A voter in Alaska's special U.S. House primary election drops their ballot into a box on Saturday, June 11, 2022 as a poll worker observes. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
A voter in Alaska’s special U.S. House primary election drops their ballot into a box on Saturday, June 11, 2022 as a poll worker observes. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
NOTN- Juneau residents planning to vote in the city’s upcoming municipal election must register by Sunday, Sept. 7. That is also the deadline to update a mailing address with the state Division of Elections.
Anyone who will turn 18 by Election Day, Oct. 7, is eligible to vote but must still register by the Sept. 7 deadline. Alaska law allows residents to register up to 90 days before their 18th birthday.
The Oct. 7 election is being conducted by mail, but voters can check their status or update information
On September 19, ballots for this election will be mailed to registered Juneau voters at the mailing address they have on file with the State of Alaska Division of Elections. If you’re not sure about your registration status or mailing address, you can check online at myvoterportal.alaska.gov.
Vote Centers will open for in-person voting starting on September 22. The last day to vote is Tuesday, October 7.
May 14, 2018 – Wind turbines in Kodiak, Alaska. (Photo by Dennis Schroeder / NREL)
For years, urban Alaska utilities have been studying large-scale wind farms that could help break the state’s dependence on natural gas power — encouraged by the potential for hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits from the federal government.
Next summer, however, those tax credits will largely disappear for projects that haven’t started construction, a consequence of the tax bill that President Donald Trump signed in July.
Clean energy advocates, and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, had said they hoped that Alaska wind projects could still advance in time to qualify.
But in recent weeks, board members and executives at the cooperatively owned utilities have acknowledged that the timeline now appears too short — which means any large-scale projects will now have to be built without the generous federal subsidies, or wait to see if Congress reestablishes a more favorable tax regime.
Critics say the absence of major new renewable projects will leave the state dependent on imported, liquefied natural gas and could make consumers vulnerable to price spikes.
“There’s an argument to be made that these electric cooperatives, whose boards have a fiduciary responsibility to the member-owners, have really frittered away one of the greatest opportunities they’ve ever had to deliver hundreds of millions of dollars of value to their members,” said Phil Wight, an energy historian and professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks. “At the highest level, I think that’s a fair argument.”
Since Congress approved expanded tax credits in 2022, Alaska has seen no large-scale wind or solar projects begin construction, while other states like Wyoming and Texas have received billions of dollars in clean energy investment.
At a recent meeting, board members at Golden Valley Electric Association, the utility that generates power for Fairbanks area residents and mines, rejected a developer’s bid to advance a large-scale wind farm on a schedule driven by the expiring tax credits. Utility officials said there was still too much uncertainty about final pricing and whether the project could capture the credits.
Meanwhile, officials at Anchorage-based Chugach Electric Association, the state’s largest power utility, say that another large wind project they’ve been studying with the same developer also won’t be ready to start construction in time to qualify for the credits.
Jim Nordlund, a Chugach Electric Association board member, said that if the Anchorage-area project had captured the credits, it was still far from clear that it could have provided power more cheaply than his utility’s existing natural gas plants.
That’s even assuming prices will rise when local fuel supplies dry up and utilities begin importing liquefied natural gas in the next few years, added Nordlund, a self-described clean energy advocate.
The price of renewable power generally, he said, “is really high.”
Alaskans who are frustrated about the pace of wind and solar development shouldn’t blame the urban utilities, Nordlund added. Private companies, not the utilities themselves, have been advancing projects that failed to materialize, he said, and politics also played a big role.
“If you want to blame anybody for this, it would be that big bad bill. That’s what Trump wanted to do, and it worked,” Nordlund said. “It shut down, at least for the time being, our projects.”
But renewable energy boosters say that the urban utilities deserve at least some share of the blame for not advancing projects more urgently while the tax credits were in place.
The utilities could have developed large wind developments themselves, those advocates argue — or they could have done more to create a stable and attractive market for private developers.
“The utilities are uniquely bureaucratic and expensive in their own self-development. And they’re uniquely bureaucratic and obstinate and slow if a private company is developing,” said Ethan Schutt, who formerly managed the energy assets of an Indigenous-owned regional corporation.
Advocates say utility leaders have also failed to endorse, and in some cases outright opposed, legislation proposed multiple times in recent years to establish renewable energy quotas — which they say could have encouraged more private developers to work in the state.
Large-scale power projects “need to be thoughtfully implemented,” Natalie Kiley-Bergen, energy lead at an advocacy organization called Alaska Public Interest Research Group, said in an email.
“Had more progress been made in the last five years — even the last 15 years — to create a competitive market environment with regulatory and economic certainty for these projects, we could have seen responsible project commitments regardless of federal changes,” Kiley-Bergen said. “Not capitalizing on these tax credits is a product of years of moving slowly on the tremendous opportunities to diversify our energy generation.”
