The naming of conferees to an operating budget conference committee marks the beginning of the end of the legislative session, usually. Under Alaska legislative uniform rule 23(d), once the conference committee (composed of three House and three Senate members) is formed, standing and special committees can hold committee hearings with 24-hour notice, instead of the one-week notification required for committees …
Alaska High School Students Join Youth Climate Strike
High school students from Anchorage and the Valley skipped the end of their school day on Friday, not to enjoy the weather but to fight for their futures. Rallies took place around the world on Friday as part of the Fridays for Future movement and the Youth Climate Strike. The international movements aim to prevent the worst effects of climate …
Looking to the future, Anchorage finalizes Climate Action Plan
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) — After a year of development with guidance from more than 100 city leaders, university professors and other subject matter experts, the Anchorage Climate Action plan has been completed, setting a blueprint for how the city will adapt to and attempt to mitigate a changing climate. “It has two big parts basically. We have how we’re going …
Army Corps of Engineers Extends Comment Period On Proposed Pebble Mine
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it will extend from 90 to 120 days the comment period for a draft environmental review of a proposed copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. The corps had received comments arguing against an extension and comments urging more time. Notably, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski last month requested extending the comment …
Leg With Louie: A process you never knew you had, and you are about to lose
In 2006 the very unpopular administration of Governor Frank Murkowski approved a regulation allowing the dumping of water pollution into salmon spawning and rearing areas. This regulation was an extreme change to the rules protecting our salmon. Before it went into effect statewide, a review and certification by the Environmental Protection Agency were required. This regulation was so incredibly offensive to everyone besides …
Leg With Louie: Do we want more voters or do we want less voters?
The House State Affairs Committee will soon be discussing a statewide Vote-By-Mail proposal while in the Senate, SB 116 was recently introduced to modify the citizens initiative tying voting registration to Permanent Fund Dividend application. These bills are two different ends of a spectrum. One seeks to expand voting by increasing access to ballots via the Vote-by-Mail concept, and the …
How Rural Areas Can Benefit From Renewable Energy
Guest opinion blog piece by Ryan TollefsenRenewable energy sources like solar and wind energy have experienced some incredible advances in the past several years. The aforementioned has resulted in both lower overall costs for solar and wind power as well as more efficient use of the power provided by these green technologies. An increasing amount of people can benefit from …