109 story dispatches filed under this topic.
Experts say that the request, if granted, could force restrictions not just on salmon fishermen but also on activity that affects river habitat, like road and residential construction.
As the world pivots toward lower-carbon energy sources in response to global warming, experts say some of the state’s hard-to-tap oil prospects are becoming less attractive.
A mammoth investigation.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s new study is a reflection of the growing interest in injecting and storing climate-warming carbon pollution in underground reservoirs in Alaska.
Removing all the offshore oil infrastructure from Cook Inlet could cost $1 billion. But some platforms have sat idle for decades, as inspectors say they're in an "advanced state of disrepair."
Introducing the Northern Journal podcast.
The director of Anchorage's city-owned cargo port says maintaining the boat launch is a money-losing operation that his agency won't continue. No one else has stepped up to take over.
Alaska's congressional delegation, in documents filed in federal court late Tuesday, called the proposed Donlin mine one of the state's “most important and necessary economic development projects.”
The program, if approved, would target smaller companies than those that won a share of more than $100 million in salmon and pollock purchases by the federal government earlier this year.
The years-long debate is taking on increasing urgency, as subsistence harvesting bans continue and the policy responses under consideration threaten to impose steep costs on industry.
Peter Pan Seafoods said Thursday that another processing company would lease and operate two of its Alaska plants for the summer salmon season. But another facility, in King Cove, is still in limbo.
“We are all sort of on pins and needles,” said a local official in King Cove, where fishermen and elected leaders are waiting to learn the fate of Peter Pan Seafoods' shuttered plant.
A federal judge has settled a dispute that began in 2021, when the Dunleavy administration tried to expand salmon fishing opportunities beyond those offered by the federal government.
Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee has advanced Becca Robbins Gisclair, an attorney and conservation advocate, for a seat currently held by Anne Vanderhoeven, who works in the trawling industry.
Louisiana Republican U.S. Sen. John Kennedy subjected Anchorage cross-country skier Gus Schumacher to a pop quiz about climate science in an exchange that went viral in conservative circles.
Alaska’s five-member public utility commission has a vacancy with no announced timeline for filling it. Meanwhile, some policymakers and advocates want to tighten commissioner qualifications.
Rex Rock and John Moller, both of whom used to advise Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy on rural affairs, were hired through a competitive procurement process along with two others.
The plan could close fishing for 7 more years and open the door for hatcheries. In villages along the river, Tribal leaders say the state has cut them out of the process, and want federal oversight.
Big energy news for the Northwest Arctic Borough, while a new study adds to the pile of evidence suggesting that booming, hatchery-boosted pink salmon populations could be harming wild sockeye.
Climate change poses an existential threat to cross-country skiing. But it's hard to talk about for some top athletes, who fear being accused of hypocrisy because of their travel-intensive lifestyles.
Sutton Republican Rep. George Rauscher says he wants to encourage innovation without leaving fossil fuels behind. But one critic is blasting his new bill as a “jumbled mess.”
Anchorage cross-country talent Gus Schumacher won an international cross-country ski race Sunday, something no other American man has accomplished in more than 40 years.
Renewable Energy Alaska Project wants state regulators to step in and force Chugach Electric Association to hand over detailed data on customers' energy consumption.
Here's how piles of coal in Vancouver harbor connect back to a multinational mining company with operations in Alaska.
I interviewed the president of Enstar, which runs urban Alaska's gas utility, about problems with a storage facility and how they connect to long-term energy challenges facing the region.
GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy is asking legislators to spend another $4.5 million on marketing and development of the huge LNG project. But lawmakers sound increasingly skeptical.
Republican state Sen. Jesse Bjorkman says a bill in his committee that sets green power targets for electric utilities is "going nowhere." But lobbyists are lining up to push it forward.
“It's one of the most difficult days of my life,” said Rodger May, one of the company’s owners and a longtime player in Alaska’s seafood industry.
The chinook are threatened by climate change and competition from hatchery-raised fish, and existing state and federal management are failing to stem their decline, says the Wild Fish Conservancy.
The tribal and city councils in Nuiqsut withdrew their support for a joint letter they sent last year blasting the “endless expansion of oil development and the complete encirclement of our village."
It's one of multiple cases in which the Dunleavy administration is clashing with the federal government over fish and game management, and over who has the ultimate regulatory power in that realm.
Plus: Tribal governments near a major proposed graphite mine on the Seward Peninsula criticize the Biden administration for failing to consult them before granting $37.5 million to the project.
With state and federal money, University of Alaska researchers plan to explore the viability of a new coal plant in the Susitna River valley that would inject its carbon emissions underground.
Lawmakers unanimously approved adding heavily scrutinized state corporations, like AIDEA, to a database of public spending. But two months after a legal deadline, the new system hasn't launched.
Other highlights: money for tree planting and thinning, a new state vessel and plane, and a major budget boost for the state grant program funded by oil production in the National Petroleum Reserve.
Buried in GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy's new budget plan are items to escalate the state's subsistence fight with the feds, enhance drone use for law enforcement and pay for a growing number of autopsies.
Plus, Alaska's state-owned economic development agency could invest in a new North Slope infrastructure project.