A risk of price spikes?
After its initial discovery in the 1950s, Cook Inlet, the offshore and onshore petroleum basin southwest of Anchorage, produced huge quantities of natural gas.
There was enough fuel to generate not just the vast majority of the region’s electric power, but also to supply plants that produced fertilizer and exported gas in liquefied form to Asia.
But those plants have now closed amid Cook Inlet production declines. And for more than a decade, the urban electric utilities have been contending with risk that gas supply won’t be adequate to meet demand.
Generous state tax credits temporarily approved by lawmakers in 2010 helped stimulate new drilling, but only temporarily, and they were subsequently repealed. Three years ago, Cook Inlet’s dominant producer, Hilcorp, warned utilities that they should not expect new long-term commitments of gas when their existing contracts expire in the coming years.
Clean energy advocates say that Alaskans’ dependence on gas-fired power — Chugach Electric Association generates 87% of its power from the fuel — makes residents vulnerable to both supply disruptions and fluctuations in price.
The utilities have responded to the looming local gas shortfall with plans for new infrastructure that could offload imported liquefied natural gas, known as LNG, shipped from Canada or the Gulf of Mexico.
But unlike gas from Cook Inlet, which producers have long sold at a fixed cost, utilities would likely have to buy LNG at rates that swing with the market, similar to the price of oil, according to Antony Scott, an analyst at the Renewable Energy Alaska Project advocacy group who once studied petroleum pricing for Alaska’s state government.
Given the risk of price spikes that could translate into higher electricity prices for consumers, diversifying with new wind and solar development should be a “no-brainer,” Scott said.
“It’s just like an investment portfolio. Do you want to invest only in Tesla?” Scott said. “A rational, prudent investor would have a diversified portfolio.”
Scott’s advocacy group, and others in Alaska, have pushed the utilities to diversify, in part through lobbying for the creation of the renewable energy quotas.
They cite analyses like a study released last year by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which found that new renewables would be cheaper than burning gas in existing plants and, by 2040, could meet up to 80% of demand.
“Ratepayers in Alaska have been saying, for a long time, that we need renewable energy projects here at home, and we need to be capturing energy here at home,” said Alex Petkanas, clean energy and climate program manager at the Alaska Center conservation group. “This is not something that is a surprise — that our local natural gas supply is ending, and we need to replace that with new generation.”
A rejected agreement
Utility staff and board members agree that they need to diversify away from gas, with the chief executive of Matanuska Electric Association saying in 2022 that it was “untenable” to continue generating 85% of power from one type of fuel.
Chugach Electric Association aims to cut its carbon emissions in half by 2040, which would likely require sharp reduction in its use of natural gas. And a Golden Valley Electric Association strategic plan approved last year calls for the utility to finalize agreements with private developers to bring on “large-scale wind resources” at prices that will lower members’ power costs.
None of those utilities have moved to build major wind or solar farms themselves; instead, they’ve looked to private companies to do the construction and sell the power onto the grid.
Just one firm, Longroad Energy, has advanced large-scale wind projects on a timeline that could have qualified for the expiring tax credits. One is outside Anchorage in Chugach Electric Association’s region, and one is outside Fairbanks, in Golden Valley Electric Association’s region.
The Fairbanks area project, known as Shovel Creek Wind, could produce one-third of the power consumed by Golden Valley’s members — and even generate more than 100% of their demand at certain times, depending on the size of the development, said Golden Valley’s chief executive, Travis Million.
But at a July board meeting, Golden Valley’s board members rejected an agreement that Longroad had proposed to keep the project on a timeline to qualify for the credits.
Golden Valley, said Million, still needed more time to finish a study of how much it would have to spend on infrastructure upgrades and its existing fossil fuel plants in order to accommodate power from the new wind project. Utilities must balance swings in power production that stem from the natural variability of wind.
“Without having that step done, there’s just so much uncertainty about the cost. And not knowing what that end result would be to our members, we just could not commit,” Million said in a recent interview. The details of the proposed agreement — including Longroad’s estimated pricing — are confidential under a non-disclosure agreement.
There was additional uncertainty, Million added, about whether the Trump administration, which has been hostile to wind power, would grant the credits even if Shovel Creek advanced on the required timeline.
But Million also acknowledged that the utility could have done more work earlier to speed up the process.
“We should have done a lot of these studies on the front end, to really understand sizing and needs on Golden Valley’s system, before we really started going down this path with trying to find developers,” Million said.
Longroad, through an Anchorage-based consultant, declined to comment. Million said that Golden Valley plans to finish its study and hasn’t ruled out advancing Shovel Creek on a slower timeline than Longroad’s proposal.
The utility is also studying a substantial, if smaller, wind project that could still qualify for the tax credits.
“We have to take control”
In Anchorage, meanwhile, officials with Chugach Electric Association said that Longroad’s work on the nearby Little Mount Susitna wind project slowed as the company focused on advancing Shovel Creek.
