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In Donlin lawsuit, Murkowski, Sullivan and Peltola come to mining project’s defense
Alaska’s three-member, bipartisan congressional delegation is siding with boosters of the major proposed Donlin mine in an ongoing lawsuit filed by tribal governments that seeks to invalidate the Southwest Alaska project’s federal environmental approvals. Republican U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, in documents filed in federal court late […]
Alaska Senate proposes $7.5 million aid package for struggling fish processors
The Alaska Senate has proposed a new aid package for the state’s fish processing companies — some of which have been teetering among a crash in prices that’s caused an industry-wide crisis. The Senate, in its capital budget passed last week, included the $7.5 million grant to a nonprofit organization called SeaShare. Most of the […]
Western Alaska tribes, outraged by bycatch, turn up the heat on fishery managers and trawlers
It’s been three years since a crash in king salmon populations forced an outright ban on fishing for them in the Yukon River. And barring an unexpected recovery, residents along the river won’t be allowed to fish for them again for at least seven more years, under a new international management scheme recently signed by […]
Troubled state-backed seafood company says it will lease out two plants, and could sell its assets
A troubled, state-backed seafood processing company, Peter Pan Seafoods, has announced that it’s pursuing a deal to sell its plants to another business. But the news still leaves a key asset, the massive plant in the Alaska Peninsula village of King Cove, in limbo for the summer salmon season. Peter Pan also announced late Thursday […]
Alaska fishermen and processing plants are in limbo as a state-backed seafood company teeters
The fishing fleet in the Southwest Alaska town of King Cove would have been harvesting Pacific cod this winter. But they couldn’t: Skippers had nowhere to sell their catch. The enormous plant that usually buys and processes their fish never opened for the winter season. The company that runs the plant, Peter Pan Seafoods, is […]
Federal judge sides with Biden administration, rejects Alaska bids to expand Kuskokwim fishing
The Biden administration has won a closely watched lawsuit against the state of Alaska that validates the federal government’s authority to limit fishing for the dwindling populations of salmon on Southwest Alaska’s Kuskokwim River. In a 29-page decision Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason settled a three-year dispute that began in 2021, when the […]
Nominee to Bering Sea fisheries council would tip balance toward tribes, away from trawlers
Tribal and environmental advocates calling for a crackdown on salmon and halibut bycatch are set to gain a new ally on the federal council that manages Alaska’s lucrative Bering Sea fisheries. Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee last week nominated Becca Robbins Gisclair, an attorney and conservation advocate, to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. If […]
An Alaska Olympian went to D.C. to testify on climate change. Then a senator dredged up old tweets.
Gus Schumacher, the Anchorage Olympic cross-country skier, arrived at his first-ever congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., knowing he could be a target. The Senate Budget Committee’s chairman, Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, invited Schumacher to testify last week in one of a series of more than a dozen hearings about the harm climate change is […]
Alaska utility regulators work shorthanded as policymakers consider tighter qualifications
The agency that regulates Alaska’s utilities is operating shorthanded, with the retirement of one of its five commissioners and one-third of its staff positions unfilled. Jan Wilson, the sole attorney out of the five members of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, or RCA, left the job when her six-year term expired March 1. Republican Gov. […]
Alaska development authority signs contracts with ex-Dunleavy aides, paying up to $295/hour
Alaska’s state-owned economic development agency has retained four consultants aimed at boosting its standing in the rural regions where it’s proposed controversial projects — and the hires include two Alaska Native political figures who previously worked in Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office. Rex Rock Jr., who left the governor’s office in 2022, and John Moller, […]
New salmon study adds to evidence that pink salmon could be crowding out sockeye
A new analysis of nearly 25,000 fish scales offers more evidence that the millions of pink salmon churned out by Alaska fish hatcheries could be harming wild sockeye salmon populations when they meet in the ocean, according to the scientists who authored the study. The new peer-reviewed paper, published this week in the ICES Journal […]
Grant could steeply reduce costs of home heating and power generation for Northwest Alaska
A roughly $50 million grant from the Biden administration will pay for the installation of new heating technology in every village home in Northwest Alaska, as well as 10 new solar farms and battery storage projects. The U.S. Department of Energy grant will help pay for some 850 heat pumps in 10 villages in Alaska’s […]