest fish processing plant in the world....kinda need the runway"

Then let THE largest fish processing plant in the world build their own effing runway. Why should federal tax dollars be used to do it? What exactly is the compelling public interest in a private runway that benefits a private company?

joe anderson wrote on August 1, 2007 4:40 PM:

what about cheney and haliburton??the republicans are robbing us blind.democrats balance the budget then republicans rob us!!!!republicans have never given us a balanced budget,never!!!fiscally responsible bull!!!

illlich wrote on August 1, 2007 4:46 PM:

Why can't we have a law that says "a congressman cannot vote on a bill that he or his family will personally benefit financially from" (barring the obvious "the whole state will benefit" case)?

PA wrote on August 1, 2007 5:35 PM:

Geesh - don't they call this stuff like - racketeering? Dad gets the money(earmarks) then son shakes the company down for a "consulting fee" (kickback). Sounds like a racket to me.

PAT wrote on August 1, 2007 6:39 PM:

Back in the 20's ? 30's? the owner & CEO of Seabrook Farms, built; BUILT; ( with his own company money) RT#77 in South Jersey, to make it easier to truck his vegetables to Campbell's Soup!
He was a Quaker. Character Traits ceainly have changed ovtr the last 70 years!

PAT wrote on August 1, 2007 6:39 PM:

Back in the 20's ? 30's? the owner & CEO of Seabrook Farms, built; BUILT; ( with his own company money) RT#77 in South Jersey, to make it easier to truck his vegetables to Campbell's Soup!
He was a Quaker. Character Traits ceainly have changed over the last 70 years!

PAT wrote on August 1, 2007 6:39 PM:

Back in the 20's ? 30's? the owner & CEO of Seabrook Farms, built; BUILT; ( with his own company money) RT#77 in South Jersey, to make it easier to truck his vegetables to Campbell's Soup!
He was a Quaker. Character Traits certainly have changed over the last 70 years!

Veritas78 wrote on August 1, 2007 7:35 PM:

Damn straight, let the fishery build its own runway. The federal government should stop subsidizing flight and highways over rail traffic anyway.

And Stevens has grown himself a face that says "crook." We all deal with the hand nature deals us, but I have yet to see a picture of this guy where his face is not puckered into that of a bitter, mean, little thief. I can't wait for his demise.

Joe P wrote on August 1, 2007 8:37 PM:

Obviously Trident needed the 3.5 million dollar earmark for the new runway so they wouldnt scratch their fancy private jet, a 40 million dollar Falcon 50.

Toby Sackton wrote on August 1, 2007 9:34 PM:

The flap over a runway in Akutan is total BS. The role of government is partly to help build public infrastucture, and there are countless times, throughout all 50 states, when public infrastructure has been built to support economic development and private companies.

Everyone is forgetting that the cost of the actual airstrip is close to $40-50 million, and it will be financed through a combination of state and federal money, like almost every other airstrip in the country.

Yes there is corruption in Alaska, and Stevens may end up indicted for illegal activities -- but whatever they may be, this earmark is not it.

Boeing planes for example, would never get off the ground (nor would airbus for that matter) without the massive subsidies received as the leading U.S. aircraft manufacturer-- where is the hue and cry over that!!!

I doubt any of the commenters have been to Akutan. A local airstrip is a logical piece of infrastructure.

ratzo wrote on August 1, 2007 11:28 PM:

SUBSIDIES!

it would be called WELFARE, if it was to feed a hungry poor family..

and you know what, it all needs to stop. let mr. stevens go to jail, and in the real world, his son would be in a different one as well.

714Day wrote on August 2, 2007 2:02 AM:

Toby Sackton, you gotta be a sourdough, but dude you can't seriously be talking about "infrastructure" for Akutan...and don't try to suggest anyone other than Trident would really get the lion's share of benefit here. This notion that any business in Alaska is good for all Alaskans just ain't so. I understand that anybody who is willing to set up shop, in the bush in particular, is wooed like a virgin. Sure as shootin', somebody is gonna get screwed and it isn't Trident, it's the taxpayer.

714Day wrote on August 2, 2007 2:10 AM:

joe anderson right you are! And the long arm of Cheney/Halliburton stretches way up north. You heard about the native Alaskan Corporation that was advised (read - run) by Halliburton ops to serve chow in South America, didn't you? So many Tlingits have yearned for the chance to feed miltias in the warm climates of other continents...