The developer, said Chugach board member Nordlund, isn’t ready to make the initial investment in Little Mount Susitna and couldn’t do the continuous work required in order to take advantage of the tax credits — though the utility, he added, hasn’t given up on the project moving forward in the future.
Nordlund ran for the Chugach board in 2023 as an advocate for wind and solar, saying then that “the time to act on renewables is now.”
But he said in a recent interview that there’s “misinformation” circulating that utilities are dismissing proposed wind and solar developments that would generate power more cheaply than natural gas, when that’s not clearly the case.
Chugach has its own non-disclosure agreement with Longroad that Nordlund said bars him from getting specific about prices.
But speaking generally, he added, Alaska is a tough market for private developers, compared to the Lower 48 and foreign countries where they otherwise might invest.
Construction costs in Alaska are higher given the remote setting, harsh environment and lack of contractors competing for business, Nordlund said; the relatively small consumer base also means that developers can’t capture economies of scale.
“I think we need to create a better climate for independent power producers to do business in Alaska,” Nordlund said. The stalled legislation to establish renewable energy quotas could have helped, he added, by giving those private developers more certainty that the utilities were “serious” about bringing on wind and solar projects.
“More could have been done,” he said.
Nonetheless, Nordlund said he thinks the inherently “conservative” culture of Alaska’s utilities is changing, with executives increasingly open to accommodating wind and solar power.
Chugach officials say the utility is still pursuing renewables and remains open to proposals from developers — though they are now refocusing on more modest projects that they can advance in-house, at least in the early stages. Viable projects could then, potentially, be handed off to private developers.
At meetings in recent weeks, board and staff members have discussed a small-scale solar farm that Chugach is studying at the site of one of its existing gas power plants on the far side of Cook Inlet.
They’ve also heard a presentation from a consultant who is examining potential sites for new hydroelectric development, though those projects would face a lengthy permitting process.
“We now have to take control and get in the lead,” Dustin Highers, Chugach’s vice president for corporate programs, said at a recent board meeting.
But some experts like Wight, the energy historian, remain skeptical that those efforts will end up displacing very much gas, with the exception of the smaller wind project in the Fairbanks area that he said could still “make a real difference.”
Pursuing smaller projects with better coordination between regions could be a better strategy, Wight said. But failing that, he said he expects utilities to largely continue their dependence on natural gas — whether through imported LNG, or through a proposed pipeline project from Alaska’s North Slope that’s struggled to secure commitments from investors.
“They’re going to dabble a little bit in renewables here and there, and then they’re just going to hope for cheap gas,” Wight said. “As a state, we’ve been so oil- and gas-dependent for so long that I do think there’s a cultural barrier there, to bring in the new folks who want to think differently.”
Nathaniel Herz welcomes tips at natherz@gmail.com or (907) 793-0312. This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Herz. Subscribe at this link.
This is a copy of an information release by the City and Borough of Juneau
Today, the City and Borough of Juneau released body-worn camera footage and related materials from the July 30, 2025 incident in which a Juneau Police Department (JPD) officer used force during an arrest that resulted in a serious head injury to the arrested individual. The officer, who was in his probationary period, resigned on August 28, 2025.
This release is part of the City’s ongoing commitment to transparency and accountability and in accordance with CBJ Code (Ordinance 2025-05(c)(am)). In addition to the body-worn video, the City has published dashboard camera footage and applicable JPD policies. All materials are available online at bit.ly/jpd-incident-july30. City Manager Katie Koester stated, “This has been a painful event for our community. The officer’s resignation reflects the seriousness of what occurred, and our obligation to uphold the standards of conduct our community expects. Accountability means not only reviewing the facts but acting on them. I want to be clear: the Juneau Police Department is full of good and hardworking people who serve with professionalism, empathy and integrity. One incident does not define the department. We’re committed to using this moment to strengthen relationships and to listen and learn from all impacted voices.”
She added, “Chief Bos has been in contact with the family of the individual who was injured, and we are keeping them in our thoughts. Out of respect for their privacy, we will defer any questions regarding his condition or legal matters to the family.”
The officer was placed on administrative leave following the incident. JPD immediately requested an investigation of the incident by an independent third party. That investigation is ongoing.
JPD Chief of Police Derek Bos stated, “What happened on July 30 was not consistent with department policy, values or the conduct we expect from our officers. As Chief, I take responsibility for ensuring our department earns and maintains the public’s trust. We have already begun reviewing JPD directives, implementing policy clarifications as well as additional training focused on de-escalation, proportionality in use-of-force, and medical response protocols.”
As part of the City’s commitment to long-term healing and improved relationships, the Juneau Police Department will also participate in cultural sensitivity training. This training is designed to deepen officers’ understanding of Indigenous history, values, and lived experiences in Juneau, and to reinforce the department’s role as a respectful and responsive community partner.
