Governor Bill Walker’s Climate Action Leadership Team has been discussing a robust draft plan to tackle climate change. The draft mentions a number of ways to go about that: from beefing up efforts to monitor ocean acidification to better educating the public on the causes of warming.

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But the state is going to need a way to pay for it all, and the plan addresses that, too: Alaska should consider a carbon tax.

Task force member, Luke Hopkins, lives in a home in Fairbanks built on permafrost. As the climate warms, he says his own foundation is changing.

“I would say that if I put a ball on the floor, one aspect of my house, it would roll a little bit,” Hopkins said.

It’s not a problem Hopkins sees going away. He thinks Alaska needs to update its engineering and design standards to better respond to homes like his on melting permafrost.

The draft climate action plan includes language to do that, but those efforts require more research and that requires money.

“Where’s that going to come from? Hopkins said. “Well, carbon pricing has been used elsewhere in the country and in the world. And so we think we think we ought to look at it.”

At least seven states have proposed carbon pricing legislation. Carbon pricing is basically this broad term for putting a price on CO2 emissions. It includes things like a carbon tax or a cap and trade program.

Alaska’s draft plan recommends the state should think about endorsing a national strategy to put a price on carbon while also taking steps to implement its own carbon tax. The most commonly talked about ways that could work is, as fuel comes out of the ground, oil and gas companies would pay a fee.

And that cash would be used to help fund various energy efficiency projects and more studies to better understand the impacts of climate change — like, how can homeowners like Hopkins stabilize their house as the permafrost thaws?

Hopkins says thinking long term about some form of carbon pricing is a good idea.

“Many of these things have to be looked at in-depth,” Hopkins said. “We’re just putting out what our recommendations would be for the goals that we have.”

Chantal Walsh with the state’s department of natural resources co-chaired a committee with industry representatives. The group has been providing some feedback to the governor’s climate action team.

As for a state or national carbon tax, Walsh says there’s more that needs to happen before they have that discussion.

“It doesn’t make any sense to do individual states by any means,” Walsh said. “And there’s also the question of: does it do any good to be one nation doing this?”

Instead, Walsh thinks scoping out some kind of policy for putting a price on carbon around the world makes the most sense.

In a letter submitted to the climate action team, BP expressed strong reservations about a state carbon pricing program.

Luke Hopkins believes there’s still a lot that could change in the draft plan before it’s submitted to the governor by September.

But something about carbon pricing will likely be in the final version.

“I think it will stick in the plan,” Hopkins said. “I don’t think there’s an overwhelming consensus in the group recently that says we don’t want to put anything about carbon pricing. That’s why it’s in the plan right now.”

The Climate Action Leadership Team will be looking at the draft policy statement on carbon pricing when they go through the plan at their in-person meeting on Thursday in Anchorage.

U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, held a forum Wednesday with the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska in Juneau. The congressman fielded questions from tribe members on issues affecting Alaska Natives.

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Several audience members spoke in support of efforts to expand tribal self-governance. Sealaska Board Member Jackie Pata said inconsistencies in what laws apply to Alaska Natives is a problem.

“We support using the ISDA, the Indian Self Determination Act definition because it doesn’t exclude one group or another, and certainly doesn’t exclude Alaska,” Pata said.

The crowd recognized Young’s previous work to expand Native self-governance and he resolved to continue that effort.

Harriet Brouillette of the Chilkoot Indian Association brought up the issue of transportation funding. Right now, the federal government funds tribes based on road miles. This leaves a funding gap for Southeast Alaska tribal communities that rely on the ferry. Young was supportive of changing that.

Young was also asked about his feelings on the National Rifle Association in the wake of mass shootings across the country. Young is an NRA board member and he said he doesn’t think guns are the problem.

“Is it the parents? Is it the phone? Is it the constant exposure to violence with no repercussions at all? I don’t know. I can’t solve it,” Young said. “To me, the Second Amendment is still the most important amendment of all the amendments.”

Audience members also brought up the issue of drugs in Native communities. Young described how drug addiction has affected his family. He shared an anecdote about his granddaughter, who he said relapsed several times.

“Within two weeks or three weeks she falls back to those that she ran with before. And that just drives me crazy,” Young said. “The dealer is the one I want to eliminate. I can’t do it legally but he’s the one I want to eliminate.”

Young said that personal responsibility as well as support services like halfway houses have a role to play in keeping people clean.

It’s expensive to remove household waste from communities in rural Alaska. One organization did just that for six villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta earlier this month, but it wouldn’t have been possible without help from Donlin Gold, the company developing one of the biggest gold mines in the world right in the heart of the Y-K Delta.

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A program called Green Star removed the village’s household waste for them earlier this month. Green Star is part of the Alaska Forum, a non-profit group that looks to supports environmental efforts across the state, and this particular program tackles landfill issues in rural Alaskan communities.