The federal government says it's considering submitting a friend-of-the-court brief in a lawsuit over fishing rights between the state and the Southeast Alaska tribal government of Metlakatla.
A tale of how I skied faster than Kikkan Randall for exactly five minutes and 39 seconds until I got tired and she hit more rifle targets than I did.
Leaders of Alaska's biggest gas and electric utilities say they don't want to risk customer money to invest in uncertain drilling efforts, when imported LNG appears reliable and competitively priced.
Kinross Gold, whose Fairbanks-area mine employs 700 people, says its Alaska investments have "extremely high" energy costs and carbon emissions compared to other projects in its portfolio.
The military had planned to give a contract for a "micro-reactor" to Silicon Valley firm Oklo — whose chairman, Sam Altman, also led the company behind the ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot.
The spike comes after an 18% increase the previous year, which means prices have risen more than one-third in two years. Experts say inflation and booming post-pandemic demand for care are the cause.
An interview with Meda DeWitt, a former chair of the Recall Dunleavy campaign who now leads the board of directors of Yak-Tat Kwaan, the village corporation in the Southeast Alaska community.
Anthony Mallott, who's led the Southeast Alaska regional Native corporation for nearly a decade, is leaving his job, along with another executive, Jaeleen Kookesh.
Also: A state utility regulator wanted to block the Permanent Fund's board chair and a renewable energy advocacy group from weighing in on an Anchorage utility's proposed rate hike.
A thank-you for Northern Journal's first year in business, and a request as it heads into year two.
Also: The pilot in the Halibut Cove float plane-boat faceoff makes her case to a federal judge, and a high-profile hire in the Alaska Senate.
The state will likely have to spend real money to get companies to drill more wells in Cook Inlet. But how much should Alaska invest in petroleum when cheap wind and solar are on the horizon?
A federal agency says it's considering a rewrite to guidelines that shape management plans for Bering Sea and other fisheries. But it has not yet committed to taking action.
Plus: an array of stakeholders weigh in on Anchorage's electric utility's proposal to raise rates, AIDEA pays $500,000 for road data and Dunleavy gets a new press aide.
Graphite is crucial for electrical vehicles, but China controls the global supply. A mine on the Seward Peninsula could help change that — but it's perched above an essential Iñupiaq subsistence area.
Enstar wants to take over the project last estimated to cost $10 billion. But its own chief executive acknowledges that the pipeline isn't viable without multi-billion-dollar subsidies from the state.
Plus, read my attorneys' warning letter to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, which has refused to fully process a basic public records request for more than two months.
A sharp increase in oil tankers carrying Russian oil to China prompts new warnings of risks to Alaska villages and the fish, seals and whales they harvest.
Mike Dunleavy has appointed ally Mike Porcaro, a longtime GOP advertising consultant and talk radio host, to a highly paid job as a commissioner at the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission.
A new report says Anchorage's electric utility can put off the need for LNG imports by five years through renewable power projects and energy conservation.
An update on the fate of The Walrus, coyotes attack Alaska soldiers in Louisiana and Gov. Mike Dunleavy visits a mining prospect in the Alaska Range, which could connect to the West Su Access road.
A federal court judge rejected a lawsuit from the state of Alaska and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority that challenged a suspension of oil leases in the Arctic Refuge.
How did a walrus get four miles from shore, to the middle of an Alaska oil field? I hunted for answers — and found them.
Plus: More details about the removal of a university researcher from a state electricity task force, which came after she "disappointed" the head of the Alaska Energy Authority.
Alex Ortiz, a longtime staffer to the Alaska delegation, has taken a job as a lobbyist and consultant at Capitol Hill Consulting Group, whose clients include Native corporations and a mining company.
Bristol Bay fishermen are calling for strikes, lawsuits and “the goddamn picket signs and pitchforks” in response to low salmon prices. But an industry expert says processors have been "screwed," too.
Israel Mahay, who owns a Susitna river jet boat business, had chaired the Recreation Rivers Advisory board. Mike Overcast, who owns a heliskiing lodge in the Susitna watershed, was set to replace him.
Alaska Renewables is proposing a major new wind development near the village of Tyonek, the Legislature's ethics committee loses its administrator and Murkowski gets a new communications director.
The Anchorage Health Department has withheld five months of payment from contractor Securitas, which operates a van service that picks up intoxicated people at a lower cost than emergency responders.
The Southeast Alaska troll chinook fishery will open as scheduled July 1, after a federal appeals panel reversed a lower court ruling that would have kept the $85 million industry off the water.
A federal appeals panel issued a last-second ruling Wednesday that will allow this summer’s Southeast Alaska troll chinook salmon fishery to open as scheduled July 1.
GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy removed Gwen Holdmann, of the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, from her vice chair position on the task force he's established to reduce the state's high electricity prices.
This week, we show how Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy's administration has turned to investor Ellie Rubenstein for advice, and pry loose some details about the death of an employee of a Hilcorp contractor.
The Washington-based Wild Fish Conservancy plans to ask the federal government to list Southeast Alaska, Southwest Alaska and Cook Inlet king salmon under the Endangered Species Act.