“This training is not a checkbox. It’s a step toward meaningful connection,” said City Manager Katie Koester. In addition, Tlingit & Haida has offered to co-host a community dialogue with the City to create space for open and respectful conversations about the community’s relationship with law enforcement. The event will be designed to elevate voices, share perspectives, and chart a path forward rooted in trust, accountability, and shared values.
“We need to approach the dialogue in a thoughtful manner and recognize that it will be difficult for many in our community who have experienced trauma. We’re grateful to Tlingit & Haida for their leadership and willingness to engage with us on this important work,” said Manager Koester. Details about the training and dialogue event will be shared in the coming weeks.
A sign marking the east entrance of the The streetside east entrance of the James M. Fitzgerald United States Courthouse and Federal Building is seen on July 8, 2024. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
A trial underway in Anchorage this week is challenging the Alaska Office of Children’s Services and the foster care system, with plaintiffs claiming the system is failing Alaskan children and violating their rights.
“We hope that this trial will lead to significant reforms in Alaska’s foster care system. Alaska’s foster children deserve far better childhoods. It can be done,” Marcia Lowry, an attorney for the plaintiffs and with the nonprofit A Better Childhood, said in a written statement ahead of the trial.
There are about 2,500 children in Alaska foster care, a system that aims to provide a temporary placement environment after a child has been determined to be unsafe or at risk of maltreatment in their family home. Some placements are temporary, and families can seek reunification. If not possible or unsafe, OCS staff are tasked with finding other forms of permanent, safe placement for the child.
Alaska Native children make up a disproportionately high number of those in state custody – in July, the number was two thirds, or 68% of all children in custody, or 1,712 children.
The plaintiffs, who include five foster youths, are representing a class-action case that seeks wide-ranging changes to the system. The lawsuit, first filed in 2022, was brought on behalf of all Alaska children whom OCS has or will have in state custody.
The suit names Alaska’s Department of Family and Community Services (DFCS) and Office of Children’s Services (OCS) as defendants, as well as agency directors including OCS Director Kim Guay and DFCS Commissioner Kim Kovol.
The lawsuit, Mary B. et al. v. Kim Kovol, et al., alleges OCS is chronically understaffed and overburdens caseworkers, which poses a risk of harm to children. They argue the agency’s systemic failures include high vacancies and staff turnover, infrequent or poor quality caseworker visits, insufficient caseworker planning, and lack of adequate placements.
“Defendents knew and were aware of the serious harm to children, and ignored that harm,” said Julia Tebor, an attorney for the plaintiffs, during opening arguments on Monday, according to court transcripts. “Defendants have a policy and a practice of maintaining overburdened caseworkers. These caseworkers have 51 to 100 children, sometimes. They cannot do their job. They cannot keep children safe.”
Child welfare advocates, lawmakers, and foster youth themselves have raised alarm at inappropriate placements, including unnecessarily long stays at psychiatric facilities, homeless shelters, hotels with hired security guards and even overnights at OCS offices.
“Defendents fail to recruit and retain placements. They fail to connect children with services. And this places children at unnecessary risk of institutionalization,” Tebor said.
In defense of OCS, lawyers with the Alaska Department of Law are arguing that the child welfare system in Alaska is a complex network of government agencies and private partners, including Alaska Native tribes, working on children’s behalf — not just OCS.
They argue that superior court judges are routinely reviewing children’s cases and whether families are getting visitation, services and case planning, as required by law.
They say OCS is not ignoring the challenges presented by a shortage of caseworkers, caseplanning and access to services. But there are difficult logistics related to delivering services in Alaska, due to the vast geography, remote communities off the road system, and weather complications that can delay or complicate OCS staff’s work.
The lawsuit also alleges OCS overlooks or fails to seek out placements within an Alaska Native child’s family or community, instead placing them in non-Native households, violating their rights under the federal Indian Child Welfare Act.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs are arguing that “deliberate indifference” within OCS poses a substantial risk of harm to all foster children across the state.
The state rejects the claim, saying there is no deliberate indifference by OCS staff, and they are not violating children’s rights under federal child welfare laws, the Indian Child Welfare Act or the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Foster youth testify in court
A foster youth named Matthew was the first to take the stand on Monday. He entered OCS custody at 15 years old. In three years, he said, he was moved between 13 and 14 placements, including staying at an OCS office.
“Mentally, it took a toll on me because I couldn’t get schoolwork done,” he said. “There was a lot that I could have got done, that I never got done because I was moving around so much, and mentally took a toll on me.”
He described a placement called the “Ramen House” where kids only got two packs of ramen to eat for the entire day. “And if you ate the two ramen packs in the morning, then you’d have no food for the rest of the day,” he said. When he reported it to OCS, there was little response. “I told them multiple times, and they didn’t move me until I sat in the office and was like, I’m not moving until you guys put me in a new foster home, because I couldn’t do it anymore.”
