www.AKRDC.org 29 VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 3 | FALL 2024 state officials he was ready to move forward with the transfer, but the final decision was held up by questions from the Interior Department’s Washington, D.C. office. Stone-Manning told the Senate committee that BLM simply lacked the resources to do the environmental assessment needed for the PLO 5150 termination. Meanwhile, Sullivan said it was no coincidence that in June a coalition of environmental groups petitioned the BLM to begin drafting a plan for the dismantlement of TAPS and restoration of its rightof-way years before the most recent federal pipeline corridor lease for the pipeline is set to expire, which is in 2037. This may be the real reason the federal government, at least under the Biden administration, wants to retain control of the pipeline corridor by leaving PLO 5150 in place and blocking the state’s land selections along TAPS. Termination of the TAPS lease is 13 years in the future but given the need for a new Environmental Impact Statement on either an application for a third 30-year extension or dismantlement of the pipeline, planning must begin soon. Environmental groups want to be able to influence this with the federal government, and not the state, continuing to control the TAPS corridor. Wrangling over the PLOs is just another chapter in the decades-old debate about land allocations and management in Alaska. Before Alaska statehood, which came in the late 1950s, all lands in Alaska except the Tongass and Chugach national forests and Denali National Park were “public domain” lands open to mining claims and homesteading. Alaska statehood changed this. The state was given rights by Congress to select 105 million acres of the approximately 365 million acres in Alaska to support its economic development. This was a brilliant success after the state selected North Slope lands with oil potential, and which resulted in large discoveries. However, it also alerted Alaska Native communities that the state could now select lands affecting their access to local wildlife. It also caused Native groups to assert their Aboriginal rights to lands in Alaska, which had never been terminated or clarified by Congress. In turn, this led to the Alaska Native land claims movement in the 1960s and the passage of ANCSA in 1971. However, ANCSA also set the stage for decisions by Congress on what to do with the remaining several hundred million acres of public domain lands after the entitlements of Alaska Native communities and the state were satisfied. That led, finally, to the passage of ANILCA in 1980, establishing new national parks, forests, and wildlife reserves. It is the leftovers from all that, the approximately 160 million acres still in limbo in the PLOs, which are still of concern. Environmental groups prefer the limbo because the lands are blocked to entry and thus become informal park lands. Alaskans want the PLOs lifted not only to allow economic development but also the state’s opportunity to gain title to its remaining state land entitlement as well as control of the vital TAPS corridor. “I’m infuriated that this public land order limbo impacts Alaskans who are still owed 5 million acres of land from the federal government as promised in our Statehood Entitlement dating back to 1959, since the lands contained within these orders are among the highest interest to the State of Alaska. “Despite commitments from BLM to fairly consider lifting public land orders in Alaska, and after a year of negotiations between DNR and BLM staff specifically about the Trans-Alaska Pipeline corridor, the Biden Administration continues to arbitrarily lock up Alaska by extending public land orders far beyond Congress’ intended purpose. “DNR and the Dunleavy Administration will continue to fight to unlock access to public lands and natural resources on behalf of the people of Alaska.” — John Boyle, Commissioner, Alaska Department of Natural Resources
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