A battle between oil and fishing – How an oil industry fiasco saved Kachemak Bay 40 years ago
The trouble in Homer in 1976 brought world attention to oil politics in the Alaska Legislature and vindicated fishermen who had been fighting oil drilling for three years politically and in court. On Sunday, I visited Clem Tillion at his home here on the south side of the bay, to recall those events. When he was a state senator, the George Ferris fiasco gave him the support he needed to pass a bill that had seemed to have little hope — buying back the leases and declaring Kachemak Bay a critical habitat area to be protected evermore. The issue also helped elect Jay Hammond as our only conservation-oriented governor — and he became the father of the Permanent Fund. And it set Homer on the path to be the eco-tourism center it is today rather than an oil town. Read the story here 09:30
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