Matthew said during his time in foster care he attended four or five schools in the Anchorage and Matanuska-Susitna Borough areas, and did not have regular access to medical care, like for a potential broken bone or to see a dentist. Now at 20, he’s still working on finishing high school.
In court on Monday, he recounted sleeping in OCS offices in Wasilla multiple times, where he was sometimes locked in. In one instance, he said “there was no couch — or there were no pillows or blankets or anything like that. They never gave me a pillow or blanket or anything like that.”
He said he had three or four caseworkers, some he never met in person.
Asked why he chose to testify, he said “so another kid doesn’t have to go through what I went through.”
Social workers’ caseload burden
OCS has five regional offices — Anchorage, Wasilla, Fairbanks, Bethel and Juneau — and 22 regional offices across the state.
Between January 2018 and January 2024, an average of 45% of OCS caseworkers had caseloads with more than 30 children, and an average of 25% of caseworkers had between 51 to 100 children, according to the lawsuit. At one point in 2023, the OCS Western Region had three caseworkers for the 309 out-of-home foster children in the region.
Kim Guay, director of OCS, took the stand on Monday and argued the state is working to make improvements to the system. She said caseworkers often work with partners, including tribal organizations and village public safety officers to make visits in remote locations. She said high caseload data requires context.
“They’re good things to look at, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. More needs to be looked into, what’s going on with the case, that office, the staff. There’s a whole context besides just the data and the numbers,” she said.
Guay herself began at OCS in 2000 as a caseworker.
“A one-kid case may sound easy, although that child may be extremely medically complex or have behavioral health problems or actively suicidal, and they will spend an enormous amount of time on a one-kid case as compared to maybe a family of six that are in a relative’s home,” Kovol said.
When asked if a caseworker having more than 100 children poses a “risk of substantial harm,” Kovol replied it depends on the situation. “Would I like to see caseloads lower than that? Sure. I think everyone would. But it, the cases are — you know I don’t like to use the words ‘it depends,’ but it does depend on the situation.”
Kovol also pointed to ongoing challenges with recruiting and hiring OCS caseworkers. “We need more workers,” she said.
Attorneys with the Department of Law and the plaintiffs were not immediately available to comment on Thursday.
“Defendents will try to argue that there are factors outside their control that affects the child welfare system,” Tebor said on Monday. “But that is not an excuse for failing children and failing to ensure their substantive due process rights and their statutory rights.”
NOTN- Gov. Mike Dunleavy has appointed Stephen J. Cox as Alaska’s next attorney general. The appointment takes effect on Friday, pending legislative confirmation in 2026.
Cox, 48, is a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas and senior Justice Department official under the Trump administration. He most recently served as senior vice president and chief legal and strategy officer at Bristol Bay Industrial, an investment arm of the Bristol Bay Native Corporation.
Cox has worked in both federal service and Alaska’s private sector.
In Alaska, the attorney general serves as chief prosecutor, legal counsel to the governor, and represents the state in civil and criminal matters.
Cox and his wife, Cristina, live in Anchorage with their three children.
““I am honored that Governor Dunleavy has invited me to be a part of the Alaska story,” Cox said. “And I am grateful to the Governor and the people of Alaska for the opportunity to serve. Since 2011, I have been privileged to work on Alaska’s development, and my family and I were blessed with the opportunity to move to Anchorage and make Alaska our home.”
Screenshot of Wednesday’s press meeting in Anchorage
NOTN- Governor Mike Dunleavy hosted a press event yesterday with members of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources to ‘highlight Alaska’s resource development opportunities’, the 45-person committee deals with a variety of issues pertaining to public lands in the United States.
Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, Congressman Nick Begich , and several other members are in the state reviewing current and future projects.
According to the Alaska Beacon, lawmakers visited Hecla Greens Creek Mine, which produces silver, gold, zinc and lead from a site west of Juneau. They overflew parts of the Tongass National Forest, the nation’s largest, and observed Suicide Basin in the Mendenhall Glacier.
The group joined the Governor at his Anchorage office to share their findings and discuss Alaska’s resource potential.
“you know, Alaska is a giant in the resource space.” Said Representative Begich at the meeting, “You know how you bind a giant? one little thread at a time. That’s what we’ve dealt with from the federal government, from not just my perspective, from the perspective of industry that has worked so hard for so many years to develop the resources of Alaska responsibly.”
Following the press conference, Dunleavy signed the nation’s first state-level FAST-41 memorandum of understanding with Emily Domenech, Executive Director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council.
They say agreement will streamline project reviews, enhance coordination between state and federal regulators, and increase transparency through the Federal Permitting Dashboard.
Dunleavy called the agreement a step toward “unlocking Alaska’s full potential,” saying it will help cut federal delays on resource and energy projects.
