After 25 years, lands act still divisive [Carter]

News-Miner ^ | December 03, 2005 | SAM BISHOP

[ncountylee]

WASHINGTON--Twenty-five years ago this month, President Jimmy Carter signed an act that placed almost a third of Alaska's land area in federal parks, refuges and the like, laying out a controversial new path for the next-to-newest state.

Dec. 2, the day Carter signed the law, is "a day that will live in infamy," said mining law attorney J.P. Tangen of Anchorage, who was in the thick of Washington lobbying against the law.

"It's all true, I wear a black armband," he said.

Deborah Williams, an Interior Department attorney in Washington who worked to pass the law and years later led the department's Alaska operations, praises the law's effects upon the 49th State.

"This has benefited Alaska and Alaskans in numerous ways, including economically and by adding to our quality of life," she said.

The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 put 104 million acres of Alaska's 365 million acres in a variety of federal "conservation units."

More than half the land--54 million acres--went into national wildlife refuges. Another 44 million acres went into national parks and associated preserves. The rest, a few million acres, went into new wild and scenic rivers, recreation and conservation areas and national forests.

[ncountylee]

Dec. 2, the day Carter signed the law, is "a day that will live in infamy,"

Jimmy was the worst and most hated President in history. IMO

[thackney]

The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (ANILCA) expanded the Refuge, mostly south and west, to include another 9.2 million acres. Section 702(3) designated much of the original Refuge as a wilderness area, but not the coastal plain, nor the newer portions of the Refuge. Instead, Congress postponed decisions on the development or further protection of the coastal plain. Section 1002 directed a study of ANWR’s “coastal plain” (therefore often referred to as the “1002 area”) and its resources to be completed within five years and nine months of enactment. Since oil is actually seeping out of the ground in this area, it seemed a good bet it would be a place to develop our resources.

In 1987, the U. S. Department of the Interior completed the final legislative environmental impact statement (FLEIS) on the feasibility for oil development on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as mandated in paragraph 1002(h) of the ANILCA. The conclusions in the FLEIS were that there was a strong possibility for economically recoverable oil. The recommendation to Congress from the Secretary of the Interior, based on the interpretation of the existing data, was to open that portion of the coastal plain of ANWR that had been designated for possible development to full leasing.

Maybe if the requirements of ANILCA are not going to be followed, the additional 104 million acres of federal lands that ANILCA kept from Alaska and placed into national parks, wildlife refuges, national monuments and national forests could be returned to the State for their use.

[kittymyrib]

Jimmah Carter, the biggest flop of a president we've ever had, grabbed half of Alaska for the enviro-nazis and gave away the Panama Canal to the leftists. He screwed up everything he touched and looked the fool 100% of his time in office. Too bad Billy didn't have the longevity of the two brothers.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

And this is just one small wrinkle in the giant turd that is Karter's presidency.

[Don Corleone]

He shut down Alaska and opened up Panama to the communists. What a legacy!!

[ClaireSolt]

It really irks me when the people from the NE block economic development elsewhere. The NE is the most developed, most densely populated part of the country. Yet they block development elsewhere. If they want pristine wilderness, let it be in upstate NY, courtesy of Hillary.