Green Star also paired up with the Association of Village Council Presidents’ environmental planner Heather Kanuk to help with electrical waste in two of the communities. AVCP hopes to continue the collaboration, said Azara Mohammadi, spokeswoman for the organization.

This is the first time Green Star has helped out in the Y-K Delta. Before then, villages stored household waste in a container and waited for the barges to come in the spring. Anna Michael, Chuathbaluk’s assistant coordinator with the Indian General Assistance Program, says that airlines are usually too expensive.

“We had to store them in a conex and wait for winter or summer breakup for the barges to get here,” Michael said.

But even shipping it out by barge can be pricey. Green Star shipped the waste through barges, but at a reduced rate. And it was supported in large part by Donlin Gold, the company developing one of the biggest gold mines in the world in the heart of this region.

“It wasn’t until Donlin Gold stepped in and said ‘Hey, we like your program with the communities and we would be willing to donate funds to your organization if you can go out and clean out the materials in these communities,'” Huntman said.

Donlin Gold contributed $160,000 last year to make sure this happened, said Kurt Parkan, Donlin’s spokesman.

“This isn’t a way of sending a message,” Parkan said. “We are interested in keeping the Kuskokwim River healthy.”

Green Star shipped the waste for six communities in the Y-K Delta: Upper and Lower Kalskag, Chuathbaluk, Napaimute, Crooked Creek, and Aniak. All six communities served by Green Star are close to the proposed mine site.

Donlin plans to participate in more clean-up efforts for Y-K Delta communities next year, Parkan says, but details of that plan have yet to come together.

The world’s largest collection of Yup’ik artifacts has finally arrived home in Quinhagak on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta coast. After shipping delays in Europe, the Nunalleq artifacts have returned in time for the community’s museum opening next week.

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More than 60,000 artifacts arrived in carefully packaged crates on Tuesday. The items date from the 1670’s during the Bow and Arrow Wars, remembered still today in Yup’ik oral history. They were shipped from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland where they’ve been cleaned and preserved.

Lead archaeologist Rick Knecht, teaches at Aberdeen. Over the past decade, he’s led a team of local and international archaeologists to unearth the ancient items. The Quinhagak Native Village Corporation reached out to Knecht after the artifacts began appearing on the coastal shore in 2009. As masks, carvings, baskets and more have been revealed, the discoveries have ignited a renaissance of craft making in the community. The former elementary school has been converted into a preservation laboratory, as well as a cultural center and museum.

On August 11, Quinhagak will celebrate the museum’s opening, the community’s long history, and its nearly a decade of hard work. And will do so with the complete Nunalleq collection on display.

Prospective tourists have pledged to cancel vacations to Alaska if Senator Lisa Murkowski confirms President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. That is according to a letter sent to visitors bureaus in cities across Southeast Alaska.

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Thirty-seven people hailing from 11 different states across the U.S. have added their names to the letter addressed to visitors bureaus in Skagway, Ketchikan and Juneau.

The short letter reads, “The undersigned pledge to cancel Alaska vacations and refrain from making any plans to visit in the future if Senator Murkowski confirms President Trump’s anti-choice SCOTUS nominee.”

Travel Juneau CEO Liz Perry said she’s seen this kind of thing before.

“This is not uncommon in the industry,” Perry said. “As a matter of fact, the industry refers to this as the weaponization of travel. The threat of a boycott if a political end is not met. Such boycotts can be effective but most of the time they mostly hit the frontline workers, your service operators. The political folks involved, in this case our U.S. senators, are very seldom affected in a major way.”

Perry said she wrote a letter back to its author, Shoshana Hantman from Katonah, New York. Perry encouraged her to write Murkowski directly.

“I wanted to acknowledge her concerns and let her know what generally our position was on the way boycotts can or cannot work, and invited her to take a different tack,” Perry said.

When reached by phone in New York, Hantman declined to comment for the story.

Skagway Tourism Director Cody Jennings asked the Skagway Borough Assembly to consider the letter at its upcoming meeting this week.

Murkowski has not said whether she will confirm Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

Her vote could be critical in deciding the nomination since a single nay vote among Republicans coupled with the unanimous Democratic opposition would sink the nomination.

Perry of Travel Juneau said she sent a copy of the letter to Senator Murkowski’s office in Juneau.

A Fairbanks high school student has identified an earth worm species previously unknown to be in Interior Alaska. West Valley High School senior Megan Booysen conducted a first ever survey for earthworms around Fairbanks last summer, an effort that yielded five sppecies, including one previously undocumented in the Interior.

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”The species that isn’t positively identified as a European one, so it might be native to the United States, to North America,” Booysen said. “Which means that it might be native to Alaska, but we don’t know that for sure.”

