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JUNEAU — A new statewide group is gearing up to fight two ballot measures aimed in part at stopping the development of a mine at the Pebble deposit in southwest Alaska.

The group, called Alaskans Against the Mining Shutdown, intends to register as a ballot measure group should the two “Alaska Clean Water” initiatives make it on the ballot this fall, according to a news release. (The Division of Elections is still verifying signatures gathered by initiative sponsors.)

“These initiatives would have a devastating effect on Alaska’s mining families, and be a serious blow to rural communities and the economy statewide,” said NANA Regional Corp. president Marie Greene in the release.

Other members of the group include Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker and Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor John Williams. Willis Lyford, an Anchorage ad executive, will direct the group’s campaign.

Supporters of the initiatives say the changes are needed to ensure protection of the state’s waterways and salmon runs in the Bristol Bay region.

Opponents say existing permitting requirements are enough to protect the environment, and argue the initiatives could negatively affect existing and new mines across the state.

Open meetings

Rep. Scott Kawasaki, a Democrat from Fairbanks, introduced a bill Monday that would require almost all meetings among state lawmakers to be open to the public.

Majority and minority caucus meetings, as well as committees responsible for creating other committees, are currently allowed to meet in private.

Kawasaki’s bill would make those meetings public, as well as meetings between a group of lawmakers and the governor or someone from her office. Certain exceptions would be made for reasons allowed under legislative rules.

Kawasaki also is co-sponsoring a new resolution that would enable the majority and minority leaders in each body of the Legislature to block a lawmaker from voting on an issue if he determines the lawmaker has a legitimate conflict of interest. The individual lawmaker would have to first declare a conflict of interest.

The bills are HB 342 and HCR 18.

In support of unions

The House on Monday narrowly approved a resolution urging Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, 21-15.

House Speaker John Harris, a Republican from Valdez and longtime union member, sponsored the resolution.

The act would strengthen the ability of workers to choose a union and impose stiffer penalties on employers “who coerce or intimidate their employees who are seeking to unionize,” he said in a news release.

The resolution, HJR 25, now moves to the Senate.