Sanity Check wrote on August 2, 2007 2:11 AM:

Um. If Trident needed an airstrip let them pay for and build an airstrip. Oh, Ted wanted to do them a favor? Great! Go to jail, Ted. Say hello to Bubba for us.

owlbear1 wrote on August 2, 2007 2:37 AM:

Akutan, Alaska (Aleutians East County)
Population: 713
Land Area: 14.03 miles2
Housing Units: 38

Some fun facts about Akutan...

http://www.hometownlocator.com/City/Akutan-Alaska.cfm#18

Kent wrote on August 2, 2007 10:32 AM:

I'm probably the only person here who's actually been to Akutan and Trident Seafoods. During the early 90s I was there dozens of times while working as a federal fisheries observer onboard fishing boats delivering to Trident Seafoods.

First of all, Trident Seafoods is, indeed a massive processing plant. The only plant of comparable size is the UniSea plant in nearby Dutch Harbor. But it is completely separate from the little native village of Akutan. Plant workers aren't allowed into the town by Trident, and villagers rarely visit or work at Trident. Most of the labor force at Trident is imported and much of it is recent immigrants and illegals.

Secondly, Trident Seafoods was also the recipient of the biggest fishery giveaway/privatization in the worldwide history of fisheries management. In 1998 Senator Stevens rammed through a bill called the American Fisheries Act which privatized the pollock resource in the Bering Sea (the largest fishery in the world with an annual harvest of around 1.2 million metric tons and worth over a billion dollars annually). Trident Seafoods was the largest single beneficiary of the American Fisheries Act and received an annual windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of pollock. More recently the same thing happened with crab. This is a company that was built on government giveaways.

Although I don't know why Trident originally chose to locate in Akutan, I suspect it had something to do with a desire to be futher away from the watchful eye of the government. Most of the other big pollock and crab processing plants in Alaska are located in Dutch Harbor on the next island to the west of Akutan. Dutch Harbor is a modern port with a population of about 4,000 with a modern airport and all the government offices and services. Three other companies have built large processing plants in Dutch Harbor (Westward Seafoods, Alyeska Seafoods, and UniSea Seafoods) which is the logical place to build processing plants due to access to the airport, government services, container shipping terminals, and marine services. By putting their plant in Akutan Trident is completely out of the watchful eye of the government and its workers are also completely isolated. They simply can't walk off the job and go anywhere because there is no place to go. The nearest restaurant or store that isn't a company store is a float plane flight away.

Now as for the airport. There is absolutely no reason why the actual little village of Akutan needs a runway. This is a town that is so small it doesn't even have streets. It is just a few boardwalks and the largest vehicles that people use are those 4x4 ATV vehicles. Akutan already gets regular air service from Dutch Harbor via float plane. The harbor is calm and well protected by mountains and land on all sides so float planes from Dutch Harbor can and do land there daily in all kinds of weather. That's how they get their mail and how people get in and out. There are several charter operators out of Dutch Harbor who fly there regularly. And there is regular barge and freight service by sea from Dutch Harbor. So for a small Alaska native village, Akutan gets better service and access to the outside than most any other native village on the Bering Sea coast.

Why then would Akutan need a large airstrip? Not for the village itself. They can make do just fine with float plane service. I rode on those float planes perhaps a dozen times, they do just fine. Well, maybe there is an argument for a runway for medical emergency evacs and that sort of thing. But I suspect the real driving force behind an airstrip is Trident Seafoods and the primary reason they want an airstrip is so that they can ship seafood via air cargo to Asia and the lower 48. The big plants in Dutch Harbor have are minutes from the airport where Alaska Airlines 737 jets and other cargo planes come in several times a day. So they can easily air-freight out fresh high-end seafood like crab and halibut. I suspect that Trident wants to have the same deal. They probably also want to use bigger planes to ship in and out their work crews and supplies from Dutch Harbor and much larger and faster planes can land on runways than can land on floats.

In any event, I smell corporate welfare.

DeapSea wrote on August 2, 2007 11:08 AM:

No one will ever use that airport except Trident. And if anyone else ever had the nerve to try to start a plant in Akutan or use the airport, Trident would just crush them. Ask the last guy that tried to operate in Akutan. He is easy to find. How do you think they got their nickname The Evil Empire?

Deep Trout wrote on August 6, 2007 9:36 AM:

Wow, the venom spewed by Monday Morning Quarterbacks, Conspiricy Junkies, and Trust-Fund Babies is truely amazing...

