Alaska leaders continued to pressure U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell at a rare event in Northwest Alaska on Tuesday, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski saying that reducing the budget of the Interior Department is just one of the tools she has to control the agency.
Murkowski said she is afraid Obama wants to see the trans-Alaska pipeline shut down completely, and that he’ll eventually use the Antiquities Act to single-handedly declare the oil-rich coastal plain of the refuge a monument before he leaves office.
Hit 'em in the pocketbook: perhaps the single greatest threat to a politician/political appointee that can be levied.
I've not been in Murkowski's corner very often, as she's frequently too liberal for my taste. But she's right on the money, this time. Alaska's State constitution makes the natural resources of the State the property of Alaska residents (an "owner state", if you will).
This amounts to the fedgov telling individuals that they're not allowed to use or develop their own property, which most Alaskans take as a personal threat, and an offense.
But, as always, the proof is in the pudding, so we'll see what happens when Ms. Jewell gets back to the security blanket of D.C., some 4,000 miles away.
4 comments:
Someone in the administration even knows that Alaska is more than a refueling stop? Who woulda thunk!
I know, right? Like the article said, it's a rare thing.
Padre, i think more States are getting back bone and basically telling the wind bags in D.C. to go to that tropical place underground.
Rob, it does seem to be happening more frequently than before. I hope you're right.
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