Today is a big day in Anchorage. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is in town to gather input to inform his agency’s decisions about opening the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to energy development. Anchorage is home base to many major oil companies that operate on Alaska’s North Slope, so we expect a big turnout from both pro-development interests as well as those who are concerned about the environmental impacts of oil development in Alaska’s pristine waters. more

Democracy, sweet democracy. How blessed are we Americans that it doesn’t take a street full of burning tires to get the government’s attention. So entrenched is our glorious democracy that even the federal government cannot finalize decisions about how to use our lands and our waters without first consulting us citizens. That’s how it works in theory — though I can think of one recent administration, (starts with a ‘B’, ends with an ‘h’) that could have used a little flaming rubber in this regard. more

When the Exxon Valdez ran aground twenty years ago, our Alaska Regional Director Eleanor Huffines immediately left her studies at the University of North Carolina and headed to Alaska to help clean beaches and oiled wildlife in Prince William Sound. She returned to Alaska every summer thereafter to help. more