Trump administration eases endangered species rules Ben Lefebvre, Politico, August 12, 2019 The Trump administration announced on Monday it would change how it implements the Endangered Species Act, weakening protections that environmentalists say violate the law and make it easier for oil companies, real estate interests and the agriculture industry to develop land inhabited by vulnerable wildlife. The revisions spearheaded … read more

Trump’s ANWR push: Will it really yield much oil? Heather Richards, E&E News, August 12, 2019 ANWR’s coastal plain also lies in a straight line between successful discoveries in Alaska and successful discoveries in Canada. In the mid-1980s, a group of companies paid for two-dimensional seismic data to map the region’s subsurface potential, revealing a complex spectrum of possible hydrocarbon locations, said … read more

Anchorage state Sen. Chris Birch dead after apparent heart attack Zaz Hollander, Anchorage Daily News, August 8, 2019Chris Birch, a longtime Anchorage Assembly member who shifted to the Legislature in 2016, died suddenly Wednesday of an apparent heart attack, according to several colleagues. Birch, a Republican, was in his first term as a state senator and served as chair of … read more