Nathaniel Herz, Alaska's Energy Desk - Anchorage
Opponents of citizens initiative to boost oil taxes have formed a bipartisan coalition
The group, OneAlaska, does not appear to include any oil industry leaders, though several of its members work for companies or organizations with ties to the industry.
Mark Begich, frustrated by rural Alaska’s exorbitant prices, is opening a grocery store in Utqiagvik
Begich said his company, Stuaqpak Inc., will offer lower prices and better products, and be more accountable to residents than the North West Company, the publicly traded Canadian corporation that ran the store previously. But Begich’s business is launching an untested model, and it will still face competition.
The Trump administration wanted an Arctic Refuge lease sale this year. Now it’s out of time.
Two procedural steps are still required before the sale can happen, and each comes with a 30-day waiting period, said Brook Brisson, an attorney for Trustees for Alaska, the Anchorage-based environmental law firm that works with organizations fighting to stop drilling.
Politicians, at business forum, forecast tensions ahead for the governor and the Legislature
At a forum Tuesday at the Alaska Chamber’s fall gathering in Girdwood, Alaska business leaders got a preview of the upcoming session from the House speaker, Senate president and Dunleavy's chief of staff – and the three speakers sounded eager to work together, though still not ready to put their differences aside.
Alaska’s top environmental watchdog on climate change: ‘it’s not an emergency’
Earlier this year, not long after being sworn in, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy disbanded the state’s climate change response team. And his administration now lacks a coordinated group or policy that guides the government's...
Whalers in Utqiaġvik can’t remember hunting this late without landing a bowhead
Some residents say this is unprecedented for the whale-dependent village that last fall captured nearly 20. Also unprecedented are this year’s temperatures: It was the warmest May through September on record in Utqiagvik.
Former PenAir owners say Unalaska crash raises questions about new operator’s standards
Through last week, U.S. commercial airlines -- distinct from the smaller bush planes that carry Alaskans to rural villages -- had gone a full decade with just one paying passenger dying in an accident.
That...
Trump to pick former Alaska oil industry attorney for federal judgeship
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he intends to pick Josh Kindred, a federal attorney in Anchorage and former oil industry attorney, as a new federal district court judge for Alaska.
As recall effort looms, can Gov. Dunleavy ease tensions with Alaska Native groups?
With a recall campaign in limbo, this week's convention could preview some of Dunleavy's next steps when it comes his tense relationship with a potent Alaska Native voting bloc.
Feds: Eagle River nurse prescribed 4 million opiates in 5 years, contributed to two overdose deaths
Federal authorities charged an Eagle River nurse practitioner and a Soldotna doctor Tuesday with illegally writing prescriptions for addictive opiate painkillers for patients who didn't need them — contributing, in the nurse practitioner's case, to the deaths of two patients, authorities said.
There’s a new fight over Bering Sea black cod. Warming water may be to blame.
Small-boat fishermen who catch black cod are sounding alarms about increasing numbers of black cod that are being caught accidentally, as bycatch, by larger Seattle-based trawlers that fish in the Bering Sea.
Alaska Gov. Dunleavy picks top deputy, former oil industry lobbyist to chair state oil watchdog
Alaska GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy has named a former oil lobbyist who currently works as his deputy chief of staff to chair the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the public agency that acts as a watchdog over the state's oil industry.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy wants lawmakers to approve additional PFDs this fall. Here’s why that’s unlikely.
At a news conference Friday, a special session sounded unlikely, as Dunleavy said he’s waiting to call one until the state Senate approves his nominee to fill a vacant seat.
Alaska Gov. Dunleavy picks Rep. Josh Revak in second bid to fill Senate seat
Rep. Josh Revak was selected after Senate Republicans, in a tie vote, failed to approve Anchorage GOP Rep. Laddie Shaw.
Ben Stevens once left the Alaska Senate in disgrace. Now he’s Gov. Dunleavy’s top deputy.
Stevens, Dunleavy's new chief of staff, once left his job in the state Senate amid a federal corruption investigation, though he was never charged. Now, he re-enters public service with links to some of the same industries that found favor from his father, the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.
Photos: Aboard the Alaska state ferry before it leaves Prince William Sound for winter
The Alaska state ferry system will stop running ships in Prince William Sound for seven months this winter after lawmakers made sharp budget cuts earlier this year. Reporter Nat Herz traveled on one of...
Marooned: Cordova braces for a winter without ferry service
Alaska’s coastal residents have long warned of dire effects if lawmakers sharply reduce ferry budgets. Now, absent an adjustment to the ferry schedule by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration, those warnings could become reality.
A year after a dam was removed, this river near Anchorage is still waiting for water
The effort to remove the dam on the lower Eklutna River couldn’t succeed on its own because upstream, utilities divert the river into a hydroelectric power plant. Officials say it will take years before they decide whether to add more water that could help restore salmon.
This Texas climate scientist wants to help Alaskans address global warming — by talking about it
Katharine Hayhoe, a PhD climate scientist and evangelical Christian known for her ability to engage skeptical audiences, is coming to Alaska next week for a series of public appearances.
Democratic presidential candidates spent seven hours talking climate change. Alaska wasn’t discussed.
In the first-ever prime-time presidential climate change forum, Democratics spent seven hours on the issue. But there was no substantive discussion of Alaska, even though the state is one of the most affected by global warming.