Booysen is lead author of an article about the discovery published in a July issue of Biodiversity Data Journal. Booysen, who worked with University of Alaska Museum of the North insect curator Derek Sikes and other scientists on the project, says more research is needed to better understand earth worms in the interior.

”We’d like to expand the study range all over the Interior and get some more data from more varied locations,” Booysen said.

Booysen says if worms are found in remote places, it’s more likely they were not brought to the area by people, and may have existed prior to the Ice Age.

”In the Interior, it wasn’t glaciated, so that’s why one of them might be native,” Booysen said. “Because it may have survived the last Ice Age here.”

Booysen also points to the local worm survey as an important baseline, as the climate warms.

”Because you can compare it and see how the changing climate which earthworms can stay here and spread their range.”

Booysen says the presence of earthworms are important to understand because they change soil ecology and effect the types of plants that grow.

This story has been updated to reflect that Booysen identified an earthworm species previously undocumented in Interior Alaska.

After decades of debate, Alaska is now one step closer to being able to build new roads in the Tongass National Forest.

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Timber industry groups have said new roads are critical for keeping the industry alive. Some small tour operators, on the other hand, want the Tongass to stay intact.

On Thursday, the U.S. Forest Service announced it signed an agreement with the state — officially kicking off that process.

They’ll be looking at the roadless rule — the federal regulation most states have to follow that Alaska has been fighting for years — and how it applies to the Tongass.

Chris French, who works in Forest Service’s Washington, D.C. office, says his visit to Alaska gave him some perspective.

“Everyone had a slightly different opinion and that made us say, ‘this is much broader than just a timber issue.’” French said. “And it’s important that we go through a process where we hear all those voices before we make any decision.”

French says new roads could allow access for cell towers to be built and mineral exploration.

Back in January, the state petitioned the forest service to consider an Alaska exemption to the roadless rule.

The Forest Service wants to finalize the details in less than two years — pending several rounds of public comment and an environmental assessment. First, the governor’s office will have to assemble an advisory committee to help oversee that.

In 2016, the Forest Service released a plan for the Tongass. It included phasing out old growth logging and was created with years of community input.

But French says that could change.

“The reality is yes,” French said. “Depending on what comes out of this. Whatever that rule is. If it changes from the status quo, then we’ll likely have to re-look at that plan.”

This latest announcement comes on the heels of a trip Sen. Lisa Murkowski made to a timber mill last month with a top federal official.

Colorado and Idaho have pushed for similar measures to build new roads on their national lands.

Stories are posted on the APRN news page. You can subscribe to APRN’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook at alaskapublic.org and on Twitter @AKPublicNews

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Alaska Permanent Fund grew by more than $6B in fiscal year

Associated Press

The Alaska Permanent Fund grew by more than $6 billion during the state’s 2018 fiscal year, reaching a total value of nearly $65 billion.

New roads in the Tongass? Forest service signs off on state’s ask

Elizabeth Jenkins, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau

On Thursday, the U.S. Forest Service announced it signed an agreement with the state — officially kicking off that process.

State Climate Action Leadership Team meets in Anchorage

Elizabeth Harball, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage

Governor Bill Walker’s Climate Action Leadership Team met today in Anchorage. The team just released a draft of its climate plan.

Congressman Young addresses Native issues, gun violence at forum

Jacob Steinberg, KTOO – Juneau

“To me, the Second Amendment is still the most important amendment of all the amendments,” Young said.

Group of tourists pledges to cancel trips to Alaska if Murkowski confirms SCOTUS nominee

Henry Leasia, KHNS – Haines

Prospective tourists have pledged to cancel vacations to Alaska if Senator Lisa Murkowski confirms President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. That is according to a letter sent to visitors bureaus in cities across Southeast Alaska.

Earthworm species found by Fairbanks high school student may be native to Interior

Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

A Fairbanks high school student may have discovered a new earthworm species.

ANSEP hosts first program in Y-K Delta

Anna Rose MacArthur. KYUK – Bethel

For the first time, Alaska Native students were able to see the range of possibilities within fisheries and wildlife in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta through a decades old science, technology. engineering and math program.

Largest shipment of Yup’ik artifacts in the world arrives in Quinhagak

Anna Rose MacArthur, KYUK – Bethel

The world’s largest collection of Yup’ik artifacts has finally arrived home in Quinhagak on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta coast.

Six Y-K Delta communities clean up household waste with help from Donlin Gold

Krysti Shallenberger, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Bethel

This is the first time that the Green Star program has helped out in the Y-K Delta. Before then, villages stored household waste in a container and waited for the barges to come in the spring.

When prisoners own the store, everyone profits

Anne Hillman, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Prison commissaries around the country make millions each year, and most of the profits go to private companies. But not at Spring Creek Correctional Center, where the prisoners own and operate the store and use the profits to benefit the communities inside and outside the prison walls.

