alaska

Trump Admin Begins Process to Open Pristine Arctic Refuge for Drilling

Trump Admin Begins Process to Open Pristine Arctic Refuge for Drilling

The Interior Department has launched the process of holding lease sales for oil and gas drilling in the 1.6-million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Despite decades of fierce resistance from Democrats and conservation groups, pro-drilling Republicans were able to realize their goal of opening the refuge after quietly including the measure […]

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    The Pebble Mine Is Too Toxic Even for the Trump Administration

    The Pebble Mine Is Too Toxic Even for the Trump Administration

    In a stunning reversal, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it is suspending its effort to reverse an Obama-era plan to restrict mining in Bristol Bay, Alaska based on a controversial mine project’s risks to the region’s important salmon fisheries and natural resources. The unexpected move from President Trump’s pro-business administration was a blow […]

    DOI to Allow Road Construction Inside National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska

    DOI to Allow Road Construction Inside National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska

    The Interior Department has reached a deal with a remote Alaskan village to construct a controversial road through a national wildlife refuge. Local officials from King Cove in the Aleutian Islands said last week that the Interior Department has approved a land swap that would allow the village to build a 12-mile gravel road through […]

    Climate Change Has Doubled Snowfall in Alaskan Mountains

    Climate Change Has Doubled Snowfall in Alaskan Mountains

    New research shows that the Alaska Range receives an average of 18 feet of snow per year—that’s more than double the average of eight feet per year from 1600-1840. The likely culprit, according to researchers from Dartmouth College, the University of Maine and the University of New Hampshire, is none other than climate change. “We […]

    GOP Tax Bill Sneaks Plan to Drill Arctic Refuge

    GOP Tax Bill Sneaks Plan to Drill Arctic Refuge

    The pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) faces a looming threat from oil and gas drilling. The little known provision, proposed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, was quietly included in the House and Senate Republicans’ compromise tax bill. The bill “contains the single most important step I believe we can take to strengthen our […]

    ‘The Wrong Mine in the Wrong Place’: Former Republican EPA Administrators Blast Alaska Mining Project

    ‘The Wrong Mine in the Wrong Place’: Former Republican EPA Administrators Blast Alaska Mining Project

    By Taryn Kiekow Heimer An U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator under every Republican presidential administration since the EPA was created, except the Ford administration, whose administrator is deceased, have joined forces to make a statement in opposition to the Pebble Mine proposed in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Their statement appeared Tuesday as a full-page ad […]

    Battle to Protect 50 Million Forest Acres May Finally Be Won After 16 Years

    Battle to Protect 50 Million Forest Acres May Finally Be Won After 16 Years

    By Jessica A. Knoblauch A decades-long fight over a landmark rule protecting wild forests nationwide took another successful–and possibly final–turn last week after a U.S. district court threw out a last-ditch attack by the state of Alaska against the Roadless Rule. Adopted in the closing days of the Clinton administration, the Roadless Rule prohibits most […]