Administration's plans for Alaska stir interest

[cal04]

http://www.adn.com/politics/story/614627.html
FUTURE: Groups make their pitches on everything from polar bears to subsistence.

Arctic oil and gas exploration, federal subsistence protection and funding for rural development are among the Alaska concerns that could see sudden policy shifts in the new Obama administration.

The public transition leading to President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration next month has focused so far on national security and economic issues. But below the surface, busy lobbying is under way over future environmental agendas and political jobs affecting Alaska. Key appointments are expected this week.

After eight years in exile during near-total Republican control of Alaska policies, local environmentalists were in Washington, D.C., last week hoping to help set the new Democratic administration's agenda.

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A coalition of 29 national environmental groups has drawn up a 391-page set of recommendations that place Alaska issues as a top priority for the new administration. The "Transition to Green" report calls for a comprehensive Arctic conservation and energy plan as one of its three primary interdepartmental goals.

Specifically, the groups want to cancel or postpone offshore oil lease sales scheduled for the Arctic, toughen permitting for leases already sold, and provide permanent protection for the Teshekpuk Lake region in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska. They want the new administration to protect habitat for polar bears and to support extending wilderness protection to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where state officials want to drill for oil.

[tularetom]

1. They're gonna sell it back to Russia?

See ya later Comrade Palinsky.