An Anchorage man has been detained in Eastern Russia after sailing across the Bering Strait in a small, rubber boat.

According to the BBC, 46-year-old John Martin had been traveling down the Yukon River in his one-seater. After reaching the Bering Sea, Martin traveled at least 50 miles across the Bering Strait.

Martin was picked up by Russian border guards on Aug. 1.

A source told Russia’s largest news outlet, TASS, that Martin was brought to the port town of Anadyr for questioning. Martin allegedly did not ask for political asylum, as previously reported.

U.S. diplomats are aware of the situation and, as the BBC reports, are working with Russian officials to resolve the situation.

It’s not even 7 a.m. when Solid Waste Services’ employee Garret Fairclough hoists himself into a massive red garbage truck and starts filling out paperwork. The engine fills the cab with warm air as he pulls out of the Central Transfer Station, makes a pit stop for coffee and starts his route.

Fairclough is following a map he made himself around the city. One man stares at him in confusion, worried that he’s forgotten trash day. But, he hasn’t. Instead, Fairclough’s on the hunt for pink trash cans filled with yard waste and food scraps. He’s one of two drivers picking up for the 280 customers participating in this summer’s Curbside Organics pilot program. Everyone who signed up in time and met the program requirements were invited to join in.

“When we were passing the cans out, we had people coming out asking how to get the pink cans, but they didn’t respond to the mail-out,” Fairclough said. “So there was a lot of people disappointed that they didn’t get in.”

Fairclough dumps the organic material off at American Landscaping at the end of his route. They turn it into finished compost, a nutrient-rich soil amendment that can be added to gardens. Aside from wet grass sticking to the bottom of the cans, a stray piece of Styrofoam and having to figure out a new route, he says things are going smoothly.

Solid Waste Service’s recycling coordinator Suzanna Caldwell said they’ve collected more than 14 tons of organic material since the program started in June.

“Generally, organic material makes up about 25% of most residential solid waste,” Caldwell said. “You can take that, turn it into compost to continue to grow more food versus just sending it to the landfill where it decomposes and just takes up space.”

Caldwell said community garden groups and customers urged them to look into more options for composting. So they collected yard waste in one neighborhood last summer and started a program where people can exchange five-gallon buckets of food scraps for finished compost. This summer’s pilot program expands services further and could lead to curbside composting for their entire service area, which covers nearly a quarter of the city.

“This is just one piece in helping us figure that out for the long-term,” Caldwell said.

Solid Waste Services is footing the bill for the $7000 program using the recycling fund, which adds $1.50 to every ton of material that passes through the landfill. They’ll know more about what a service-area-wide program would cost after the pilot program ends in October. But Caldwell says customers would pay a fee for the service, just like with recycling and trash collection.

Caldwell said giving them the option is important.

“You know, you go down to a lot of other communities in the Lower 48, and you see a lot of organics collection, right? That’s been happening for a really long time,” she said. “We want to make sure that Anchorage is forward-thinking and staying ahead of the curve.”

That’s important to program participant Edith McKee, too. McKee grew up in Anchorage and has been composting on and off since childhood. But she can’t throw food scraps in her backyard pile because of her dogs.

A banana peel, strawberry tops and bits of greens fill a screw-top five-gallon bucket behind her house. McKee dumps it in the pink bin the morning of pick-up, and so far, she said she hasn’t had any issues with bugs, smells or wildlife. If she could change anything, she’d get rid of the biodegradable bag that lines the bucket and expand what’s allowed in. Meat, citrus, weeds and compostable containers didn’t make the cut.

McKee sees the program as a step in the right direction.

“Anything we can remove from landfill and use in the community in another way is a benefit to everybody really,” McKee said.

Solid Waste Services will start analyzing the data from the pilot program when it finishes in the fall and hopes to expand next year. Year-round curbside compost pick-up for all customers could be on the horizon.

Horseback riding and a carving studio: Those are some of the services offered at a new recovery center that opened near Eklutna yesterday.

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A packed house filled Cook Inlet Tribal Council’s new Ernie Turner Center for the ribbon cutting ceremony. The traditional winter homes of the Dena’ina people inspired the design for the open, two-story space, which sits on a six-acre lot. But the services there will be available to both Alaska Natives and other Alaskans.

The facility will offer six-month-long inpatient services for those recovering from addiction. CITC President and CEO Gloria O’Neill said a retreat is exactly what they had in mind when they decided to move residential services from Anchorage two years ago.

“And so it becomes more of an oasis. Not only are people engaged with their recovery, but they also get to connect back to nature and themselves,” O’Neill said.