An investigation I did for Alaska Public Media, with our partners at American Public Media, found that GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy's new "pro-family" policy advisor had aired shocking views on his podcast.
Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said the state would appeal the denial immediately. But the clock is ticking before the scheduled July 1 start to the king salmon fishery.
The mining company leading the Ambler mine project has shelved a planned summer drilling program amid delays to a related road proposal. Plus a property tax dispute over the Point Thomson oil field.
Friday's election of Susanne Fleek-Green and Jim Nordlund, who ran on “clean energy,” marked a significant shift. But the results weren't a wholesale rejection of Chugach Electric's incumbent board.
Alaska's governor and Kim Kardashian in the same place? A new tourism lodge in housing-starved Girdwood? Read on for more.
The two sides agree on the need to wean Alaska’s power grid from its deep dependence on natural gas. But they disagree sharply about how quickly the transition should happen, and potential costs.
The inaugural edition of Interesting Stuff has items on the Southeast Alaska troll lawsuit, the timber controversy in Yakutat, a new pro-family advisor for the governor and a renewable energy project.
The system says Herb Schroeder, who leads the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, is on non-disciplinary administrative leave, along with one of his deputies.
A federal judge issued an order Tuesday voiding an environmental review that helped authorize the small-scale fishery, a $30 million industry that employs hundreds of people in Southeast Alaska.
Nine candidates are vying for three seats on Chugach Electric Association's board of directors. Here are their positions on renewable power, transparency and liquefied natural gas imports.
Karsten Rodvik sued Alaska's economic development agency in September for more than $1 million, claiming his termination was illegal and discriminatory. The case was quietly dismissed months later.
Leaders of Yakutat's village corporation say they didn't pledge land as collateral for loans they took out to start a logging business. But some fear tribal land could be sold to satisfy the debt.
First Nations groups in the Yukon Territory and Alaska GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy's administration are advancing discussions about whether hatcheries could help stem a steep crash in salmon populations.
With Alaska legislators poised to accept a $34,000-a-year raise, there's no longer a justification for paying themselves $9,000 a month for living expenses in Juneau.
Criticism of Dunleavy's nomination to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council is a sign of the growing polarization and high stakes in Alaska fish politics amid historic crashes in salmon stocks.
The lawsuit aims to defend endangered killer whales. But the science is complex, and Southeast Alaska fishermen could be put out of work.
Two advocates for reducing Chugach Electric Association's reliance on natural gas, Antony Scott and Harry Crawford, were rejected by a nominating committee. They say they'll run by petition instead.
Catching up on some nuggets from the state budget, news on a contentious mine and road proposal in Northwest Alaska, and links to some of my recent freelance pieces.
Logging is on the decline across Southeast Alaska. But in Yakutat, the local Indigenous-owned corporation is still cutting, over the objections of tribal and cultural leaders. Here's a firsthand look.
A dispatch from America's northernmost community, where hundreds gathered for a traditional Iñupiaq festival of dancing, gift-giving and connection.
Crews from more than 100 boats say they're staying at the docks until processors offer them a higher price. But experts say the fishermen are facing global market forces that are unlikely to budge.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy, in an interview, said he doesn't accept that carbon emissions cause climate change. But he still wants the state to benefit from markets that have arisen to address the problem.
ConocoPhillips has sued Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy's administration to block a state-issued permit that grants a competing company access to its new Pikka project, over Conoco-built roads.
Advocates say that seafood businesses, trade groups and fishermen need to take more action to advocate for lower carbon emissions, or risk continued catastrophic declines in their harvests.
Clean energy advocates are increasingly criticizing Anchorage's electric utility for doing business behind closed doors. I went to a board meeting to see for myself — and was exiled from the room.
I wanted to know, so I asked two climatologists. The answer: It's complicated.
Alaska's economic development agency says it needs the money for next year's permitting, legal support and lease payments — though the Biden administration says the payments aren't due.
Translating a pro-fish platform into policy reality won’t be easy for Peltola, who will serve in the House minority. But experts say Peltola can still find ways to advance her fish first agenda.
Australia-based Santos got a permit from the state to access its new Pikka development by crossing Conoco's roads. After losing an appeal last week, Conoco could now take its case to court.
Key decisions, like schools spending and the size of Alaska's oil-wealth checks, hang in the balance as lawmakers delay decisions until the result of a lawsuit challenging a Republican's eligibility.
The release, originally planned by the end of November, won't happen until the second quarter of next year.
The state agency responsible for advancing the Ambler road and oil development in the Arctic Refuge has seen dozens of employees exit amid escalating attacks from conservation groups.
A new lawsuit pits three of the state's huge regional corporations against three others, in a battle that could jeopardize a four-decade-old pact that's guided distribution of more than $2 billion.
Amid warnings of diminished supplies in the medium-term future, Anchorage's major home heating and electric utilities have hired consultants to examine imports of liquefied natural gas.
And, scroll down for a bit of news from Alaska's economic development arm.
Let's talk about what Alaska's new election system does, not how it works.
A dispatch from Tokyo, and news on the Alaska Peninsula.
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