Anchorage Daily News

Arctic oil and gas exploration, federal subsistence protection and funding for rural development are among the Alaska concerns that could see sudden policy shifts in the new Obama administration.

The public transition leading to President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration next month has focused so far on national security and economic issues. But below the surface, busy lobbying is under way over future environmental agendas and political jobs affecting Alaska. Key appointments are expected this week.

After eight years in exile during near-total Republican control of Alaska policies, local environmentalists were in Washington, D.C., last week hoping to help set the new Democratic administration's agenda.

Alaska Native leaders will join tribal leaders from around the country Tuesday in Washington. Among the top transition officials they'll be seeing: a Native law expert who once worked in Anchorage and represented subsistence advocate Katie John of Mentasta Lake.

One result of the transition could be less federal attention to priorities pushed by the state government, which is sometimes at odds with those environmental and Native groups. The change of focus could be even more pronounced than usual in a presidential election year, given the Democrats' stronger grip on Congress and the absence of Republican Sen. Ted Stevens' intimidating presence.

A coalition of 29 national environmental groups has drawn up a 391-page set of recommendations that place Alaska issues as a top priority for the new administration. The "Transition to Green" report calls for a comprehensive Arctic conservation and energy plan as one of its three primary interdepartmental goals.

Specifically, the groups want to cancel or postpone offshore oil lease sales scheduled for the Arctic, toughen permitting for leases already sold, and provide permanent protection for the Teshekpuk Lake region in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska. They want the new administration to protect habitat for polar bears and to support extending wilderness protection to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where state officials want to drill for oil.

The North Slope natural gas pipeline avidly sought by the state is getting positioned through the transition as an environmentally friendly project that would deliver cleaner fuel to the Lower 48. Environmentalists do not oppose it, and Obama's official transition site says building the line is a priority.

But oil industry advocates here warn that efforts to cut back Arctic exploration for new oil and gas could undermine efforts to build the gas line. They say additional deposits of gas must be added to the North Slope's known reserves to make construction of the pipeline feasible.

"We want to work with the new administration to make sure they understand the ramifications of those actions," said Carl Portman, deputy director of the Anchorage-based Resource Development Council.

LOBBYING FOR JOBS

As always in such major political transitions, lobbying for appointments is intense. For Alaska, the biggest appointment is generally Secretary of the Interior, whose department controls half of Alaska's lands, including its national parks and wildlife refuges, as well as the oil and gas efforts of the Minerals Management Service.

More than a dozen names have been in play for Interior since the election. By the end of last week, the two names on top of the list were both Democratic congressmen: Raul Grijalva of Arizona, a Hispanic leader representing the Tucson area, and Mike Thompson of California, whose district extends from Napa Valley up the northern California coast. Thompson is backed by sportsmen's groups. Environmentalists have made no endorsements yet.

Other key jobs potentially in play are the federal Alaska gas line coordinator's job, now held by former state Senate president Drue Pearce, a Republican, and the federal co-chairman of the Denali Commission, George Cannelos.

An important insider position, to be filled after the Interior Secretary is named, is the special Interior assistant for Alaska affairs. Environmentalists filled the job in the Clinton administration, while George W. Bush split the post between here and Washington, starting off with an oil industry advocate in Anchorage.

Some of the Obama transition team members on environmental and energy matters have experience in Alaska issues from the Clinton years. These include Donald Barry, who served at Interior as Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, and John Leshy, who was Interior's top lawyer and a former aide to Rep. George Miller, D-Calif.

Leshy is a leader of the Interior transition team. Another is Bob Anderson, a former Native American Rights Fund lawyer who, when he was based in Anchorage, represented Katie John in her precedent-setting legal fight over federal subsistence fishing. Anderson now directs the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington law school. He is a member of the Minnesota Chippewa tribe.

'THE BACKBONE TO DISAGREE'

No Alaskans are directly involved in the transition teams. But a veteran of Alaska is right at the center of the action. Pete Rouse, Obama's chief of staff in the Senate and now the co-chairman of his transition team, lived in Juneau from 1979 to 1983, where he served as chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Terry Miller, a moderate Republican.

Alaska Natives will have several goals to pitch to the new president's team this week, said Julie Kitka, president of the Alaska Federation of Natives. One will be the federal subsistence program, where they feel protections for rural hunting and fishing have been "eroded" by changes under Bush. Another will be to urge that funding for rural Alaska infrastructure projects be considered as part of the "economic jump-start" proposed by Obama.

Hans Neidig, the current Interior special assistant for Alaska, defended the subsistence changes of recent years. He said the federal subsistence process is now more open to the state's concerns and represents resource users other than just rural subsistence families.

Like the Natives, environmentalists have been concerned about what they call excessive federal agency responsiveness to the state. Among their concerns: increased hunting of wolves on federal lands.

"The change in the political dynamic should give the Park Service the backbone to disagree with how the state manages wildlife in national preserves," said Jim Stratton, senior regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS' WISH LIST

The environmentalists' wish list for Alaska includes undoing several Bush administration land swaps that have not been completed, including exchanges that would open the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development and allow construction of a road across Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. They also want to expand roadless-area protections for the Tongass National Forest, referring to logging on federal lands there as a "global warming subsidy."

Many of the environmentalist goals fit naturally with Obama's pledge to address climate change and move America away from an oil-based economy, said Earthjustice lawyer Eric Jorgenson, who traveled from Juneau to Washington last week. He said the groups don't want to halt Arctic leasing forever, just slow it down so comprehensive scientific and conservation planning can take place first.

"Under Bush, there was a rush to lease really the entire Arctic," Jorgenson said, referring to future lease sales listed under the federal five-year plan.

Industry advocates said new leasing impediments may discourage private companies interested in the expensive offshore Arctic region.

"We can't just stop development of oil and gas here in Alaska and expect we will transition immediately to alternative sources," said Portman.

John Katz, the head of the state's Washington, D.C. office, said the environmentalists' priorities make a convenient survey of many issues likely to come up in the next few years. "It would be a mistake to assume that the Obama administration will simply accept their recommendations," he said.

Katz said the state will be pushing to preserve the Denali Commission as a vehicle getting for federal construction funds to Alaska, perhaps in the context of Obama's economic stimulus package.

Find Tom Kizzia online at adn.com/contact/tkizzia or call him at 907-235-4244.

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