The old Ernie Turner Center in Anchorage is now owned by Southcentral Foundation and will focus solely on short-term detox services. Both add to larger efforts to combat the opioid epidemic and substance abuse in Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna region. O’Neill said they’ve upped their recovery support services by 40 percent since the governor released a disaster declaration last year. That includes investing in peer support, outpatient treatment and assessment.

“Unfortunately there’s such a need in the community, but how can we do what we do well and ensure that we’re that partner,” O’Neill said.

The new facility uses a model that is rooted in Alaska Native traditions and focuses on community-building and peer support. Eklutna’s village corporation sold CITC the land and was involved in the construction of the facility. Aaron Leggett is the village’s president.

“It’s a huge need for our community, it’s long overdue, and we still need more obviously,” Leggett said. “But when we all come together, it really strengthens us as a people and our community in general.”

Current regulations limit the facility to 16 beds, but Cook Inlet Tribal Council hopes to eventually expand to accommodate long waiting lists. Residents will move in as early as this weekend.

Josh Reuther navigates his small boat out into Quartz Lake en route to the eastern shore to drop off his friend, Wendell Shiffler, at his cabin on land he bought in 1972. That’s when the lake, which has no surface-water inlet or outlet, was about 1,500 acres. Shiffler says he’s seen a lot of changes over the past few decades.

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“And, that’s where I docked the boat, when we first got here,” Reuther said. “So you can see, this has gotten shallow. And the lake has gone down just in the last couple of weeks – the water’s dropped, a little bit.”

Shiffler is a retired high school science teacher who lives in Fairbanks when he’s not at his getaway cabin. He says the shoreline has receded as the lake’s water level has dropped and enlarged his parcel from two-and-a-half to three acres. It also required him to extend his boat dock another 50 feet or so to get into water that’s at least knee-high, deep enough to keep small boats from running aground. And he says some of the other 50 or so people who own cabins around the lake have had to do the same thing.

“When people ask me, property owners, say ‘What are we going to do about the lake going down? What can you do?’ Well, we adapt, that’s right. And so I built another section of dock, out a little bit further.” Shiffler said.

Quartz Lake is shrinking — the water level of the popular lake just north of Delta Junction is dropping. Human adaptation to changes in the lake is what Reuther and his fellow researchers have been studying. Though, they’re looking farther back, at how humans who’ve inhabited the area over the millennia have changed their diet in response to the lake’s periodically changing water level.

“It’s risen and fallen over the past 9,000 years, just continually,” Reuther said.

Reuther’s an assistant Anthropology professor at UAF and curator of Archaeology at the Museum of the North. He and other researchers have for 10 years now been excavating sites around the lake, looking for clues on how humans have found other sources of food because of the water-level changes. He points to one site just offshore in shallow water near an old dock he tied up his boat at on the northern end of the lake, where archeologists have found such artifacts as European trade beads and some stone tools.

“We radiocarbon-dated the thing, so we knew they were (present) within the last 150 years,” Reuther said. “So we’re thinking it’s about 1840 to 1860 is when people were on this shoreline, when it was down.”

Reuther says bits of bones and other evidence show moose were slaughtered at the site. He says that suggests they were killed while grazing on a type of grass that grows in shallow water, preferred by moose and other big game, including the bison and elk that lived here some 5,000 years ago. He says the animals move on as the area dries up and alder and willow overtake the grasses.

“Then these shrubs come in and take over these grasses,” Reuther said. “That’s actually taking over feed for grazers like bison.”

A bit farther up the slope, a team of students looks for more evidence of adaptation. One of their instructors is Fawn Carter, a Museum of the North staff member. She’s working on a dissertation on why early inhabitants apparently turned to fish as a protein source some 15-hundred years ago, when a volcanic eruption blanketed the area in ash.

“Is that related to this sort of climactic change that was associated with this volcanic eruption? Potentially a big caribou die-off in this area or in the Yukon?” Carter said. “Did that make people turn toward fish as a more important resource? Or were people just attracted to it for other reasons?”

During a coffee break in the cabin next to the dig, Reuther says it’s important to study how humans have responded to climate change driven by the forces of nature over a geologic time scale. Because he says it might inform our understanding of changes that occur during a time of accelerated climate change triggered by human activity.

“Whether you have global warming or whatever, the ecology is going to change either way. It’s always in flux,” Reuther said. “And when something changes, we want to know how humans are changing themselves, how they’re responding to that change.”

Reuther hypothesizes that the warming climate is thawing permafrost more deeply in the Shaw Creek Flats, an expanse of wetlands just north of the lake. He says that draws water from the lake toward the Tanana River to the west. And he says warmer temperatures increase evaporation. Others say a decline in the area’s beaver population due to excessive trapping has led to fewer beaver dams being built in the flats, which would slow the movement of water from the lake.

But so far there’s no study on how modern-day humans are adapting to the many changes – besides building a longer dock.

