Now that Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom are sworn into office, who is third in line, should something happen to either of them?
That would be Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation Jason Brune. Brune was appointed third in line after former Education Commissioner Michael Johnson resigned earlier this year and moved out of state.
By law, the governor of Alaska appoints that “third in line” person from his cabinet, and it’s something this governor takes seriously, sources told Must Read Alaska, especially after former Gov. Bill Walker’s disastrous end to the term of the late Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott. Not that Dunleavy expects anything to happen to his lieutenant governor.
As the lieutenant-governor successor, Brune will need to be confirmed in that role by the Alaska Legislature this session, which starts in mid-January. He has been in the successor role since July without confirmation. Brune has been the commissioner of DEC since December, 2018. Prior to his appointment, Brune was the senior director of land and resources at Cook Inlet Region Inc. (CIRI), an Alaska Native Corporation. Brune oversaw and participated in the development and administration of CIRI’s 1.6 million acres of subsurface resources, including oil, gas, minerals, sand and gravel, and coal. He supervised the team’s staff, environmental contractors, stakeholder management, and legal review, while building relationships with CIRI’s villages. Brune also worked to identify priorities for addressing contaminated lands. Prior to working at CIRI, Brune worked for Anglo American as the company’s public affairs and government relations manager.
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and several colleagues sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland urging the Biden administration to withdraw draft guidance proposed by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that severely limits energy infrastructure projects from taking advantage of permitting benefits.
The BOEM guidance imposes cost and delay on job-creating energy projects and makes it hard for energy projects to use a structured process of coordination with agencies that are available to them under the law.
“Affordable and abundant energy is critical to our national defense, to our economic future, and to the daily life of every American. One of the biggest barriers to building energy infrastructure is the red tape and bureaucracy that allows the permitting process for new energy projects to drag on for years,” the senators wrote.
“The recent proposed guidance by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management would put onerous requirements on the sponsors of infrastructure projects before allowing them to take advantage of permitting benefits… that are available to them under the law. This proposed guidance is flatly inconsistent with the law, and imposes additional cost and delay on energy projects that our country simply cannot afford. We urge the Department of the Interior to withdraw this proposed guidance and to take no additional action to make it final.”
Since arriving to the Senate, Sullivan has made permitting reform a top priority, most recently by passing a Congressional Review Act resolution to reverse President Biden’s updated NEPA regulations that delay American infrastructure and energy projects.
Timeline of Senator Sullivan’s efforts on permitting reform:
May 16, 2019 – Sullivan Introduced the Rebuild America Now (RAN) Act.
July 15, 2020 – Sullivan Applauded Trump Admin. Modernizing NEPA Environmental Reviews, Incorporating Sullivan’s Rebuild America Now Act.
August 10, 2021 – Sullivan Ensured Permitting Reform Included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
November 2021 –The Federal Permitting Reform and Jobs Act to make FAST-41 (Title 41 of the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act) permanent, improve the federal permitting process for some of the largest infrastructure projects, and build on efforts to update this process created in 2015 is signed into law as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
July 13, 2022 – Sullivan Introduced S. J. Res. 55.
August 2, 2022 – Sullivan Led Press Conference on NEPA Reform.
August 2, 2022 – Over 40 Organizations Support S.J Res. 55 and Hard-Working Americans.
August 4, 2022 – Sullivan Led Colleagues in Passing S.J. Res. 55 Overturning Onerous Biden NEPA Regulations.
The text of the letter: Dear Secretary Haaland:
As sponsors and proponents of the FAST-41 permitting improvements, we write to express serious concern about recent draft guidance proposed by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on October 24, 2022. This guidance puts onerous requirements on the sponsors of infrastructure projects before allowing them to take advantage of permitting benefits (such as a structured process for enhanced coordination with agencies) that are available to them under the law. As such, this proposed guidance is flatly inconsistent with the law. It also imposes additional cost and delay on energy projects that our country simply cannot afford. We urge you to withdraw this proposed guidance and to take no additional action to make it final.
