In a stunning reversal, the Biden-Harris Administration decided that allowing the people of King Cove, Alaska to have a life-saving road to the airport in Cold Bay is OK after all.
For the entire four years of Biden-Harris, the administration blocked a land swap that would allow the road to be built through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge so that those needing to be medevaced from King Cove would be able to reach the all-weather airport. The weather in King Cove is such that many times planes cannot land there due to severe crosswinds. The weather in the Alaska Gulf and Bering Sea area can prevent access due to wind and waves.
But the land swap that Biden has ok’d may be seen as a rotten deal. Some have even called it “extortion.”
The federal government proposes taking tens of thousands of acres in exchange for about 206 acres that would be needed for the road. Under President Donald Trump, it was going to be a fair-market-value trade.
In a draft environmental review document released this week, the administration stated that it supported pursuing the road’s construction, under the conditions that take advantage of Alaska Natives.
In the deal proposed by the Biden-Harris Administration, approximately 13,300 acres of land owned by King Cove (Native) Corporation (surface estate but excluding tidelands and submerged land of rivers, streams, and lakes determined navigable for purposes of title through federal judicial or administrative procedures), located near Mortensens Lagoon and the mouth of Kinzarof Lagoon, would be conveyed to the U.S. and added to the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.
The Kinzarof Lagoon parcel would also be added to Izembek Wilderness. As a part of the exchange, the King Cove Corporation would also relinquish its selection of 5,430 acres in Izembek Wilderness on the east side of Cold Bay made under the terms of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).
The feds want approximately 1,600 acres (surface and subsurface estate) within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge on Sitkinak Island, including land withdrawn for use by the U.S. Coast Guard (Coast Guard) and approximately 170 acres of refuge-managed land would be transferred to the State.
Approximately 43,093 acres of land owned by the State of Alaska, adjacent to the North Creek and Pavlof Units of the Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge, would be conveyed to the United States (U.S.) and added to the Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness. This includes the subsurface estate, but does not include submerged lands including tidelands, lakes, rivers, and streams to be retained by the State of Alaska.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski was overjoyed with the proposed deal.
“There has never once been a moment of doubt in my mind that a life-saving road is the only way to truly protect the good people of King Cove,” Murkowski said. “After a more than a year-long process, and after reviewing the options to protect residents’ health and safety at all times, a Democratic administration has sided with King Cove and determined that a life-saving road can be built safely, while also protecting the environment.”
She then thanked outgoing Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
“I thank everyone at Interior for their work on a strong, defensible analysis that adds to the overwhelming case for a life-saving road. I spoke with Secretary Haaland this morning and thanked her for visiting King Cove with me, for listening to the people who actually live there about the environmental injustices they face every day, and for directing her team to make an honest recommendation to her about the path forward. That path forward is clearly a life-saving road, and we must now finish the job by finalizing the process so that a road can be built as soon as possible,” she said.
Sen. Dan Sullivan was more careful in his response.
“I’m still reviewing the details, but to be clear, after decades of the Alaska Native people of King Cove pleading with their federal government to be allowed to build an 11-mile, life-saving road from King Cove to Cold Bay, the former Trump Administration resolved this issue fairly,” Sullivan said.
“President Biden’s Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland heartlessly killed that solution. Now, after nearly four years—and the loss of at least one life—the community’s health and safety is being leveraged for an outrageous price: 31,000 acres in exchange for 500 acres,” he said. “While I’m relieved that this life-saving road might be built, Alaska Native lives should never be leveraged, especially by their own federal government. The people of King Cove deserve much better.”
Rep. Mary Peltola remained silent on the decision by the Biden Administration to rip off Alaska Natives.
