Category: ALASKA_MN Comm_Indigenous_MN Litigation_CN

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy said Alaska has exhausted all options before filing a complaint today in U.S. District Court to compel the U.S. government to take responsibility for and address contaminated sites that it conveyed to Alaska Natives beginning some 50 years ago as part of the land exchanges under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).

My small turboprop plane whirred low through thick clouds. Below me, St. Paul Island cut a golden, angular shape in the shadow-dark Bering Sea. I saw a lone island village—a grid of houses, a small harbor, and a road that followed a black ribbon of coast.

Fox, Alaska, is a tiny town, but on Monday it hosted one of the Pentagon’s senior officials for a unique tour. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks was there to see 360-foot-long tunnel that military engineers dug into the frozen ground more than 50 years ago. Its purpose is to help scientists and Pentagon officials better understand permafrost — and its research is growing in importance as the world warms.

Friday is the last day of the Chugach Electric Utility board election. The annual election usually passes under the radar, but this year it’s been a fierce race, with nine candidates vying for three seats to guide the future of Anchorage’s electric utility.

Due to rising global temperatures, ice in the Arctic is melting faster than it ever has. This change affects the security environment in the region.

Perched high above Kachemak Bay, Scott Waterman’s house in Homer is a museum of energy-efficient technology. A heat pump hangs on the side of his garage. Out front, a hulking row of blue solar panels angle toward the high April sun.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission lawfully authorized a liquefied natural gas project in Alaska, the D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday—denying environmental groups’ petition to review the decision.

Research on a flat spot for air evacuation….

While ecological memory stored in a landscape can usually help ecosystems recover from disturbances such as fires or disease outbreaks, when climate change significantly alters these disturbance patterns – as it happens today – such coping strategies may fail. For instance, ecological memories stored in the warming Arctic may soon be overwritten by new ones, with unforeseen consequences for this region’s capacity to adapt to rapid climate change.

Scientists say nations must stop new oil and gas projects to avoid climate catastrophe. But after the Biden administration greenlit the $8 billion Willow project, ConocoPhillips is racing ahead….