Gov. Mike Dunleavy brought former senior advisor Brett Huber back into the fold last week to lead and coordinate the State of Alaska’s plan to reassert control of lands and waters, and to push back on federal overregulation.
Huber had been gone for several months from the Governor’s Office, returning as the senior policy advisor for statehood defense. Recently, Huber ran a political organization attempting to educate Alaskans about the hazards of Ballot Measure 2, the overhaul of Alaska’s voting methods. Voters passed that measure narrowly, ushering in a jungle primary and ranked choice voting in the General Election. Huber had been Dunleavy’s campaign manager in 2018.
Dunleavy emphasized the importance of defending the state’s role over lands and waters in his State of the State Address this year to Alaskans, and wrote President Biden a formal letter in March, expressing the State of Alaska’s intent to manage the more than 800,000 miles of navigable rivers and 30 million acres of navigable lakes that is within the state’s authority, which was affirmed in the 2019 Supreme Court decision Sturgeon v Frost.
On Wednesday, Governor Dunleavy announced the State of Alaska is suing the U.S. Department of Interior for its unilateral extension of land restrictions to 28 million acres of federal land within the state.
“I look forward to supporting Governor Dunleavy in Alaska’s defense against an encroaching and overreaching federal government, and further assisting as he ensures the Last Frontier has a robust future for generations to come,” Huber said.
Huber has three decades’ worth of experience in public policy with a focus on state and federal issues. He served as chief of staff to a number Alaska State Senate leaders, and as an advisor to leaders in the Alaska Legislature on land, fish, and wildlife issues.
The Alaska Legislature in its operating budget agreed with Dunleavy’s proposal to allocate $4 million for the Statehood Defense Initiative, which would involve the Departments of Natural Resources, Law, and Fish & Game among others.
Good. Tie them up in court and defend Alaska rights.
Good to see Brett Huber back in action for Alaska. We need someone in the Governor’s inner circle with a little sass and attitude. The Feds have no self restraint and need a good kick in the teeth. Go Dunleavy and thank you Brett.
They should also prevent CCP Biden and his cronies from going door to door here in Alaska and the lower 48, trying to force vaccinate those that do not fall for this scamdemic. If they trespass on any private property they can be arrested. Can you say unconstitutional. We do have a right to defend ourselves.
This needs to be expanded to a general Statehood Compact lawsuit. Get the federal dept of interior out of Alaska – let them focus on their own interior. We’re NOT their colony and they’re not our king.
Where’s our WAFWA partners on this? Strength in numbers.
Interesting that the Governor and citizenry are indignant about the Feds intrusion into Alaskans’ rights, yet the Alaska Railroad is allowed to trample vested property rights and bankrupt homeowners in its greedy quest for power and control. Shameful!
$4 Million for the “Statehood Defense Initiative” will do very little if the state will not fix its broken oil and gas system that keeps oil and gas investors far from Alaska. Under the current system made to defend the major’s oil and gas monopoly in Alaska, not one oil and gas competitor has ever been able to invest in Alaska and make a profit from finding and selling oil and gas.
Alaskans have been priced out of the oil and gas exploration and production business with ever-increasing bonds and costly red tape.
I feel all there is great hope, thank God Alaskans have Gov. Dunvevey and Brett Huber who can fight this oil and gas monopoly and fix this broken system make Alaska the most attractive place in the world to invest in exploration and production!
If Governor and Brett Huber seek $4 Million to defend free enterprise in Alaska and finally allow smaller oil companies and Alaskans to finally prosper from the oil business after decades of BIG OIL & BIG GOVERNMENT abuse and control then Alaska will have true defense against bad Government and greed..
The appointment is commendable. The U.S. treats Alaska poorly regarding land and other issues and should stop that. However, before complaining about what others do the state should make certain that it treats its own citizens as well on the same issue as it wants to be treated by the U.S.. Matthew 7:12.
The Alaska Railroad, owned by the state, has claimed as its own property rights to which it has no entitlement. See: www. railroadedalaska .com
This situation affects 1500 privately -held parcels, a number of municipalities ans all utility rate payers on the rail belt.
See Congressman Young’s comments at https://www . railroadedalaska . com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Don-Young-letter-41618-re-HJR38.pdf
Using federal funding the railroad has sued some property owners who objected to this property grab and asked the railroad to forego the claims the railroad is making . These property owners have no similar funding and must rely on savings and donations.
The state owns the railroad. It should require the railroad to forego rights mistakenly obtained through error at the Dept. of the Interior and to stop suing Alaskans.
This is a great move to stop the lawlessness of the Federal Government. I just have one question. Since the current illegit administration is not enforcing current law (i.e. immigration) and trying to expand Federal power over what is constitutionally States rights, why do we even need to fight them in court? They obviously don’t care about the rights of the people or of the States. I would just tell them to pack sand and monitor their activities. If they over step, arrest any federal officers violating State laws and or shutdown their offices in the State. It is time to get tough with the Feds because they obviously are violating the people’s rights under the Constitution. They have surpassed their enumerated powers written in the Constitution. Anything not expressly given to them by that document is reserved to the States, period!
Comments are closed.