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.
By Editor, on August 8th, 2011 by Alan Bailey | PETROLEUM NEWS
In the Parnell administration’s latest foray against what it sees as federal overreach in the management of the Alaska’s lands and natural resources, it has voiced strong objections to proposed new water and wetlands guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Read full article in the Anchorage Daily News
Read State of Alaska press release.
By Editor, on July 30th, 2011 The federal agency that this month suspended a veteran scientist now says its case has nothing to do with an article he wrote about polar bears that apparently drowned, permitting issues or scientific integrity.
Read full article in the Alaska Dispatch.
Read Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility article with links to source documents.
By Editor, on July 28th, 2011  Becky Bohrer | ASSOCIATED PRESS
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A federal wildlife biologist whose observation in 2004 of presumably drowned polar bears in the Arctic helped to galvanize the global warming movement has been placed on administrative leave and is being investigated for scientific misconduct, possibly over the veracity of that article.
Charles Monnett is an Anchorage-based scientist with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
Read full article in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner.
By Editor, on July 28th, 2011 Congressman Young press release:
The U.S. House voted tonight against an amendment introduced by Rep. Norman Dicks (D-WA) that would strike a provision in the Interior Appropriations bill forbidding the National Parks Service from enforcing regulations on waters in Alaska’s Yukon-Charley National Preserve. This provision, included at the request of Alaskan Congressman Don Young, will be included in the final version of the Interior Appropriations legislation brought to the floor.
Read more information at donyoung.house.gov.
Read more about this issue in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner.
By Editor, on July 25th, 2011 by Andrew Halcro | andrewhalcro.com
July 25, 2011: Alaskans have learned to expect consistent behavior from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) when it comes to resource development; consistently bad.
The EPA will soon decide on whether to unilaterally impose a more stringent national standard for air quality, despite concerns that doing so will violate our own federal Clean Air Act…
Read more at andrewhalcro.com.
By Editor, on July 16th, 2011 Craig Medred | ALASKA DISPATCH
WASHINGTON D.C.–The battle for the Yukon River took another turn on Tuesday when the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations approved legislation banning the National Park Service from enforcing regulations on that international waterway running through the heart of the Yukon-Charley National Preserve.
Angry about the handcuffing of an elderly Alaskan on the river last fall, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, managed to attach the language to the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, according to a statement from the congressman. Whether a ban on federal law enforcement on the Yukon ever becomes law remains to be seen.
Read full story in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on July 15th, 2011 WASHINGTON, D.C.– on July 13, Senator Mark Begich and Congressman Don Young introduced legislation to repeal the 2001 Roadless Rule in Alaska’s National Forests. Senator Lisa Murkowski co-sponsored the Senate measure.
“This cookie-cutter rule is a bad fit for Alaska,” Begich said. “With high unemployment and high energy costs in Southeast Alaska, the Forest Service needs greater flexibility to address these issues. Repealing the rule will help keep the few existing mills alive and allow for the development of hydro projects throughout the region as well as two promising mining projects on Prince of Wales Island. Instead of adding options, the roadless rule takes them away.” Read more->
By Editor, on July 15th, 2011 By Alexandra Gutierrez | kucb.org
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released their annual stock assessment report today. While the East Coast continues to struggle with overfishing, commercial stocks in the Pacific Ocean remain abundant and healthy overall.
Alaska’s stocks seem to be in particularly good shape by comparison. NOAA lists 40 stocks as subject to overfishing, and not one of those is in Alaska waters.
Read more at KUCB.org.
Read NOAA Press Release.
By Editor, on July 13th, 2011  Gov. Sean Parnell Press release:
JUNEAU–Governor Sean Parnell released the following statement after President Obama signed an executive order forming a new, high-level, interagency working group to coordinate on energy development in Alaska. Read more->
By Editor, on July 13th, 2011 By Dan Joling | AP
ANCHORAGE–President Obama on Tuesday signed an executive order creating an interagency working group to coordinate energy development in Alaska, a move hailed by lawmakers who want to see drilling in Arctic outer continental shelf waters.
Read more in the Anchorage Daily News.
By Editor, on July 12th, 2011  City of Unalaska, Alaska DCED Photo by Jill Burke | ALASKA DISPATCH
Acting on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice is threatening to wring more than $158 million out of the city of Unalaska. It claims the city has for years dumped sewage pollutants into the Pacific Ocean and now wants a federal judge to not only force Unalaska into compliance but also impose up to $32,500 per day in fines, even more — up to $37,500 per day — for the most recent violations.
…Unalaska might be the first Alaska community wrestling with an unyielding regulator, but what if it isn’t the last? Unalaska’s bureaucratic tangle could be a signal of what’s headed to other small, remote communities: financially devastating enforcement of a one-size-fits-all federal water policy that doesn’t apply well to the realities of life in rural Alaska.
Read the full story in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on July 6th, 2011 by Frank Murkowski
Today, poll after poll shows Americans supporting the opening of ANWR. Yet, at a time when our national energy security is at risk, the cost of imported oil is around $100 a barrel, and TAPS is running at only one-third capacity, the national environmental groups have managed to prevent even the minor amount of development in ANWR proposed by Sen. Murkowski.
As a result of national environmental group pressure the current administration has failed to take the actions necessary to develop oil resources in Alaska and has the wrong attitude regarding oil development in ANWR.
