Shortly after taking office, President Trump also ordered Denali to be renamed Mount McKinley and said he was going to declare a national energy emergency.
A sweeping executive order signed by President Trump during the first hours of his second term aims to boost Alaska’s natural resource industry by reversing environmental protections that limit oil and gas extraction, logging, and other development projects across the state. Another order reversed executive actions taken by former President Biden, removing restrictions on oil development in the Arctic Ocean and
Bering Sea.
Trump’s executive order states that the U.S. Interior Department secretary will reinstate the name Mount McKinley within 30 days. However, Denali National Park and Preserve will retain its name, the order says. (The same order also seeks to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”)
Rep. Calvin Schrage, an Anchorage independent who is part of the incoming Democrat-dominated House majority, has a measure that would make sweeping changes to how Alaskans vote. The new legislative session kicks off today.
Recent reports from the organization performing third party oversight of Anchorage’s winter emergency shelters shines a light on several ongoing challenges, including not enough food or transportation, and problems with laundry and bedbugs at one site, among other issues.
Boosters of a mining road in the backcountry northwest of Anchorage are poised to get a $100,000 federal grant for trail work. Some locals see it as part of an under-the-radar effort to push the road forward. (via Northern Journal)