Permitting Council Executive Director Emily Domenech added that Alaska is the first state to formally partner with the council, giving projects like energy, mining, transportation, and broadband a path to streamlined approval.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources will serve as the lead agency working with the council.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture also announced yesterday it will move forward with plans to rescind the Clinton-era “Roadless Rule,” which has restricted logging and development on millions of acres of national forest land for more than two decades.
The agency will open a public comment period on Friday through Sept. 19 before finalizing the repeal.
The rule, enacted in 2001, currently protects about 45 million acres of federal forestland, with Alaska’s Tongass National Forest among the most affected areas.
Sun shines through the canopy in the Tongass National Forest. (Photo by Brian Logan/U.S. Forest Service)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, parent agency of the U.S. Forest Service, announced Wednesday that it is moving ahead with plans to rescind a rule that has restricted logging and construction on millions of acres of federal lands in the American West for more than two decades.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a written statement that the agency intends to open public comments Friday on its proposal to end the so-called “Roadless Rule,” an act that will affect as much as 45 million acres of federal land as well as millions of Americans who live near it.
Opening a public comment period is the first step in repealing the rule. According to Rollins’ statement, members of the public will have until Sept. 19 to offer their opinions on the repeal, a timeframe that opponents of the plan denounced as inadequate.
Roads are a key prerequisite for large-scale logging and mining projects, and the rule — enacted in 2001 at the end of the Clinton administration — has limited the number of development projects on Forest Service land.
In Wednesday’s announcement, Rollins said rescinding the roadless rule would allow local land managers to make decisions on development and logging.
“It is vital that we properly manage our federal lands to create healthy, resilient, and productive forests for generations to come. We look forward to hearing directly from the people and communities we serve as we work together to implement productive and commonsense policy for forest land management,” she said.
Tree thinning could also reduce wildfire risks, she suggested.
Environmental groups, already prepared for Rollins’ announcement, were quick to denounce it as harmful and out of touch.
“America’s national forests give us clean air, water, wildlife, and the freedom for all to enjoy the outdoors,” said Tracy Stone-Manning, president of The Wilderness Society, in a prepared statement, “but now they are the latest target in this administration’s unpopular push to give away our lands to drill, mine, and log. Gutting the Roadless Rule — which has protected our forests for 25 years — would be the single largest rollback of conservation protections in our nation’s history.”
The Roadless Rule has been the subject of lawsuits for decades, and forests in Colorado and Idaho have already been exempted from it under state-specific guidelines.
Ninety-six percent of the Forest Service’s inventoried roadless areas are located in 12 western states, and no state is more affected than Alaska, which has almost a third of the 45 million acres affected by the pending change.
Alaska is home to the Tongass National Forest, a West Virginia-sized stretch of islands and waterways in the Southeast Alaska panhandle that make up the largest surviving temperate rainforest in the world.
Until the 1980s, the area was also home to a vast logging program and pulp wood mills that employed thousands of people.
“Across Southeast Alaska, we see the irreparable damage from so many decades of unsustainable clear-cut logging in the scarred landscapes and decimated fish and wildlife habitats — we cannot and will not go back to that, and we know that’s what public comment will show once again,” said Maggie Rabb, executive director of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, in a statement released Wednesday.
Some Alaska Native tribes in the region support keeping the rule in place, as do some tourism businesses.
“Rescinding the Roadless Rule will devastate our community just as we are beginning to heal from clear-cut logging of the past. It’s clear the people making these decisions in Washington, D.C., don’t care about how it will harm those of us who live here and have lived here for thousands of years,” said President Joel Jackson of the Organized Village of Kake, which has repeatedly intervened in lawsuits seeking to defend the rule.
“We are the people of the forest and salmon people — our lives and our voices should count — this process makes it clear they won’t,” Jackson said.
Repealing the Roadless Rule also has powerful support in the region. Local electric utilities have advocated a repeal in order to ease the construction of clean hydroelectric power plants. The Alaska Forest Association, representing the logging industry, supports it, as do mining proponents.
Ten members of the U.S. House’s Committee on Natural Resources were in Anchorage on Wednesday as part of a weeklong tour of the state.
U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, said he believes the Roadless Rule “has really handicapped us in a number of areas,” including in firefighting.
Gosar said he believes the federal government needs to take a new approach on federal land in order to thin trees and reduce wildfire risks.
In Utah, which has 4 million acres of inventoried roadless land, Republican U.S. Rep. Celeste Maloy said she frequently hears from constituents upset about restrictions on the public use of federal land and supports the repeal.
“One of the complaints my constituents have frequently is that the federal government manages a lot of our resources but isn’t always great at listening to the people who live among the resources. … This Roadless Rule decision is a direct result of complaints from people who live with the Roadless Rule and the unintended consequences it’s having on economies and on resources,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle is a Democrat from Oregon also traveling with the committee. Her state has almost 2 million acres of inventoried roadless area, much of it in her district, but she said she would like to see a more balanced approach than the one being offered by the Trump administration.
