One day after the White House proposed to designate millions of acres of pristine wildlife in northern Alaska as a wildlife sanctuary, GOP lawmakers from the state lashed out at the conservationist agenda, using rhetoric that hardly matches the reality of the administration’s actions.
“This administration has effectively declared war on Alaska,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) speaking to reporters on Monday.
On Sunday, the White House moved to designate more than 12 million acres of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, as “wilderness.” The distinction effectively rules out further oil exploration and extraction in the area.
Sen. Murkowski said that this is an “administration that has taken a look at Alaska and decided it’s a nice little snow globe up there and we’re gonna keep it that way.”
“That’s not what you do to a state. Any state,” she added.
Appearing alongside fellow lawmakers in the Alaskan congressional delegation – one comprised entirely of Republicans – Sen. Murkowski promised to do “everything we can to push back” against the administration.
But she won’t have to try too hard – or at all – to make the proposal temporary. Using his executive authority, President Obama can immediately offer wilderness protection to the designated area. But Congress must approve any permanent reclassification. In 1980, Congress designated seven million acres of the roughly 19 million that make up ANWR as “wilderness,” affording these areas the highest form of protection. That’s unlikely to expand with a House and Senate under control of a Republican party that made “drill, baby, drill” one if its mantras.
As it stands, the administration’s safe haven for ANWR expires when there’s a new occupant in the White House.
As the new Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Sen. Murkowski herself will be able to play a lead role in blocking any legislation to protect ANWR. She has previously spoken about her intentions to open up the reserve to oil companies.
Her prior allegiance to energy interests has been rewarded. In the 2014 election cycle, Sen. Murkowski accepted nearly $1.1 million in campaign contributions from oil and gas companies and electric utilities, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The second half of the state’s Senate delegation, Sen. Dan Sullivan, raised more than a quarter million dollars from oil and gas interests in his bid to win his election last November.
Appearing alongside the Senators at Monday’s briefing was Rep. Don Young, who has represented Alaska’s at-large congressional district since 1973. Since 1989, Rep. Young has received more than $1.2 million from the oil and gas industry.
The White House over the weekend argued that portions of ANWR proposed for protection are “one of the few remaining places in the country as pristine today as it was when the oldest Alaska Native communities first set eyes on it.”
The president’s senior counsel, John Podesta said the area was “too precious to put at risk.”