This week we’re hearing from Tom Huddleston in Copper Center. Huddleston owns and operates the Copper Center Lodge, which has been in his family for 70 years since they bought it from the Mt. Edgecumbe school.

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HUDDLESTON: In probably about 2000, my wife and I, as our kids were getting older, we were trying to figure out how they were going to get a work ethic. So we decided  to start looking for a business to buy, so the kids could work in it in their teens. My aunt called me up and asked if I’d be interested in the lodge, and that’s where we went. We bought the lodge in 2002, and my brother Pete, Kimberly, myself and all my kids, we got it up and going and it’s been going ever since.

We don’t have any taxes here, which is really nice. I mean, I don’t know what it’d be like to have taxes because I’ve never had taxes. But I hear plenty about it. And we’re free to add on to our homes or do stuff without having to go the city inspector and all that. We don’t really understand that, but we hear that and I’m glad I don’t have top deal with that.

I think I live in the best place in Alaska because I’m centrally-located. I’m 100 miles from Valdez. I’m like 260 miles from Fairbanks. I’m 180 miles from Anchorage. 150 from Palmer. I’m kinda right in the middle, it works pretty well.

There are a lot of stories about this place. There’s the haunted stories of the ghost. I have not seen the ghost. There’s been lots of strange happenings going. I know people that have seen the ghost. I know people that have heard the ghost. I’ve seen lights come on. I’ve seen doors left open, doors locked. Keys missing, keys reappearing. All kinds of stuff. And we just kinda attribute it to the ghost.

There was a guy that was in here not too long ago, kind of a slick-looking fella, and when he found out that I was the owner, he asked me what my number was. And I didn’t understand what he meant. I told him I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. And he asked what I wanted for it. At that point right there, I realized that this is my grandparents’ lodge. It’s not my lodge. Just out of respect for those people, and what they did to me, who were there for me in my life, I don’t want it to leave my family. I want it to stay right here.

Governor Bill Walker’s Climate Action Leadership Team met Aug. 2 in Anchorage to discuss its draft climate action plan, which recommends Alaska consider a carbon tax — a fee paid by entities that produce or burn fossil fuels, like oil companies, aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

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But the plan is not a consensus document, and not every member of the team agrees that pricing carbon is a good idea.

A recently-released draft of the plan states, “since Alaska is a state where massive amounts of carbon-based fuel are taken out of the ground, a carbon tax would be levied on far more carbon-based fuel than Alaskans actually consume themselves. This is a potential advantage of a carbon tax that Alaska has over other states and nations.”

In an interview, Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott, who is leading the group, didn’t say a carbon tax is definitely a good idea, but he added that Alaska should study all possible ways to deal with climate change.

“If a carbon pricing mechanism allows that to be responsibly done and does not increase the cost of energy to Alaska’s residents, and is done in a fair and equitable way, then that should be looked at,” Mallott said.

A carbon tax is one of many strategies to deal with climate change included in the 45-page draft plan. It includes other ideas that would need funding, like helping communities plan for climate impacts and scientific research.

Chris Rose of the Renewable Energy Alaska Project is one of the team’s biggest advocates for a carbon tax. Rose argued that in addition to helping reduce planet-warming emissions, a carbon tax could help pay for other work the state needs to do to deal with climate change.

“You can call it a fee or a tax, it doesn’t really matter; you’ve got to put some price on it,” Rose said. “And then you can have revenues here in the state of Alaska, either to develop other state programs, and/or make people whole who already have to pay really high energy prices.”

Not everyone at the meeting agreed.

“I think a carbon tax is a horrible idea,” ex-officio team member Lorali Simon with the Usibelli Coal Mine said, raising concerns about the potential impacts to the economy and jobs.

BP Alaska President Janet Weiss is also a member of the team. In an interview, Weiss noted that BP does think carbon pricing “is a part of the solution, globally,” but she said creating a state-level policy could be “tricky.”

“When it comes to the state-level — what I like about where the Climate Action Leadership Team is going is they talk about advising and suggesting that we get after understanding the appropriate mechanism,” Weiss said. “Because you could set it up in a way that disadvantages Alaska in a global energy industry.”

A carbon tax has been proposed in other states and in Congress. But if Alaska went through with a carbon tax, it would be the first state to do so.

When the climate change action plan is finalized, the team will send its recommendations to Governor Bill Walker for consideration.

Indian Country is a term used to describe reservation and other trust lands. The
designation allows tribes to have greater economic and legal control of the land that is held in trust for them by the federal government. It can unlock federal funds for development and also precludes state and borough governments from taxing the trust property. The authority has only been in place since 2014 after years of legal battles. Now it’s on hold. How much land has been placed in to trust in 4 years and what does the review mean for future applications?

