Posted on 12/03/2005 8:14:57 AM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news-miner.com ...
Jimmy was the worst and most hated President in history. IMO
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.
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.
And this is just one small wrinkle in the giant turd that is Karter's presidency.
He shut down Alaska and opened up Panama to the communists. What a legacy!!
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.
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