Deb Haaland, the country’s first-ever Native American interior secretary, is bringing two other top land management officials and plans to visit the North Slope, the village of King Cove, the Kenai Peninsula and Fairbanks.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland speaks at the Cherokee Immersion School Friday, Dec. 3, 2021, in Tahlequah, Okla. arrives in Alaska this week for a whirlwind tour of travel and stakeholder meetings, in a state where the federal government manages some 60% of the land.
She will also travel to Seward, and to the hub town of Utqiagvik on Alaska’s North Slope, where the state’s oil industry is concentrated. And she’s planning a visit, if weather allows, to the predominantly Indigenous community of King Cove, where for decades,in their push to build an access road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge on the Alaska Peninsula.
The BLM is responsible for oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where the Biden administrationThe bureau is also reconsidering multiple Trump administration decisions that were aimed at easing access to resource extraction projects, including the proposed road to the Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska and an industry-friendly management plan for the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska.
Haaland’s office has not released a detailed schedule for her visit, and representatives from Murkowski’s, Sullivan’s and Dunleavy’s offices have not confirmed that they will meet with the secretary. But Sullivan, inco-published with the mayor of the North Slope Borough, called on Haaland to make commitments in support of development in the Arctic Refuge and the petroleum reserve, and of the King Cove road.
AFN leaders also hope to underscore the importance of efficient federal permitting, said Julie Kitka, the federation’s president, along with the urgency of fish shortages and deep concerns about food security in Alaska. She said she’ll use the time to underscore the importance her members to get “access” — to oil-bearing lands, to permits, and to investment, among other things. Moriarty said she’s unaware of any plans by Haaland to visit Alaska oil facilities, though she’s heard that she may fly over the petroleum reserve and the Arctic Refuge later in the week.