Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola may have won a seat on the influential House Natural Resources Committee when she came into office in September.
But she hasn’t been able to use that role to influence her fellow Democrats to be in favor of the one thing Alaskans want: The Willow Project — an important energy infrastructure development plan that would create jobs and more energy for America.
Democrats on the House committee and several influential Democrat senators, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders, wrote to President Joe Biden on Friday, asking him to kill the permits for the Master Development Plan in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska .
Nearly two dozen Democratic lawmakers signed the letter calling Willow “ill-conceived and misguided.”
“No version of the Willow [Master Development Plan (MDP)] is consistent with your commitments to combat the climate crisis and promote environmental justice, especially as reflected in the Inflation Reduction Act, historic legislation on which we all collaborated to achieve these crucial goals,” the letter states.
If allowed to proceed, the project “would pose a significant threat to U.S. progress on climate issues,” the Democrat lawmakers said, adding that the project could result in $19.8 billion in climate-related damages.
The letter was initiated by Arizona Democrat Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, who chaired the House Natural Resources Committee until Republicans took over in January. On the Senate side, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety, led the charge.
The letter is included here:
When Peltola was named to the committee by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi in September,ber Grijalva said, “I think she brings a perspective – and it’s not just an Alaska Native perspective, it’s an Alaska perspective – to us.” He then said she had enormous influence in the committee.
But that’s not what it looks like for Alaskans, who are hoping their voice in Washington, D.C. will be heard by the president.
Biden is expected to make a decision on Willow as early as Monday.