“We have to protect our federal lands. We have to make sure that the public has access to our public land, and we have to make sure that we aren’t just wholesale taking out the protections that we worked really, really hard for, because we owe it to the people of this country to protect those lands that truly are theirs,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-California, is the top Democratic member of the resources committee, and wasn’t on the trip to Alaska.
In an emailed statement, he said Rollins “is steamrolling ahead with Trump’s plan to deliver America’s last wild forests to corporate polluters.”
“Democrats will fight this reckless scheme and stand with Tribes, hunters, anglers, and families who rely on these forests — not corporations looking to cash in,” he said.
Members of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resoures talk with reporters at Juneau International Airport on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Ten members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources are making an unusual visit to Alaska this week during a break from business on Capitol Hill.
The 45-person committee deals with a variety of issues pertaining to public lands in the United States, and the visit is giving eight Republicans and two Democrats a chance to put their literal hands on the topics they cover.
On Monday, the lawmakers visited Hecla Greens Creek Mine, which produces silver, gold, zinc and lead from a site west of Juneau. They overflew parts of the Tongass National Forest, the nation’s largest, and observed Suicide Basin in the Mendenhall Glacier, the origin point for glacial floods that have inundated parts of Alaska’s capital city in recent summers.
Outside the hangars of Ward Air in Juneau, several House representatives talked with reporters.
“Obviously, Alaska is a big natural resources state, so we’re here seeing things on the ground, so that when we’re talking about (them) in Washington, DC, it’s not just an academic exercise for us,” said Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah and a member of the committee.
Among the group was the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Arkansas, as well as the home-state Republican Rep. Nick Begich.
U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Arkansas, speaks with reporters at Juneau International Airport on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. At left is Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Begich called the visit “historic for Alaska,” citing the number of visiting Representatives.
Also attending were Reps. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming; Tom Tiffany, R-Wisconsin; Pete Stauber, R-Minnesota; Rob Wittman, R-Virginia; Val Hoyle, D-Oregon; Paul Gosar, R-Arizona; and Sarah Elfreth, D-Maryland.
“It is imperative that we visit these places, so that we have a better understanding when they come before us and ask for relief, whether it is in permitting reform or in ways to better manage the resources that we have,” Hageman said.
The legislators are expected to spend several days in southcentral Alaska, where they will address the annual meeting of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association in Anchorage on Wednesday.
Members are planning to meet with Gov. Mike Dunleavy and expecting to hold a news conference with reporters in Anchorage as well.
Members of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources pose for a photo in Hecla Greens Creek Mine near Juneau, Alaska, on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. At far left is Juneau Mayor Beth Weldon. (Natural Resources Commitee photo)
For many of the national lawmakers, fresh from a mine tour, minerals were on their minds. President Donald Trump and his administration have been talking at length about the need to increase American production of so-called “critical minerals” used in electronics and high-tech equipment.
Stauber, of Minnesota, said he saw Alaska’s potential to contribute to that effort.
“Alaska can drive that. They can lead the nation into both oil and gas and mineral exploration, if we’d allow them to do that. What we saw at that mine was spectacular,” he said, referring to the Greens Creek mine.
Westerman said he believes additional mining and refining are needed in the United States and Alaska.
“With the big demand on critical minerals and rare earth (minerals) that we have in the country right now, the dependence we have on China for that, I think it’s imperative that Congress work with everyone who’s in the business to help figure out how to get more mining done here in the US — and not just mining, but also the refining of the metals, which is a huge issue,” he said.
Neither of the two Democrats on the trip spoke publicly during their stop in Juneau.
Several of the Republican lawmakers said they believe there is room to increase logging in the Tongass in order to meet the demand for lumber to build housing, particularly locally.
“You ought to at least be able to cut enough timber to sustain your needs here at home, and that will make the forest healthier,” Westerman said.
Speaking nationally, Gosar of Arizona said he believes that selectively thinning national forests could reduce wildfire danger as well.
“You can’t let a lightning fire start where the undergrowth hasn’t been taken care of,” he said. “That’s how we lost the 19 firefighters in Yarnell. … I think there needs to be common sense in that aspect. Get people out on the timber, get the timber, use it for something like building homes. This place needs a lot of homes.”
Students begin their first day of school at the Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy program at Harborview Elementary School in Juneau on Aug. 15, 2025 (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
The Alaska Legislature opened an 18-month study of the state’s troubled public education system on Tuesday as lawmakers convened the first meeting of their Task Force on Education Funding, established by law this spring.
Alaska’s public schools rank among the worst in the country according to national standardized testing data, and members of the bipartisan, bicameral task force have been charged with identifying ways to improve performance by changing the way schools are funded and manage their students.