3.5 Million, less than one 10th what the Airstrip will cost is not much Federal help. I guess the fact that the Akutan Mayor, and every other Village Leader they've had for the 26 years or so that I have been going to Alaska has been asking a real Airstrip was convieniently tossed aside by the bottom feeders who smell blood in the water and want to try and pile on more "dirt" on Stevens, and why not drag down any other high profile targets at the same time.

Let's take a look at the Float Plane that serves Akutan... The Grumman Goose, 8 seats, rolls up what amounts to a boat launch, and contrary to Kent's assertion will fly in any weather, it does not. Did mention that these planes went out of production in 1947?! I have personally used baling wire to re-attatch flaps on the Goose from my skiff while a plane load of people waiting to go home watched... would you want to depend on this POS in an emergency?

Just so you can put things in to perspective, it costs Trident, and companies like them roughly 3 million in upfront costs every season just to take a seasonal Salmon Plant out of moth balls... take a minute to add the number of these plants and you might get some idea of what these "greedy corporate beggers" have to pay out before the first fish crosses the dock. Millions, and Millions of dollars have been spent to build and maintain these Plants all over Alaska, and there is a lot of whining by the guys who do it badly about the ones who do it right... The successful Companies are successful because of Hard Work, forward thinking, and no small amount of good luck. I've seen a lot of Seafoods companies in my time, most of whom think success is a fancy office in Seattle, and all the Management types driving Company Owned Mercedes... Just like Dot Coms, if you put all your assets into fluff, and not back into building your business you end up Dot Gone... and a Japanese Conglomorate buys your assets for pennies on the dollar.

This runway would benefit everyone in Akutan, including Trident, but to suggest that this is "payola" is laughable to anyone who has a true understanding of what it takes to run a business in the remote areas of Alaska.

As for competition in Akutan, mooring a Processing Barge in Akutan Harbor is not really much of commitment to building a business... it's like setting up a lemonade stand outside a Pepsi Bottling Plant and crying bcause more people drink Pepsi... you want to get in the game for real DEEP SEA, buy some land, build the dock, build the plant, build the rest of the infrastructure and run it effeciently... it's Alaska, Go BIG, or GO HOME.

Stephen Taufen wrote on August 6, 2007 4:30 PM:

That's right - ask John Boggs about his fishing competitor firm getting run out of Akutan. And why is it only now, after consolidation, that Trident no longer wants to tramper its fish to Japan Inc.? BTW, all those sweet english sounding names UniSea, Western Alaska, Alyeska - all are basically 100% Japan Fishing Inc. owned and controlled. Dutch Harbor/Unalaska is an economic branch of Japan. If the WWII heroes knew this would become the modern truth, they'd have gone home over 60 years ago and abandoned the island to Japan then. The average reader has no idea. And Deep Trout probably operates from a trident.com email server. And our guess is there is some other trickery in store - like at Adak when Trident's governor Frank Murkowski allowed The Aleut Corporation (TAC) to turn over the airport to the State, and got over $300 million in tax breaks in return! As the Land Transfer Bill on Adak made clear, there was no investment by TAC, just a land swap. Is that why there is all the PR distancing that this is somehow for the native villagers, not the corporation (and not for Chuck to land his private ex-Enron jet on) Why should US Taxpayers have to get the continual soak at Adak or again at Akutan? And, since I've lived extensively in Alaska and the Aleutians in particular, don't start again with the we don't understand remote operations stuff. Would they build this airport to specifications that only allowed small planes for human transport, and medivacs? No, this $40 million (that's a short-lie too) deal is for flying fish out. Let Trident's owners sell their corporate jet, church, SE Alaska yacht, and private island, etc. to pay for it. And make sure the state doesn't have to pay annual maintenance etc. too.

Codeword: graft, as in Congress shouldn't graft any more earmark limbs onto this falling oak of Alaska corruption.

Deep Goose wrote on August 7, 2007 10:55 AM:

Hey Deep Trout, if the Goose is in such bad shape why don't you get Chuck to sell his Falcon and buy a better one that Trident can use to transport the workers to Akutan instead of flying Chuck to Hawaii every week?

jgmac wrote on August 11, 2007 11:40 AM:

Trident was instumental in getting an exemption to paying the minimum wage through the state legislature. The State press release at the time quoted the head of trident saying the exemption would save them $5 million a year.

Maybe they could use some of their savings to build their own runway. It'll will be handy both for the corporate jet and for direct flights in from Mexico for the sub minimum wage workers. (and yes this has been done in Kodiak and I've been to Akutan)

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