Print article If I was to select a single word that characterized the Dunleavy administration, the word would be ignorance. The Pebble Mine proposal is dead and designated to be that way by a host of political figures, going back to Sen. Ted Stevens, former Gov. Bill Walker and, more recently, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency. The current administration is beating a dead horse on the rhetorical grounds it should be permitted because it’s been constitutionally mandated. I say balderdash. Soon after Gov. Jay Hammond was elected, he with bipartisan backing bought back the oil and gas leases his predecessor had sold to oil companies who had sought to exploit fossil fuel reserves discovered in Kachemak Bay. This unprecedented buyback was done to protect the pristine doorstep leading to the fabulous Chugach State Park, as well the bay’s rich fishery resources that included at the time, king crab and side-stripped shrimp. This ethical decision
Investigation blames U.S. Forest Service for giving Alaska grant used for Roadless Rule fight
Posted by Eric Stone | Dec 18, 2020
Beached logs pile up in Shoal Cove on Revilla Island in the Tongass National Forest. (Jim Baichtal/USFS)
A federal watchdog agency says the U.S. Forest Service acted illegally when it awarded a $2 million grant to the state of Alaska in 2018. The state had asked for the grant to gather input on a proposal to exempt the Tongass National Forest from the Clinton-era Roadless Rule.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General issued its report Wednesday. The report says the Forest Service illegally awarded the $2 million to the state through a grant program intended to support fire suppression in state-owned forests.