Resource Resistance: Outside interests wage a constant battle against development projects.

• Author: Strieker, Julie
• Position: NATURAL RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

In 1960, nearly 9 million acres in Alaska's northeast corner was set aside as a protected wildlife refuge--the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

Twenty years later, then-President Jimmy Carter expanded the refuge to 19.3 million acres, but set aside about 8 percent of ANWR for potential oil and gas development, called the 1002 area after a clause in the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). The exploration had to be authorized by Congress.

Since that time, ANWR exploration has been repeatedly brought up by Alaska's congressional delegation but fails to pass. Lawsuits against drilling are filed by a range of organizations, including Earthjustice, National Resources Defense Council, and other environmental groups. Every move on ANWR makes national headlines. Bills from Lower 48 congressmen to return the 1002 area to wilderness status similarly fail.

Then in 2017, President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which includes authorization for responsible development. But what looked like a long-fought victory for those seeking to develop the area hasn't manifested. Nearly three years later, development is dogged by lawsuits.

Why so much attention on an isolated, out-of-the-way, rarely visited sliver of Alaska's Arctic? Through a Lower 48 lens, ANWR is often seen as a pristine slice of wilderness already being threatened by a warming climate. Development opponents cite impacts on wildlife, the local environment, climate change, and the diminishment of wild areas. Several major banks have announced they will not fund drilling in ANWR.

It's a story that has played out all over Alaska for decades. Every major resource development or energy project in Alaska, and some smaller ones, are almost immediately hit with opposition from Outside organizations. It's not just ANWR; it's the proposed road to the Ambler Mining District, it's a gravel road to the Aleutian village of King Cove, it's mines at Pebble and Donlin, coal in Chickaloon, and even the long-delayed North Slope natural gas development.

Just Another Day

In late August, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy wrote an opinion piece that was published in The Hill, noting that Outside interests have delayed development in Alaska for decades.

"Denying Alaska the ability to develop our natural resources certainly flies in the face of our rights," Dunleavy writes. "As a state whose admittance to the union was predicated on our ability to develop natural resources for the benefits of our people and our country, a future viability of Alaska has been thrown into question in only a few short decades after misled activism.

"The simple truth is that for every...