Alaska Leaders to Congress: Biden Administration Guilty of Eco-Colonialism

November 30, 2023

Alaskans testified yesterday in the U.S. House’s Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, supporting Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN)’s “Alaska’s Right to Produce Act”.  And they didn’t hold back in their support of the legislation, nor their disdain with how the Biden Administration has chosen to attack Alaska’s lands, people and culture.

That bipartisan piece of legislation – with Alaska’s Democratic Rep. Mary Sattler Peltola the main co-sponsor – would reverse many of the Biden Administration’s unprecedented actions against responsible development in the state.

Testifying during the hearing were Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources Commissioner, John Boyle, the Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope’s Secretary, Doreen Leavitt and Charles Lampe, President of the Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation.  Under questioning from Committee members, each spoke about the damages to statewide and regional jobs and opportunities the repeated attacks by the Biden Administation have had.

Lampe, especially, pushed back on the Administration’s actions in the NPR-A and ANWR.  Noting that Kaktovik – the only village located fully within ANWR’s boundaries – is overwhelmingly supportive of drilling and exploration activities, he took the Administration’s eco-activism to task. “The issue and goal of this administration seems to be to erase us from the landscape. We will not succumb to eco-colonialism and become conservation refugees on our own land!”

Leavitt, whose organization works to enhance life across the North Slope, noted that Congress, not the executive branch, is the policy-making branch of government, and that “the federal government is seeking to not only subvert the legal rights of the North Slope Iñupiat, but the oversight of this Committee as well.”

We applaud Congressman Stauber, his co-sponsors and Alaska’s leaders who are supportive of the balance between environmental stewardship and responsible development in Alaska.  We stand with them as they fight for Alaska’s bright future.