Affordable and abundant energy is critical to our national defense, to our economic future, and to the daily life of every American. One of the biggest barriers to building energy infrastructure is the red tape and bureaucracy that allows the permitting process for new energy projects to drag on for years.
The permitting improvements reflected in the FAST-41 legislation were the result of a bipartisan effort to improve and clarify/demystify the federal permitting process while retaining all environmental protections. To accomplish this, the legislation made several significant benefits available to our nation’s most important infrastructure projects—defined as “covered projects” in the statute. Under FAST-41, covered projects are posted to a “permitting dashboard” and the agencies involved are required to coordinate with the project sponsor and each other to timely develop and maintain a coordinated project plan and publicly posted “permitting timetable.” If the agencies miss deadlines, they are required to explain why. The legislation also created a Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (“the Council”), composed of representatives from 15 government agencies (including the Department of the Interior) and the Council Executive Director. This Council standardizes interagency consultation and coordination practices, resolves interagency conflicts, and reduces inefficiencies for covered projects. We enacted this legislation to ensure that complex “covered projects”—including renewable and conventional energy projects—could easily obtain the early and ongoing coordination and transparency benefits that FAST-41 and the Council provides.
The recent draft guidance proposed by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management flouts the law and undermines the very benefits that FAST-41 offers. Under the law, a project qualifies as a “covered project” and is entitled to FAST-41 coverage if certain defined criteria are met. Additionally, the “final and conclusive” authority to determine whether these criteria are met is vested in the Executive Director of the Council, and the specific information that must be submitted by a project sponsor in support of this determination is defined by statute.
In spite of these clear statutory requirements, the proposed guidance by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management purports to require the completion of a “checklist” where all responsibility for coordinating with regulatory agencies falls solely on project sponsors before the Bureau will “consider” a project a FAST-41 “covered project.” This checklist includes, for example, consultations with numerous different federal agencies and at least nine different studies, assessments, or reports. The guidance also requires project sponsors to identify and provide all federal, state, and local authorizations, approvals, consultations, or permits necessary to conduct the proposed activities and states that the applicant should meet with all agencies that must either permit or be consulted regarding the proposed action at least once. These very activities are captured by the FAST-41 process for covered projects and assigned to the facilitating or lead agency, and not the project sponsor. Within 60 days of FAST-41 coverage, the facilitating or lead agency is required to communicate with each coordinating and participating agency to develop the Coordinated Project Plan. This includes: a list of, and roles and responsibilities for, all entities with environmental review or authorization responsibility for the project; a permitting timetable; a discussion of potential avoidance, minimization, and mitigation strategies; and plans and a schedule for public and tribal outreach and coordination. The plan provides a formal coordination process to ensure all agencies’ critical needs to timely complete FAST-41 requirements are addressed and documented in a singular place that can be relied upon for schedule and resource planning for all agencies involved in the environmental review and authorization process. The extra-statutory requirements imposed by this new guidance are an improper attempt to limit access to the FAST-41 process and its considerable efficiencies.
The recent draft guidance also appears to be an attempt to usurp the statutory authority of the Executive Director to make a final determination concerning whether a project qualifies as a “covered project.” In a recent written decision, the Executive Director of the Council applied the text of FAST-41 to conclude that an offshore wind energy project qualified as a “covered project” notwithstanding the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s attempts to prevent coverage by imposing extra-statutory requirements. This determination was both correct as a matter of law and within the authority of the Executive Director to decide. Nevertheless, we are concerned the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is attempting, under the guise of new guidance, to circumvent this decision and undermine the authority of the Executive Director. This is improper and inconsistent with the statutory scheme.
In addition to being unlawful, this guidance is also poor policy. Although many of the required items on the “checklist” would benefit from the interagency coordination and scheduling provisions provided by FAST-41, the guidance requires project sponsors to complete them before the Bureau will consider a project for coverage and coordination under the statute that would require the agency to perform these functions. The FAST-41 process enhances transparency for all involved entities through the development and maintenance of a Coordinated Project Plan and permitting timetable for covered projects identifying all relevant completion dates for agency action on any environmental review or authorization required for a covered project. The filings identified in this guidance can and should be identified, coordinated, and tracked according to the transparency and accountability mechanisms provided by FAST-41.
