Politics

Don Young targets state conservation agency, EPA, Ted Danson

Before a small crowd in Anchorage on Monday, U.S. Rep. Don Young took on actor Ted Danson for his views on fisheries waste, advised state leaders to build the King Cove road and let the U.S. marshals stop them, and asked why the state funds the environmental conservation department to just be a "puppet" of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Young, the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. House, also addressed a major plank of his Democratic opponent, saying he doesn't need to chair a full committee in the House to be effective.

Young's speech at the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce was part of a multiday swing that will encompass much of the state, including several rural communities. He slammed federal overreach, issued fiery declarations about his commitment to Alaska, and threw in plenty of folksy humor that kept the audience laughing.

Perhaps firing up Young most was a question about the proposed single-lane road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge on the Alaska Peninsula. The Alaska Native community of King Cove wants the road to reach Cold Bay and an all-weather airport that would improve access to emergency care. U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell has rejected the idea.

A listener asked if there's hope the road will be built. The feds will continue to stop the road if the state is timid, Young said.

"I'd a-built the goddamn thing! Right now!" he said.

It drives him nuts that Jewell is more concerned about protecting migratory birds than human life, he added, wagging his arms like wings.

ADVERTISEMENT

"I would take the dang Cat and start right across it," he said. "Let them bring the marshals in, and bring in the National Guard. That's what I'd do. And I'd elect a new president."

Young also took on "Big Miracle" actor Danson – initially calling him Fred Dyson (a state senator), then Ted Dyson, then "whoever the hell he is" -- for his views on fish wasted in the nation's fisheries.

Danson has been beating the drum about the problem of bycatch, including in Alaska, where untargeted seafood that is caught is sometimes tossed overboard dead.

Young said the state's fish plants have come a long way in reducing waste, including selling fish oil and using bones for fish meal. They're akin to hog farms now.

"They use everything on that pig but the squeal," he said. "They very nearly got that with the fish. They got everything but a couple wiggles."

Young also laid into the state's Department of Environmental Conservation, saying it mimics the Environmental Protection Agency, which he blasted for creating "about 2,800 regulatory laws in the last two years that do not really save the environment."

He said he has asked the governor and legislators why the state is funding DEC when it just imitates the EPA. DEC, for example, should defend the Alaska miners who had been raided by the EPA in Chicken, not support the federal agency.

"I want you to start talking to your legislators and say, 'Why are you supporting the DEC when they are just a puppet of the EPA?'" he told the audience.

Those lawmakers will respond that doing so will mean less federal money, he said. "It's the old sugar, the old alcohol, the old drugs," he said, rubbing his fingers.

Should DEC not be funded? "Well, no," he told reporters after the presentation, "but you can direct them. What is their role?" The DEC should release its own scientific research to contradict anything the EPA claims, he said.

Ty Keltner, public information officer at DEC, declined to comment.

In questioning by reporters after the presentation, Young said marijuana legalization should be decided by states, not the federal government, but that he'll vote against the legalization measure in the Nov. 4 general election because he doesn't believe in "hurting your body."

Talking with reporters, he brushed off some questions about his Democratic opponent, Forrest Dunbar, refusing to mention him by name because, he said, campaign attacks are not productive. "If I can't do the job, then don't vote for me," he said.

Dunbar, in a statement issued after the presentation, said Young's ethics violations are the reason he won't be permitted to chair a full committee.

"These are party rules, from Don's own party," said Dunbar, adding that an effort by Young and others to change the rules failed in 2010. "But his party has no interest in having him chair a full committee again, and he lost that clout because of his ethics violations."

Young, who has chaired the Resources Committee and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for six years each, said term limits affecting committee chairmanships prevent him from chairing a full committee. He said he is ranking member on the House Resources Committee and senior Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

He said he has chosen to serve as chairman for the Subcommittee on Alaska Native and Indian Affairs to support the state's large Alaska Native population.

ADVERTISEMENT

He also said he doesn't need to chair a full committee to be effective, noting that he passed important laws without such positions, including the one allowing the trans-Alaska pipeline at the start of his career some four decades ago. "I passed more laws than any other congressman seated today, and they're good laws," he said.

He said he has passed three laws this year.

Dunbar's campaign manager, Travis Smith, said that's the same number of laws Young passed in his first term. It should be more at this point in his career, Smith said.

Young responded to that statement as he walked away from reporters, saying "It shows ignorance, that's all."

Alex DeMarban

Alex DeMarban is a longtime Alaska journalist who covers business, the oil and gas industries and general assignments. Reach him at 907-257-4317 or alex@adn.com.

ADVERTISEMENT