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Alaska Leaders Irate over Obama's Plan to Ban Drilling in Wildlife Refuge

President Barack Obama said Sunday that he planned to ask Congress to declare much of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness, including its 1.5-million-acre coastal plain, an area on Alaska's North Slope suspected to contain vast reserves of oil and gas.

By Richard Mauer

President Barack Obama said Sunday that he planned to ask Congress to declare much of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness, including its 1.5-million-acre coastal plain, an area on Alaska's North Slope suspected to contain vast reserves of oil and gas.

The designation would forever prevent exploration and production on the coastal plain, but Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the idea would be dead on arrival in the all-Republican Congress.

Nevertheless, she and the rest of the state's congressional delegation, along with Gov. Bill Walker, said that move -- and two other anticipated announcements involving offshore drilling in the Arctic and development in National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska -- amounted to "declaring war on Alaska's future."

Murkowski, in a Sunday telephone interview from her home in Washington, D.C., called the administration's moves a "trifecta" with a cumulative impact that could harm Alaska's economy. Even though the wilderness bid will likely fail in Congress, it will reinvigorate an environmental cause that had slipped from the national consciousness.

Since 1980, when the Arctic refuge was expanded from 9 million acres to 19 million acres by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, there's been a stalemate over the coastal plain. Alaska's congressional delegation and allies from oil-friendly states have been trying to open it, and they've been opposed just as strongly by the allies of environmental groups. Democrats and Republicans have been on either side of the issue, though most of the partisans for opening the refuge have been Republican, while those seeking wilderness protection have mainly been Democrats.

It would take an act of Congress to open the plain or shut it permanently. Former Gov. Sean Parnell filed suit against the Interior Department last year, seeking authority for a state-run exploration of the coastal plain using three-dimensional seismic methods that avoid actual drilling but would have a physical impact. The Interior Department is fighting the lawsuit, saying the authority to explore the area expired in 1987.

Alaska's late Sen. Ted Stevens once complained he had become "clinically depressed" over his inability to get the coastal plain opened for drilling, even when Congress and the White House were controlled by Republicans.

The Interior Department said in a statement emailed about 7 a.m. Alaska time Sunday that it would release a conservation plan for the refuge that seeks to designate 12.3 million additional acres within the refuge as wilderness. That's on top of the already 7 million acres that are designated as wilderness within the refuge, a 19-million-acre-plus block of land in Alaska's northeast corner.

In a video, Obama said he was "proud" that the Interior Department was putting forward the new plan.

"And I'm going to be calling on Congress to make sure that they take it one step further, designating it as a wilderness so that we can make sure that this amazing wonder is preserved for future generations," Obama said in the video, where he appeared to be speaking from Air Force One.

"If Congress chooses to act, it would be the largest ever wilderness designation since Congress passed the visionary Wilderness Act over 50 years ago," the Interior Department said.

Wilderness designations require congressional approval under the Wilderness Act, a Lyndon Johnson-era law that has proved extremely popular nationwide, though many of the designations have been fought locally as land and water lock-ups. In designated wilderness areas, road-making and other developments are usually banned, as are most motorized vehicles. Hunting and fishing are allowed, and in some wilderness areas, fixed-wing aircraft and motor boats can be used. In Alaska, snow machines and other motorized vehicles are allowed in wilderness areas if local residents had used them for "traditional activities."

Alaska's political leaders were quick to condemn the Sunday announcement, calling it an attack on Alaska's ability to manage its own lands. In a joint press release, Murkowski, Sen. Dan Sullivan, Rep. Don Young and Walker panned the plan.

"What's coming is a stunning attack on our sovereignty and our ability to develop a strong economy that allows us, our children and our grandchildren to thrive," said Sen. Murkowski, who also chairs the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. "It's clear this administration does not care about us, and sees us as nothing but a territory. The promises made to us at statehood, and since then, mean absolutely nothing to them." She said Alaskans will "fight back."

Freshman U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan called the announcement part of the Obama administration's "war on Alaska families."

"This decision disregards the rule of law and our constitution and specifically ignores many promises made to Alaska in ANILCA," Sullivan said, without elaborating. "It is just one more example of President Obama thumbing his nose at the citizens of a sovereign state -- and will put Alaska and America's energy security in serious jeopardy."

Rep. Don Young called the plan "callously planned and politically motivated" and "akin to spitting in our faces and telling us it's raining outside." He also accused the Obama administration of capitulating to "the most extreme environmentalist elements."

Walker said the move comes as a major blow with the state already struggling with budget problems in the face of low oil prices, and the move to permanently block development in the refuge would make it even more difficult to accelerate production of new oil on state lands.

"This action by the federal government is a major setback toward reaching that goal," Walker said. "Therefore, I will consider accelerating the options available to us to increase oil exploration and production on state-owned lands. This further underscores the need for Alaska to become a participant in the infrastructure development for the benefit of all North Slope participants and the residents of Alaska."

A coalition of environmental groups, led by the Alaska Wilderness League, described the administration's move as a "historic announcement." In a prepared statement, they said said that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service received nearly a million comments supporting wilderness protection and opposing oil and gas development as the agency was reviewing options for managing the refuge.

Alex DeMarban, Nathaniel Herz, Lisa Demer and Ben Anderson contributed to this story.

(c)2015 the Alaska Dispatch News (Anchorage, Alaska)

Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.
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