Senator Lisa Murkowski wants to bolster the nation’s volcano monitoring system.
The bill, introduced Monday (Feb. 13) would modernize existing monitoring networks and create a 24-7 volcano watch office to keep an eye on active volcanoes across the country.
Plus, it would create a connected system — the National Volcano Early Warning System — where information from the nation’s five volcano observatories would live.
A press release from the Senate Energy committee says even though the Alaska Volcano Observatory is one of the busiest in the world, it has been underfunded for almost three decades.
There is no estimate for how much the proposal might cost.
This is the fourth time Murkowski has introduced legislation to enhance volcano monitoring, but none have become law.
The current bill is also sponsored by senators from Washington state and Hawaii.
Zoe Sobel is a reporter with Alaska's Energy Desk based in Unalaska. As a high schooler in Portland, Maine, Zoë Sobel got her first taste of public radio at NPR’s easternmost station. From there, she moved to Boston where she studied at Wellesley College and worked at WBUR, covering sports for Only A Game and the trial of convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