HOST: Lori Townsend

GUESTS:

• Richard Peterson – President, Central Council of Tlingit and Haida
• Mike Walleri – Fairbanks attorney
• Anna Crary – tribal issues attorney

• Call 550-8422 (Anchorage) or 1-800-478-8255 (statewide) during the live broadcast
• Post your comment before, during or after the live broadcast (comments may be read on air).
• Send email to talk@alaskapublic.org (comments may be read on air)

LIVE Broadcast: Tuesday, July 24, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. on APRN stations statewide.

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Alaska’s Gasline development Corporation and Gov. Bill Walker’s administration are minimizing the potential impact of a tariff on the state’s liquefied natural gas export project.

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China — the project’s largest potential customer and investor — is threatening to impose a 25 percent penalty on imports of LNG.

Gene Therriault is the government liaison for the state gasline corporation. He wrote in an email that the corporation believes the trade dispute will be resolved before Alaska exports LNG to China.

“The Alaska LNG project represents a multigenerational project that matches China’s 100 years of natural gas demand with Alaska’s 100 years of supply on the North Slope. As a result, Alaska LNG will continue to present a win-win opportunity for both countries,” Therriault wrote.

The LNG tariff is the latest escalation in a tit-for-tat trade dispute between the U.S. and China. The move ostensibly threatens the financial viability of the Alaska LNG project.  A 25 percent penalty would make Alaska’s gas significantly more expensive for Chinese customers.

It’s not the first time a tariff has threatened the project. The Trump administration levied a tariff on Chinese steel imports. That could impact the state’s ability to find steel for the project’s 800-mile long pipeline.

Gov. Bill Walker’s office also emailed a written statement calling the trade tensions “short term.”

According to a media release, Walker’s administration will “continue to work with the Trump Administration to ensure that Chinese and U.S. officials strike a fair compromise so that Alaska’s natural gas reaches the market.”

China’s ministry of commerce announced the LNG penalty as part of a $60 billion package of tariffs. If carried out, it levels penalties on thousands of U.S. goods from beef to lumber to auto parts.

Stories are posted on the APRN news page. You can subscribe to APRN’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook at alaskapublic.org and on Twitter @AKPublicNews

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After crossing Bering Strait, Anchorage man detained in Russia

Emily Russell, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

John Martin of Anchorage had been traveling down the Yukon River in his one-seater. After reaching the Bering Sea, Martin traveled more than 50 miles across the Bering Strait.

As trade war escalates, AGDC and Gov. Walker minimize threat to state’s LNG project

Rashah McChesney, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau

China announced a 25 percent tariff on LNG imports from the U.S.

Southeast Alaska residents react to Roadless Rule announcement

Elizabeth Jenkins, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau

“You got to look at the impacts on wildlife as well as people who live here,” said Mike Douville.

Mat-Su residents to vote on adding local police officers

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Matanuska-Susitna Borough residents will vote this fall on whether the borough should consider doing its own policing.

Ongoing power outages spoil summer subsistence harvests in Tuluksak

Anna Rose MacArthur, KYUK – Bethel

Generator problems have meant ongoing power outages for Tuluksak over the past month. Lack of electricity to operate freezers means that many people have already lost their summer subsistence harvest, and the problem is expected to continue into early next week.

Quota raised for subsistence hunting of Chukchi polar bears

Associated Press

The commission that manages the polar bear population shared by the United States and Russia has increased the quota of bears that can be harvested by subsistence hunters.

Alaska collects $11M in tax revenue from marijuana 

Associated Press

Alaska collected more than $11 million in marijuana tax revenue during the state’s 2018 fiscal year, exceeding projections by nearly $2 million.

Ernie Turner Center finds new home near Eklutna

Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

A packed house filled Cook Inlet Tribal Council’s new Ernie Turner Center for the ribbon cutting ceremony. The traditional winter homes of the Dena’ina people inspired the design for the open, two-story space, which sits on a six-acre lot. But the services there will be available to both Alaska Natives and other Alaskans.

Pink trash cans bring curbside composting to Anchorage

Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Pink refuse bins have made an appearance in Anchorage this summer, but they’re not for trash. They’re part of Solid Waste Services’ curbside pick-up program for compost.

AK: Quartz Lake denizens adapt to a shrinking water level

Tim Ellis, KUAC – Fairbanks

Quartz Lake is shrinking — the water level of the popular lake just north of Delta Junction is dropping. And while researchers try to find out why, archeologists are studying how humans have adapted to the lake’s periodic cycles of increasing and decreasing water levels since they moved into the area 14,000 years ago.

49 Voices: Tom Huddleston of Copper Center

Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

This week we’re hearing from Tom Huddleston in Copper Center. Huddleston owns and operates the Copper Center lodge, which has been in his family for 70 years since they bought it from the Mt. Edgecumbe school.

