|
Former President Jimmy Carter took the rare step of weighing in on a court case that could shape the future of wilderness in Alaska. Carter filed an amicus brief this week in the litigation over a proposed road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.
The community of King Cove ostensibly wants the road to provide year-round access to an all-weather airport, but the court noted that the land swap to create the road, as approved by then-Interior secretary David Bernhardt, would allow for commercial uses. In March, a three-judge panel reversed an initial ruling that stopped the land swap.
President Carter's filing in the case notes that the appellate decision undermines one of his signature legislative achievements, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (ANILCA).
“It is overbroad and permits the Secretary of Interior to undo Congressionally designated Wilderness and other conservation lands. Unless reversed, it would open tens of millions of acres of public lands for adverse development,” Carter said.
|
We really cannot win on climate change without including rural America in finding solutions.... We often think of rural America as being very opposed to climate policies, but I think that’s not a very accurate portrayal of what’s happening.”
