Trump Administration Facing Hurdles Opening Alaska and other Areas to Oil and Gas

The Proposed Pebble Mine project 
is one of the extraction industry 
efforts drawing the ire of outdoorsmen, 
conservationists, and the environmental 
community.

Trump and his myriad supporters in the extraction industries, including Oil and Gas, are facing a stiff headwind in the U.S. Courts, as this Washington Post article lays out.  As a former Alaskan who often felt the people from the Lower 48 interfered too much with Alaska environmental affairs, I get some of the frustration some Alaskans feel.

However, as we in the U.S. are prone to doing, we may have swung the pendulum way too far towards easing regulations and restrictions on these extraction industries.  If you enjoy the outdoors and want your kids to be able to enjoy what you get to experience, we may want to ease up a little...

A number of recent legal defeats and business decisions have stymied three multibillion-dollar pipeline projects around the country, setting back President Trump’s 3½-year effort to expand oil and gas development in the United States.

The reversals demonstrate both the enduring power of environmental laws that the Trump administration has been trying to weaken and the tenacity of environmental, tribal and community activists who have battled the projects on forested land and in federal courtrooms.

In a surprise decision Monday, a federal judge ruled that the Dakota Access pipeline — which Trump approved within a month of taking office — must be shut down by Aug. 5, saying federal officials failed to carry out a complete analysis of its environmental impacts. The day before, two energy companies behind the controversial, 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline abandoned their six-year bid to build it, saying the $8 billion project has become too expensive and faces an uncertain regulatory environment. And an April decision by a federal judge in Montana dealt a blow to the Keystone XL pipeline and raised questions about whether the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will have to conduct more extensive environmental reviews for other projects.

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Alaska Hunting Regs Out

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has issued 20-21 Hunting regs.  The information can be accessed on the department website, but to download a copy of all regs click HERE.

The department cautions that regs are not quoted verbatim from state law, been in a more readable and concise format.  Also, hunters need to be aware that emergency orders supersede the info in these regs.

Happy Hunting!

Politics at the Anchorage game and fish committee

. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One-third of the committee that represents the people of Anchorage at the boards that regulate hunting and fishing in Alaska resigned this week, saying their advice is consistently ignored.

Six of the Anchorage Fish and Game Advisory Committee’s 17 members resigned Tuesday at an annual meeting. Two members serve as alternates.

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WRANGELL- ST. ELIAS SUBSISTENCE RESOURCE COM M ISSION TO M EET I N NORTHWAY AND TANACROSS

Image via Wikipedia
The Wrangell-St. Elias National Park Subsistence Resource Commission will meet in
Northway on Thursday, October 6, from 9:30 AM to 5 PM, and in Tanacross on Friday, October
7, from 9 AM until the completion of business, to consider a range of issues related to
subsistence hunting and fishing in the park. Additional information may be obtained by calling Barbara Cellarius at park headquarters, 822-7236.