On Thursday, the U.S. Forest Service said it was taking steps with the state to allow new roads to be built in the Tongass National Forest. It’s been a decades-long battle, and people have expressed mixed feelings about the announcement.

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Mike Douville has lived on Prince of Wales Island his entire life. But he says the island doesn’t look the same. Now, there are large clear cuts where old growth trees used to be. He’d like to see an end to industrial logging — at least, in his lifetime.

So hearing that new roads could be built in the Tongass, which would increase access to timber, was a huge disappointment.

“You got to look at the impacts on wildlife as well as people who live here,” Douville said. “I’ve said this before, I’ve lived here since 1949. All of the trees were standing here when I was kid. Now we don’t have that much left.”

But logging isn’t the only reason the forest service and the state want the ability to build roads in the national forest. There are communities in the Tongass that don’t have clear cell phone reception.

Greg Mickelson, with Alaska Power & Telephone, doesn’t provide cell service, but the company could potentially provide the electricity if there were new roads.

“Personally, I think because I’m in the power business, the Roadless Rule [exemption] will be beneficial to us to be able to access future hydroelectric sights,” Mickelson said.

The forest service has already allowed some exceptions for hydro projects like this in the past.

But Mickelson says the ability to construct new roads in the Tongass is also important for local economies — dependent on timber and mining.

The last large mill on Prince of Wales Island, for instance, is the utility’s biggest year-round customer.

“We’re all in this together,” Mickleson said. “I’m not a anti-environmentalist, but I also know that people have to be able to have a job if they want to be able to live.”

Dan Blanchard, the CEO and owner of UnCruise Adventures, says people don’t come to Alaska to see clearcuts. He says tourists want to experience the “pristine wilderness” of the Tongass — roadbuilding unchecked could hurt commercial interests.

But Blanchard is not opposed to new roads being built entirely, and the state has said it will include tour operators in the conversation.

“So, with that I feel a lot more comfortable,” Blanchard said. “Or maybe comfort isn’t the word? Maybe I don’t feel as anxious.”

Blanchard says he’s open to hearing more dialogue. A state-appointed committee will discuss road building in the Tongass for the next two years.

Generator problems have meant ongoing power outages for Tuluksak over the past month. Lack of electricity to operate freezers means that many people have already lost their summer subsistence harvest, and the problem is expected to continue into early next week.

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For Tuluksak resident Angela Alexie, living in the lower Kuskokwim River community is like living at a giant fish camp.

“You know, when you’re living out at fish camp you have to have a generator, or some people have a generator,” Alexie explained.

Alexie hears the motors of generators running day and night; the power has been out for about a week. Earlier in July, it was out for another week. Alexie’s generator is small and can only run a few appliances at a time. She has to buy diesel every day to fuel it, and it’s not big enough to run her stove or her freezer.

“I had to take some of my fish out and take it over to my parents’ freezer before I lost everything,” Alexie said.

Alexie’s dry fish should be fine. She’s whipped her salmon berries into akutaq to prolong them, but Alexie has not been able to save everything.

“All my half-dry fish, gaamaarrluk, that I had to feed to the dogs,” Alexie said.

Alexie has lost about a quarter of her subsistence fish, which is shared among four families: Alexie’s, her parents’, and her two sisters’. She’s hoping for a strong silver salmon run to help replace what was lost, but the drying weather in August is not expected to be as good as it was earlier in the summer.

In Tuluksak, not every home has a generator. Alexie’s parents bought hers two years ago after another week-long power outage that wiped out her fall and winter subsistence catch. Multi-day power outages are a frequent problem in the community, and residents have become frustrated with the inconvenience and cost of the situation.

“Here and there, there’s more generators every year in the village,” Alexie said.

The Tuluksak Native Community operates the power plant. Parts for the broken generator are expected to arrive in Anchorage on Monday.

The search for a crashed flightseeing plane in the Alaska Range has been halted after four of the five people on board were confirmed dead with the fifth missing as of Monday morning.

According to the National Park Service, a DeHaviland Beaver that took off shortly after 5:00 pm on Saturday from Talkeetna crashed about an hour later near 11,000 feet of elevation. The plane’s GPS shows that it is on an area unofficially known as Thunder Ridge, fourteen miles southwest of the summit of Denali.

A helicopter with rescue personnel on board was able to reach the crash site on Monday morning. A ranger was suspended below the helicopter and dug through the snow that had filled the airplane. The bodies of four of the five people on board were still inside. The fifth person was not found, and there were no footprints or other disturbances in the snow to indicate that anyone made it out of the aircraft.

The names of the pilot and passengers have not been released. The last confirmed contact with the plane’s pilot occurred about an hour after the crash. Monday morning was the first look that rescue crews got at the crash site.

Editor’s note: In full disclosure, K2 Aviation, the company that operates the crashed plane, is a KTNA underwriter.