Legislative leaders have said the task force will also have the opportunity to examine funding for schools and ways to address rising costs of transportation, utilities, insurance and maintenance.
Members of the task force will hold a series of hearings and discussions before drafting recommendations for new laws that legislators might implement. Those recommendations must be delivered before lawmakers arrive at the Alaska Capitol in January 2027.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy called legislators into a special session to address education issues, but lawmakers have ignored that call and are not planning to hold formal meetings before the special session ends at the end of the month. Legislative leaders have said they prefer to work through the task force instead.
Dunleavy is term-limited and will be out of office by the time the task force’s recommendations are complete.
“The current state of Alaska’s education is not where we’d like it to be, but I know that we can get to a better place if we all work together, we find common ground, and we build upon what we agree upon,” said Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage and co-chair of the task force.
But on Monday, it appeared that finding that common ground could be difficult, as task force participants identified different areas they prefer to focus upon.
“John Muir said that when we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. The same is true in education,” said Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, I-Sitka. If we take steps to improve teacher quality, that has an impact on the classroom. If we take steps to make sure kids are fed, that has an impact. If we take steps to make sure that we have the right ratios of teachers with students. All of these things have impacts.”
Rep. Justin Ruffridge, R-Soldotna, said he would like the task force to consider how it measures results. What standardized tests, if any, should be used to consider performance?
“I think accountability broadly is a place that I hope to go, and I hope that the (Alaska Department of Education and Early Development) can have some input on that,” he said.
Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau, suggested that the task force should be “looking at how we empower local government” to deal with education decisions, while Sen. Mike Cronk, R-Tok, said he wants to make sure the task force is “focusing on policies like the READS Act,” which was a bipartisan bill intended to improve reading performance among younger students.
“We are seeing success in that, and those are the kind of policies we need,” he said.
This year, lawmakers voted to increase the base student allocation, core of the state’s per-pupil funding formula, but Ruffridge suggested that lawmakers need to examine other aspects of the formula to see whether they are delivering the intended results.
Alaska, for example, multiplies the base student allocation for students with “intensive needs” and those in rural Alaska.
“It’s a scary proposition to open up the foundation formula, but I think it’s something that we are really tasked with doing in this group,” he said, adding that the state has failed to properly maintain school facilities, particularly in rural Alaska.
Cronk, in prior comments, said he also is concerned about school maintenance. In most of Alaska, proper maintenance depends on funding from the state government.
“If we want to continue to have (stable) education funding, us as a collective group need to create a fiscal plan for this state,” he said.
“I’m hoping that if we’re talking about funding, that should be our goal as part of this, to make sure that we can come up with something so we do have a level funding for all the government services,” Cronk said.
NOTN- A community panel will gather today at Centennial Hall to discuss sweeping federal health care changes that could significantly affect Alaskans’ access to coverage.
The event, hosted by AK Advocates, will run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and will focus on the impact of recent federal legislation on Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace.
Medicaid is a state and federal partnership that provides health care to people who do not have the income to purchase their own health insurance.
Panelists said Alaska faces unique challenges because of its high costs and limited workforce. The new federal law requires Medicaid eligibility checks every six months instead of annually, adds work requirements for recipients, and lets temporary premium tax credits for Marketplace plans expire at the end of 2025.
“We are a very expensive state to provide healthcare in, said Kim Champney, executive director of the Alaska Association on Developmental Disabilities, “you have to travel to see specialists, workforce is very limited, so our state has really struggled, I think, to keep up with the cost of Medicaid.”
In Alaska, where the Division of Public Assistance is still struggling with post-pandemic backlogs in food stamp and Medicaid processing, officials warn the added workload could further strain the system.
“These policy changes are going to result in fewer people having health insurance,” said Teri Tibbett, the panel’s coordinator and moderator, “So what are we as a community, what are we going to do when we have so many people that are going to be uninsured, the people who are going to not have Medicaid anymore, the people that are not going to have health insurance through the Marketplace? What are we going to do as a community to help those folks get their health care?”
Anton Rieselbach, a program associate with the Juneau Economic Development Council, warned that ending the expanded tax credits could cause Marketplace premiums to expand. “The big takeaway here is that a lot of individuals are going to see their monthly premium costs balloon significantly, especially those individuals who fall in their income level above 400% of the federal poverty line, essentially, in 2021 the eligibility for premium tax credits was expanded to higher income earners, and that is going away. So a lot of individuals are going to be seeing their premiums balloon by over $1,000 per month, potentially, which is going to have devastating effects on the health care.”
Panelists said they hope the discussion will help Alaskans understand the changes, prepare for rising costs, and organize advocacy efforts. “The bill has passed, we can’t stop that,” Champney said. “Now we can really influence implementation. And so I think talking through that as a community, how do we partner and collaborate and advocate so that we make sure people get what they need.”
