The state of Alaska is suing the United States government, but not for the reason many would think. This comes after the Biden administration moved to reinstate protections that had been set on the Tongass National Forest, which the state of Alaska says will be damaging to the state’s economy, as the forest has become a source for logging and coal mining.
The USDA aimed to restore protections on the forest to combat climate change, but the state of Alaska claims that the USDA failed to properly explain why they aimed to restore the protections on the forest.
The protections in question? The restoration of the Roadless Rule, established in 2001 by the United States Forest Service, under the USDA.
“The 2001 Roadless Rule establishes prohibitions on road construction, road reconstruction, and timber harvesting on 58.5 million acres of inventoried roadless areas on National Forest System lands,” the USDA explained, via the Forest Service’s website, fs.usda.gov.
The state of Alaska also says that the USDA’s decision is a violation of the 1958 Alaska Statehood Act, which allotted more federal land to Alaska to allow the state to become economically self-sufficient.
Ironically, the Biden administration’s use of concern for the environment did not seem to affect the decision to approve Project Willow in March of 2023, which is an oil drilling project situated on the plain of the North Slope of Alaska. This area belongs to the native people in Alaska, although it’s a part of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, resulting in both protest and support from the natives Alaskans.
“I think Biden is expecting too much from one place,” senior Maya Domachowski said. “He already approved the Willow Project which will surely ruin parts of Alaska, then wants to turn other parts into national parks? I just think he’s trying to stretch it too thin.”
However, the Biden administration also moved to cancel leases of land in Alaska allotted for oil and gas production in order to repurpose them into an area dedicated to polar bears and caribou.
