By Editor, on February 9th, 2012 by Cliff Groh
ANCHORAGE–U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered today the release on March 15 of the special counsel report into misconduct by federal prosecutors in the trial of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R.-Alaska).
Read more in Cliff Groh’s Alaska Political Corruption blog.
By Editor, on January 26th, 2012 The Heritage Foundation
President Obama’s State of the Union address laid out his long-term economic recovery plans, which he claims will “work for everyone, not just a wealthy few.” That is, unless it is the pipeline construction business. President Obama’s politically intoned decision to reject TransCanada’s permit application to construct a 1,700-mile pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to Texas refineries last week sent a clear message that special-interest demands are more important than more energy and much-needed job creation.
Read full opinion piece at the heritage.org.
By Editor, on January 25th, 2012 By Becky Bohrer | AP
JUNEAU–Some Alaska lawmakers, hoping to make a point about federal encroachment on state rights, are urging the federal government take over New York City’s Central Park and designate it as a wilderness area.
Read more in the Anchorage Daily News.
By Editor, on January 19th, 2012 By Michelle Theriault Boots | ADN
In a state that expects to see more than 400 cruise-ship sailings with nearly a million passengers this summer, it’s difficult to look at the images of the Costa Concordia and not wonder: Could it happen in Alaska?
“It kind of gives us a little wake-up call,” said Rick Janelle, a civilian U.S. Coast Guard employee based in Juneau who acts as an adviser on cruise ship safety.
Read full story in the ADN.
By Editor, on December 29th, 2011 SEATTLE (AP) — The Washington state ferry service isn’t going to start turning away hefty passengers, but it has had to reduce the capacity of the nation’s largest ferry system because people have been packing on the pounds.
Coast Guard vessel stability rules that took effect nationwide Dec. 1 raised the estimated weight of the average adult passenger to 185 pounds from the previous 160 pounds, based on population information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
…The new stability rules may have a bigger impact on the smaller charter fishing boats, such as those that take anglers fishing out of the Pacific Ocean ports of Westport and Ilwaco, Young said. Any vessel that carries more than six paying customers has to be inspected and certified by the Coast Guard as a passenger vessel.
Read full article in the Seattle PI.
By Editor, on December 20th, 2011 Jill Burke | ALASKA DISPATCH
It’s nearly guaranteed to be a monumental showdown, the kind Alaska seems to spawn regularly. On Wednesday, a handful of lawyers will volley before a federal judge over whether the U.S. government properly chose to shut down cod and mackerel fisheries in Southwest Alaska, giving the well being of an endangered marine mammal preference over the livelihood of scores of fisherman.
Read the full article in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on December 13th, 2011 Alex DeMarban | ALASKA DISPATCH
The National Marine Fisheries Service has renewed plans that may lead to a listing of the ribbon seals under the Endangered Species Act, bringing to three the number of ice-dependent seals in Alaska that could be protected by the act.
The agency rejected a ribbon-seal listing in 2008 but said new information warrants a second look. That’s disappointing news, said Rick Rogers, executive director with the pro-industry Resource Development Council in Anchorage.
The combined population of ribbon, bearded and ringed seal populations in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas exceed 1 million animals, so why should they fall under the act’s protections, he wondered.
Read full article in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on December 12th, 2011 by Craig Medred | ALASKA DISPATCH
Alaska’s Fed-wary political leadership tried to challenge National Park Service oversight of the Yukon River after rangers took down Interior elderly riverboat operator Jim Wilde in an ugly show of force in the fall of 2010, but they backed off after a federal magistrate ruled he wasn’t going to buy state ownership of the river as a defense against charges levied against Wilde.
Now, though, state officials seem to think they’ve found the perfect vehicle to challenge federal authority in a lawsuit filed by moose hunter John Sturgeon. A former state forester who’s now an executive with Koncor Forest Products, Sturgeon has sued the federal government, charging it has gone well beyond its legal authority to regulate navigable waters in Alaska parks and preserves. By law, Alaska’s navigable waters were supposed to pass into state ownership at statehood.
Read the full story in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on November 22nd, 2011 Alex DeMarban | ALASKA DISPATCH
A federal judge upheld the three-year-old endangered listing for the biologically distinct Cook Inlet beluga whale today, rejecting all state arguments and noting that the state’s beluga conservation programs are ineffective and underfunded.
Read full article in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on November 19th, 2011  Sen. Mark Begich Press release:
Permanently banning responsible development of the enormous energy resources beneath Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) takes billions of dollars out of the economy, costs Americans sorely-needed jobs and contributes to higher prices to heat their homes and gas up their cars, says U.S. Sen. Mark Begich. Read more->
By Editor, on October 20th, 2011  Sen. Lisa Murkowski Press release
WASHINGTON, DC – At times educational and historic, other times scathing and critical, Senator Lisa Murkowski today took to the U.S. Senate floor to commemorate the 144th anniversary of Alaska Day.
She set a sober tone early in the speech when she shared that she is “worried about the future of Alaska – not because of the global economy, not because of high unemployment levels, but because of the treatment we experience at the hands of our own federal government.” Read more->
By Editor, on October 12th, 2011  Read full article in the Alaska Dispatch Craig Medred | ALASKA DISPATCH
FAIRBANKS–A federal magistrate’s decision to convict an elderly Interior Alaska man of criminal charges for confronting National Park Service rangers on the Yukon River last fall did not seem to be sitting well with Fairbanks residents Tuesday. Once more, many of them seemed to be saying, 72-year-old Jim Wilde was getting shafted for daring to stand up and question how the U.S. government does business in the 49th state.
Read full story in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on October 10th, 2011 by Dermot Cole | FAIRBANKS DAILY NEWS-MINER
The chances of getting moving on a major pipeline project in Alaska over the next decade for natural gas exports are close to zero, according to Pedro Van Meurs, unless the state does something dramatic.
