The New York Times has a good article today about a proposed massive copper and gold mine at the headwaters of Bristol Bay in Alaska. Care to take a wild guess who's supporting this project?

If your mind is thinking the current Governor of Alaska, give yourself five points. Now, I know Gov. Palin has been getting a lot of bad press today, but neither charging Alaskans to fly her kids around the country nor learning the GOP spent $150K on her wardrobe compares with my conern over this.

Because, while taking advantage of taxpayer and political donors is a certainly sketchy, it's hardly unique amongst politicians. What is unique is Gov. Palin's dogged persistance to aid the extractive industries.

This only serves to underscore what will happen under a McCain/Palin administration. The Bush administration just rolled back regulations to protect us from the devastating effects of mining, and there's no way those protections will be reinstated with Palin as Vice President.

You should read the Times article to get the full scoop, but experts maintain that this mine - which will go half a mile into the earth and take the same amount of energy to operate as the city of Anchorage - will seriously harm Alaska's salmon reserves and fishing industry.

This proposal is so bad, Senator Ted Stevens is opposing it! Yet Gov. Palin, the champion of mine, baby, mine, supports it.