Read full article in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on July 5th, 2011 By Becky Bohrer | AP
JUNEAU — There’s been no reportable progress toward reaching agreements in the year since TransCanada Corp. announced that it had received bids from “major industry players and others” interested in using its proposed pipeline to transport natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope to market.
Read more in the Anchorage Daily News.
By Editor, on July 2nd, 2011 By Eric Lidji | PETROLEUM NEWS
Alaska is one of the least attractive places in North America for oil and gas investment, according to recent survey of international petroleum industry executives.
The State of Alaska ranked 83rd out of 136 jurisdictions while the federal Alaska Outer Continental Shelf ranked 78th, according to the Global Petroleum Survey by the Fraser Institute, a right-leaning Canadian think tank.
Read full story in the Petroleum News.
By Editor, on July 1st, 2011 by Erika Bolstad | ADN
WASHINGTON — Vowing to have the trans-Alaska pipeline pumping as much as 1 million barrels of oil a day by the end of the next decade, Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell on Thursday said he’ll be aggressively promoting new leases on state land.
Read full story in the Anchorage Daily News.
By Editor, on June 30th, 2011  By Sophia Pearson | BLOOMBERG
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to list polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act was reasonable, a federal judge ruled, rejecting challenges that it limits resource development in Alaska.
The agency’s decision “represents a reasoned exercise” of its discretion based on the facts and the available science in 2008 when it made the determination, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan inWashington wrote today in a 116-page ruling granting the government’s request to uphold the decision.
Read full article in Bloomberg.
Read full Memorandum Opinion: IN RE: POLAR BEAR ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT LISTING AND 4(d) RULE LITIGATION – MDL 1993
By Roger Maynard, on June 24th, 2011 Gov. Sean Parnell ANCHORAGE– Governor Sean Parnell today issued the following statement after the Obama administration announced it will release 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
“Today’s move to release 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve only underscores the need for a national energy policy that fosters domestic oil and gas production. The strategic petroleum reserve that the Obama administration should focus on tapping is Alaska, which holds an estimated 40 billion barrels of conventional oil and tens of billions of barrels of unconventional oil, as well as many other natural resources of strategic value to our country. Current federal policy that curtails development of our nation’s resources means greater energy costs for every American. Alaska stands ready to create jobs and improve our nation’s energy security.”
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By Editor, on June 18th, 2011 by Sean Cockerham | ADN
JUNEAU–The Alaska Senate is calling for a special session to keep the state’s coastal zone management program from dissolving on June 30. But it’s not clear whether the House will go along.
Read full article in the Anchorage Daily News.
By Editor, on June 18th, 2011 Press release:
JUNEAU–At the direction of Governor Sean Parnell and Attorney General John Burns, the Alaska Department of Law has filed a request for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a previous decision, and uphold the lengthy process and analysis used by the Federal Highway Administration and the State Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF) to develop and permit the Juneau Access road project. The project would provide a significantly better transportation link between the capital of Juneau and the intercontinental highway system while at the same time reducing state costs and traveler costs. Read more->
By Editor, on June 18th, 2011 Press release
JUNEAU–Governor Sean Parnell and Attorney General John Burns have directed the Department of Law to file a legal challenge to the Roadless Rule adopted in 2001 by the United States Forest Service. The Roadless Rule prohibited local and regional control over decisions about road construction, reconstruction and timber harvest on roughly 58.5 million acres of national forest lands and grasslands.
Until a recent Alaska Federal District Court ruling, the state’s largest national forest, the Tongass National Forest, was exempt from the Roadless Rule under a regulation promulgated pursuant to a settlement agreement with the federal government. Read more->
By Editor, on June 10th, 2011 by Patti Epler | ALASKA DISPATCH
As the state’s own coastal zone management program vaporizes, the Obama administration is quietly pushing ahead with its own initiative to manage the oceans, coastline and the Great Lakes.
In fact, the feds will be in Anchorage Friday, June 10, as part of a “listening tour” aimed at hearing what local folks think about the government program including its nine main objectives.
Read full article at the Alaska Dispatch.
View National Ocean Council Strategic Plan.
By Editor, on June 7th, 2011  by Rondi Adamson | CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
TORONTO–Americans may be looking north of the border with envy these days. The Canadian dollar – previously an object of mockery – now trades higher than its US counterpart and our banks weathered the global financial crisis with alarming stability. How have Canadians pulled this off?
Read more in the Christian Science Monitor.
Related article in the Haines Alaska News: Canada vs. U.S. Economy
By Editor, on June 4th, 2011 by Michael Protos | Government Computer News
The Transportation Security Administration just can’t win as it tries to appease both sides of the personal privacy vs. national security debate, and a TSA official said June 1 that the agency might tip the scales slightly toward privacy.
At a meeting with irritated Alaskans, Scott Johnson, TSA field operations manager, said the agency is considering a risk-based system for ranking the threat of individual travelers, writes the Associated Press’ Dan Joling.
Read full article in GCN.
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| Nate Beeler
The Columbus Dispatch
May 16, 2012
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Lynn Canal Map & Marine Traffic (refresh for current ship positions)
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Haines, Alaska 99827
editor@hainesnews.net
The Haines Alaska News is a public information service of the Alaska Alliance for Commerce, Inc., a grassroots movement organized to advocate for small business and a free market economy in Alaska.
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