President Barack Obama added to Alaska's time in the national spotlight Saturday, focusing his weekly national address on his upcoming trip to the state.
Obama pledged to meet with "everyday Alaskans" and learn from them and to focus on international climate change negotiations. He also defended his administration's approval of Shell's Arctic drilling permits.
"I've been looking forward to this for a long time. Not only because Alaska is one of the most beautiful places in a country that's full of beautiful places – but because I'll have several opportunities to meet with everyday Alaskans about what's going on in their lives," Obama said in the weekly address, which is posted on whitehouse.gov and run on various radio stations and some television stations.
Obama noted his plans to travel north of the Arctic Circle and meet with people in the fishing and tourism industries.
"And I expect to learn a lot," Obama said.
But he quickly focused his attention to the intent of the trip -- to focus on current impacts of climate change, in terms of eroding shorelines and melting glaciers.
With no action, Obama said, "Alaskan temperatures are projected to rise between six and twelve degrees by the end of the century, changing all sorts of industries forever."
One key focus of the president's visit will be to showcase the state and U.S. climate change regulatory efforts to scores of foreign dignitaries that will be in town for a State Department organized conference on Arctic issues. Obama is hoping to secure a legacy-building climate agreement in Paris in December.
A State Department official told reporters Friday that the visit is not an official Arctic Council event because it was planned so quickly -- and entirely by the U.S. An official Arctic Council event would have required collaboration and consensus on a wide swath of details -- including the agenda.
Obama focused in his address Saturday on the threat that climate change poses already to Alaska villages that are facing relocation.
"Think about that. If another country threatened to wipe out an American town, we'd do everything in our power to protect ourselves. Climate change poses the same threat, right now," he said.
"That's why one of the things I'll do while I'm in Alaska is to convene other nations to meet this threat," Obama said. He hopes to prod other countries toward goals for reducing greenhouse gases similar to those set by the U.S. and China already.
Obama cautioned that he knows our economy, for now, "still has to rely on oil and gas."
He touted domestic production and high standards and defended his administration's approval of Shell's Arctic drilling.
"I share people's concerns about offshore drilling. I remember the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico all too well," Obama said.
But, he said, the Arctic drilling is done "at the highest standards possible with requirements specifically tailored to the risks of drilling off Alaska. We don't rubber-stamp permits," Obama said.
Safety is his top priority for drilling, as well as transitioning away from fossil fuels, Obama said.