Free Republic

PHOENIX — Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy needs allies. Within 10 months, D.C. Democrats have obstructed logging activity in the Alaska’s southeast Tongasss National Forest, stalled progress on a life-saving road for remote residents to reach an all-weather airport in Cold Bay, cancelled oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), and suspended new drilling activity in a state home to 60 percent of federal land. “The phone line’s untouched,” Dunleavy told The Federalist of President Joe Biden’s outreach 10 months into an administration obstructing nearly every major development project sought in the nation’s largest landmass. Interior...

Alaskan tribal members have fought for decades to win approval for a 12-mile road between their remote Aleutian fishing village and a critical all-weather airport, and the federal government’s shutdown wasn’t going to get in their way. At an emotional ceremony Monday, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke signed an agreement for a land exchange that will allow construction of a road between King Cove and an all-weather airport in Cold Bay. The Obama administration blocked the project because of concerns about its impact on a wildlife refuge. Signing the deal on behalf of the King Cove Native Corp. was finance manager...

In one of Alaska’s most remote outposts, where a thousand hardy souls make their homes, the Obama administration has put the fate of birds and bears above the lives of people, blocking construction of an 11-mile gravel trail connecting a tiny fishing hamlet to a life-saving airport. King Cove has a clinic, but no hospital or doctor. Residents must fly 600 miles to Anchorage, via Cold Bay’s World War II airstrip, for most medical procedures including serious trauma cases and childbirth. Frequent gale-force winds and thick fog often delay or jeopardize medevac flights. According to local Aleutian elders, 19 people...