JUNEAU - In the wake of President Barack Obama's actions this week to limit oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in waters off Alaska's coast, the floor of the state Senate on Wednesday erupted with a string of impassioned speeches and fiery rhetoric.
Sen. Pete Kelly, R-Fairbanks, rose to address the topics of "preposterous courage and hashtags," and used his speech to reference Alexander the Great and propose a social media label for citizens' objections: #ThisIsOurAlaska.
But so far, the Legislature has taken just one formal action to fight Obama's actions, in the form of a joint resolution introduced Wednesday. Addressed to Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden, and congressional leaders, it lays out, in strong terms, legislative and practical justifications for why oil exploration should be allowed on the coastal plain of the refuge. But ultimately, acknowledged House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, it's "just a strongly worded letter."
Legislators here are now pondering other ways to get leverage with the federal government, following White House announcements on Sunday and Tuesday about new protections from oil and gas exploration for land in ANWR and waters in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas off Alaska.
Senate Majority Leader John Coghill, R-North Pole, said legislators would use "every tool that we have."
That should include lawsuits, he said, but Coghill added that he wants to explore other avenues that could get attention from national news media, to put more pressure on Congress to intervene on Alaska's behalf.
One idea that's "percolating" is holding oversight hearings on Alaska's statehood compact and legislation that's modified it, Coghill said.
Chenault said legislators are working on a "couple items," including sending some Alaska officials or citizens to appear before a committee in Washington, D.C. during a break later in the legislative session.
In the meantime, however, rhetoric will have to suffice, and there was plenty on Wednesday, especially on the Senate floor.
Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, told an anecdote about one of her constituents who got into a dispute with the National Park Service, when it stopped him from using his hovercraft on a river within a national preserve. She compared it to "the old story of how you boil a frog," by placing it in water at a comfortable temperature -- with "maybe a lily pad or two" -- then gradually turning up the heat until the frog is cooked.
"I think it's time that Alaska considers the temperature of the water. In our rivers and elsewhere," Giessel said, to applause from her colleagues. "And we may be close to being cooked."
Kelly introduced his hashtag, told his own anecdote about Alexander the Great, then pivoted to the American Revolution and urged his colleagues to "begin to look at yourselves in historical terms."
"Most of the leadership to push back at a despot came from the legislators," Kelly said. "The first shots have been fired on the war against Alaska. They're shots in the form of legal measures and executive orders and those kinds of things."
Chenault, the House speaker, denied that the attention paid to the federal maneuvers this week has distracted from legislators' focus on the state's $3.5 billion budget deficit, which drew scant attention Wednesday on the floor of the House and Senate.
"We can wrap our arms around more than just one project," Chenault said. "We do it every year."
In a press conference earlier Wednesday, however, one senator, Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, questioned whether the loud protests were productive, even as he also voiced disappointment with Obama's actions.
"I think we need to fundamentally re-evaluate our relationship with the federal government," he said. "If you're standing up and fighting all the time and you're not getting results for Alaska, you're not being effective. And maybe you need to change your tactic."
Coghill said he recognized that some people would view Wednesday's speeches as "whining." But he said the state's elected officials have to register their objections.
"If we take it and we don't challenge it, we concede," he said. "The people elect us to stand up for them."
Perhaps the most aggressive response contemplated so far comes from Sen. Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla.
Dunleavy on Wednesday delivered his own 10-minute indictment of the federal government -- a speech later uploaded to YouTube by the Senate's press team with the title: "Sen. Dunleavy leads the charge against the federal government's assault on Alaska's sovereignty" -- in which he promised he wasn't fomenting an "insurrection."
But in an interview later in his office, where portraits of Civil War generals hang on the walls, Dunleavy said he was working on a proposal that would test the federal government's resolve.
He wants the state to buck the federal government by building a road through a national wildlife refuge on the Alaska Peninsula. Locals have long demanded the project as a vital link between two isolated communities, but a proposal was rejected in 2013 by the U.S. Interior Department.
Dunleavy says he plans to recruit support from his colleagues, and from Gov. Bill Walker.
"I'm very serious about testing this relationship," said Dunleavy, one of the most conservative Republicans in the Senate. "If they even attempt to put the governor in handcuffs, you're going to see a sleeping giant awaken in this country."