Democrat State Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, known for her hard left politics, wants to create a commission to deal with what she calls the emergency threat of climate change to Alaska.
Her latest bill comes at a time when companies across America are backing away from the climate-scare agenda. BP and Shell, for instance, have scaled back and abandoned some of their renewable energy investments. Other companies have followed.
But Gray-Jackson believes Alaska is in an actual state of climate emergency.
Senate Bill 120 reads: “An Act establishing the Alaska Climate Change Emergency Response Commission. The legislature finds that a state of emergency exists because of the threat climate change poses on communities in the state, the state economy, traditional ways of life, fish and game populations, and natural ecosystems.”
The sponsor statement from Sen. Gray-Jackson is at this link.
The commission is envisioned as having 15 members, six of whom would be department representatives, and nine from municipalities, including:
(1) the commissioner of Fish and Game;
(2) the commissioner of Environmental Conservation;
(3) the commissioner of Natural Resources;
(4) the commissioner of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development;
(5) the commissioner of Transportation and Public Facilities;
(6) the director of the division in CCED responsible for community and regional affairs.
The governor would appoint nine municipal representatives to the commission. Each municipal
representative must be a mayor, or a member of the assembly or council. The governor’s appointees would be required to be from:
(1) Northwest Alaska, including, generally, the area of the North Slope Borough and the
Northwest Arctic Borough;
(2) Bering Strait area, including the Bering Strait regional educational attendance area;
(3) Southwest Alaska, including the area within the Lower Yukon, Lower Kuskokwim, and
Southwest regional educational attendance areas and the Lake and Peninsula and Bristol Bay Boroughs;
(4) Kodiak-Aleutians area, including the area of the Kodiak Island and Aleutians East
Boroughs and the Aleutian, Adak, and Pribilof regional educational attendance areas;
(5) Upper Cook Inlet area, including the Municipality of Anchorage and the Matanuska-
Susitna Borough;
(6) Lower Cook Inlet area, including the area within the Kenai Peninsula Borough;
(7) Prince William Sound area, including the area east of the Kenai Peninsula Borough to
141 West longitude;
(8) northern Southeast Alaska, including the area southeast of 141 degrees West longitude
and north of 57 degrees North latitude and the entirety of the City and Borough of Sitka,
(9) southern Southeast Alaska, the remainder not in the northern Southeast delineation.
The commission would apply for federal grants to fight climate change and submit action plans to the governor and legislature. It’s unclear what grants will be available for such a cause, since President Donald Trump is trying to reduce superfluous federal spending.
Climate change alarmism has lost steam despite it being promoted heavily by the legacy media. That promotion of the climate crisis is especially true in Alaska, where dark money funds the Anchorage Daily News and the Alaska Beacon, both which consistently promote climate alarmism and warn Alaskans of eminent dangers to the 49th state.
Most national legacy media outlets also hype the dangers of the changing climate.
But a recent Associated Press poll found only 38% of Americans are willing to pay even as little as $1 per month in higher energy costs to combat climate change. That is down 14 percentage points from 2018. Even among Democrats, only 43 percent would pay $1 per month to combat climate change.
During a campaign rally last year, then Republican candidate Trump signaled a change of course when it came to climate change.
“They never talk about the environment anymore. You know why? It’s one of the greatest scams of all time… people aren’t buying it any more,” said Trump.
Alaska has flirted around the edges with more expensive so-called alternative energy options, such as wind and solar. But those investments were more feasible with heavy subsidies from the federal government under former President Joe Biden. With Trump in charge, expensive alternative energy investment options will make even less sense when compared to more reliable and reasonable fossil fuel.
Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, like Trump, does not completely buy into the climate-change fear-mongering.
Dunleavy bewildered some conservatives last year when he signed legislation allowing companies to invest in Alaska for carbon capture sequestration. He justified it by saying we might as well make money off of those who believe climate change is man made.
Only five legislators voted against the bill.
Conservative valley Republican Sen. Shelley Hughes voted for the carbon sequestration bill, not as a way to fight climate change, but instead a cash grab for the state.
“I actually do think, right now, it is a scam. I do think it is. And yet, if people are foolish enough to pay us to store carbon, I’m not going to turn them down,” said Hughes. It’s unclear if carbon sequestration as a business model will be sustainable or will cost more to manage than it brings in.
With Dunleavy as governor and Trump as president, even if Gray-Jackson’s Climate Change Emergency Response Commission is formed, it’s unlikely any of its recommendations would be adopted. In two years, however, depending on who is governor after 2026, that could all change. A Democrat governor, such as Mary Peltola, might carry the climate crisis narrative forward.
SB 120 has been referred to Senate State Affairs Committee, chaired by Fairbanks Democrat Sen. Scott Kawasaki. The membership of the committee includes Democrat majority members Sen. Gray-Jackson, Sen. Bill Wielechowski, Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, and Republican minority member Sen. Rob Yundt.
SB 120 will be heard in State Affairs on Thursday, March 20, with invited and public testimony.
Dan Fagan reports and writes columns for Must Read Alaska. He’s covered Alaska politics for close to 30-years. He currently hosts a morning drive radio talk show on 1020 am 92.5 and 104.5 fm on KVNT. For news tips, email Dan at [email protected]
Why even suggest Mary Peltola as Governor? I almost spilled my coffee. That would be the biggest disaster.
The people who can’t figure out how to stop vagrancy think they can control the weather if we just give them unlimited power and money.
This state has a death wish.
A superfluous Marxist legislator out of touch with What Alaska really needs!Anchorage can not vote her out quick enough!
We need a CUP commission, (Corrupt Unethical Politician Commission). First explain how you are going to fight climate change. You can solve “homelessness”, all this is, is a waste of states resources and money. The “Alaskan” democrats and rino’s goal is to hurt the economy and turn the state blue.
Didn’t this old fool get the message?
Under Trump, there is no more climate change.
End of discussion. And in a few more months, there won’t be any more Democrat Party. Just as Ronald Reagan destroyed the Soviet Union, Donald Trump will destroy the Democrat Party.
Just another fraud, another money grab! Let’s go Alaska great again!
Hey Elvi….I just want to remind you that the Joey Biden environmental justice nonsense is dead. The big blue marble climate has been changing over millions of years and your efforts are meaningless. Please someone DOGE Elvi’s scam.
Let’s hope Mr. Yundt has learned from his first foray into stupidity….
Is there a Conservative we can run against Elvi? We need to stop the daily spraying of our skies, get HAARP shut down, reduce the number of 5G towers in Anchorage, and change out the smart meters on our homes.
The only climate emergency we have is the hot air coming from this communist democrat. She needs to go next election before she costs Alaska more money for stupid crap like her homeless.
Leftist logic. There’s a perceived problem, create a department, throw money at it, grow the department, bloat the department, bloat it some more, hire more staff, throw more money at it, call yourself a hero.
This is sad: “ Under Trump, there is no more climate change.” With intelligence like this, no wonder America will be destroyed.
I’m originally from Chicago, l have always admired Elvi’s scar, but l completely disagree with the Leftist blame it on humans climate change ideology. Global warming is caused by Magma seeping through the Oceans Tectonic Plates. Study a Pacific Ocean Thermal map, and it will make perfect sense.