Even then, the odds are not good. Getting buyers in Asia or anywhere else to buy 3 billion cubic feet of gas per day for the long term is a daunting challenge when the prospect of cheaper alternatives creates a desire by buyers for deals that don’t lock them in for decades.
His summary of the Arctic oil and gas fiscal systems in the report purchased by the Legislature says the state could improve the economics of a gas line by lowering the government take on a gas project.
Read full article in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
By Editor, on September 15th, 2011 By Richard Mauer | ADN
After the state lost in two courts, the Parnell administration said Wednesday it would prepare a new environmental impact statement for a 50-mile road from Juneau to a proposed ferry terminal near Haines and Skagway rather than appeal again, this time to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state announced its decision to go back to the planning process two months after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of a federal judge in Alaska, who said the original environmental impact statement for the Juneau Access Project, from 2006, was inadequate.
Read more in the Anchorage Daily News.
By Editor, on September 14th, 2011  Congressman Don Young WASHINGTON D.C.–Alaskan Congressman Don Young joined several colleagues this week in introducing the BARR Preservation Act.
In the past, the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program has allowed general aviation aircraft users to opt out of having their flight information made available to the public. However, with the FAA’s recent decision to curtail this decade-old policy and start allowing public access to all general aviation aircraft flight information, this legislation was needed to continue the BARR program. Read more->
By Editor, on September 12th, 2011  Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Lisa Murkowski will be a leader of the new bipartisan Senate Oceans Caucus when it assembles for the first time tomorrow, with the remaining co-chairs to be named at the event. “It’s an honor to be a leader of this caucus, on behalf of the only state bordering two oceans,” said Senator Murkowski. “The oceans are more than beautiful and important natural gifts, they are our farms, our factories of growth – and our future.” Read more->
By Editor, on September 3rd, 2011 Alan Bailey | PETROLEUM NEWS
ANCHORAGE–Much has been said and written about the causes and consequences of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and about the scramble to respond to an oil spill that no one appeared adequately prepared to deal with. However, the U.S. Coast Guard’s incident report, known as the Incident Specific Preparedness Review, or ISPR, provides some fascinating insights into lessons learned from how the response was conducted, and how those lessons might be applied to planning for some future oil spill contingency.
Read more in the Petroleum News.
By Editor, on September 2nd, 2011 By Dan Joling | ASSOCIATED PRESS
An investigation of a federal scientist in Alaska whose observations of drowned polar bears spurred national publicity on climate warming was started after allegations made by another Interior Department employee.
Read full article in the Anchorage Daily News.
By Editor, on August 26th, 2011  State of Alaska press release
ANCHORAGE–The State of Alaska filed an appeal challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2008 listing of the polar bear as a threatened species. The state seeks to overturn a June decision of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that upheld the listing. Read more->
By Editor, on August 20th, 2011 Wesley Loy | PETROLEUM NEWS
WASH D.C.–The federal rollout of a draft management plan that could lead to huge new sections of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge being designated “wilderness,” including the potentially oil-rich coastal plain, drew immediate disdain from top Alaska politicians.
Read more online in the Petroleum News.
By Editor, on August 15th, 2011 By Jonathan Grass | JUNEAU EMPIRE
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service releases its revised draft Comprehensive Conservation Plan for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge today.
Bruce Woods, the Service’s chief of media relations for the Alaska Region, said this is the regularly scheduled review process for refuges within the state. He said this revision was announced during the first public comment period in April 2010.
Read full article in the Juneau Empire.
More info:
U.S.F.W.S. full press release
Draft plan and related materials
By Editor, on August 14th, 2011 Craig Medred | ALASKA DISPATCH
HOMER — A packed room of angry and worried small businessmen fearful the federal government is about to bankrupt them got some simple advice Friday night on how to deal with the Washington, D.C. bureaucracy: “Send a letter.”
That was the best Glenn Merrill, assistant regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, could offer charter boat skippers facing imposition of what is being called a “halibut catch sharing” plan.
Read full article in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on August 11th, 2011 By Gov. Sean Parnell | ADN COMPASS Opinion
ALASKA–This spring, the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers released a draft guidance document that will be used to decide which waters and wetlands will be protected by the Clean Water Act.
If allowed to stand, these guidelines could place an additional 40 percent of Alaska’s wetlands and non-navigable waters under federal jurisdiction. The proposed guidance is ambiguous, capricious and unlawful. It ignored using a cooperative process with the 50 states, as mandated by the Clean Water Act. And it skirted the formal rule making required by the Administrative Procedures Act.
Read the full opinion column in the Anchorage Daily News.
By Editor, on August 10th, 2011 Jeff Richardson | FAIRBANKS DAILY NEWS-MINER
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Sen. Lisa Murkowski is using a historic gathering to make a simple point this week: Alaska is different.
Read full article in the News-Miner.
By Editor, on August 10th, 2011 The federal investigation into suspended wildlife biologist Charles Monnett has focused on the scientific merit of a 2006 article in which he and a colleague recorded their observations of apparently drowned polar bears in the Arctic, a watchdog group said Tuesday.
In the article, the ADN reports:
[U.S. Senator James Inhofe, R-Okla., has] said that Monnett’s work has been cited by witnesses before his committee and provided “the foundation” for the government’s decision in 2008 to list the polar bear as a threatened species, the first with its survival at risk due to global warming.
“As a result, critical habitat for the polar bear was designated, which added additional layers of onerous regulations to oil and gas development in 187,000 square miles of land in Alaska,” he said, adding that accusations against Monnett’s work “could be serious and have far reaching consequences.”
Read the full article in the Anchorage Daily News.
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| Chip Bok
bokbluster.com
Feb 21, 2012
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