With families experiencing record energy costs, the United States government should make every effort to encourage and facilitate new energy infrastructure. The draft guidance promulgated by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management seems to take the opposite approach. It limits access to existing permitting transparency and efficiency measures while imposing even more red tape, cost, and delay on energy permitting. This is deeply concerning.
In light of these serious legal and policy concerns, we urge you to withdraw this proposed guidance and to take no additional action to make it final.
In addition to Sullivan, the letter was signed by Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Angus King (I-Maine), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and Steve Daines (R-Mont.).
On Wednesday, at about 3:30 pm, there will be an emergency vehicle procession to honor fallen Alaska Department of Public Safety Court Services Officer Curtis Worland as his remains are escorted from the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Anchorage.
CSO Worland was killed when a muskox attacked him on Dec. 13, 2022 in Nome. There may be brief delays in traffic on the route during the procession.
Route: 6500 Carl Brady Drive, to Raspberry Road, to Minnesota Drive, to Tudor Road, ending at 5455 Doctor M.L.K. Jr Ave. The airport transfer will be closed to media.
The legal team trying to get Rep. David Eastman banned from public office said in court on Tuesday that a photo of Eastman at the Holocaust Museum is proof enough that he is an anti-semite and a white supremacist. Taking a picture by that quote can only mean one thing, the expert on extremism said: Eastman supports Adolf Hitler.
Eastman, an Eagle Scout who is in his fourth term as a state legislator, last year had his photo taken next to a wall-sized quote by Hitler at the Holocaust Museum. Eastman haters on the left have interpreted that to mean that the ginger-headed West Point graduate supports the point of view of the Hitler quote.
But it was entirely off topic to the question at hand on Tuesday in the video court proceeding. Eastman is in court because leftists say that being a member of a group that supports the Constitution — the Oath Keepers — is justification for his being removed from office by the court. The white supremacy accusation was merely a bunny trail.
Eastman, long ago, sent in his dues to the Oath Keepers organization, and thus became a “lifetime” member of the group that is made up of former law enforcement officers and military personnel. The group has as many as 38,000 members. He has no real affiliation with the group other than his dues, according to his lawyer, Joe Miller.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Eastman and tens of thousands of Americans went to Washington, D.C. to attend a Donald Trump rally. That, according to the lawyers for Wasilla resident Randall Kowalke, is evidence that he supports insurrection.
Lawyers for Kowalke argued in court on Tuesday that just because Eastman or other Oath Keepers did not go into the U.S. Capitol, didn’t mean they were not planning to.
Eastman is being accused by Kowalke and the Northern Justice Project of violating the Alaska Constitution’s “disloyalty clause,” which says anyone who belongs to a group whose purpose is to overthrow the government cannot work in government in Alaska. That means, if the argument holds, that Eastman could not even work as a dog catcher.
Judge Jack McKenna is hearing the case, which continues today. It is a non-jury trial that will leave the decision about Eastman and his ability to serve in the Legislature to just one man, a judge who has already said that it appears the plaintiffs have a case. If the judge rules for Kowalke and against Eastman, that would mean anyone who has a membership with Oath Keepers could be denied public employment in Alaska.
But it’s a decision that would likely be appealed.
Alaska State Troopers Court Services Officer Curtis Worland was killed Tuesday by a muskox, which attacked him by his home near Nome. CSO Worland was attempting to chase a group of muskox from coming into contact with a dog kennel when one of the muskox attacked him. Worland was declared deceased at the scene.
“Curtis proudly wore the Court Services Officer uniform and honorably served the people of Alaska for 13 years. He was a proud member of the Nome community and a dedicated member of the Alaska law enforcement family,” said Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell. “I hope that Alaskans will keep Curtis’ family, friends, loved ones, and the Alaska State Troopers in your thoughts as we process this tragic loss for our state. He will be sorely missed by the DPS family.”
The Alaska State Troopers, in coordination with the Alaska Wildlife Troopers and Alaska Department of Fish and Game, are investigating the incident.
CSO Worland has served as a Court Services officer since December 2009. He has worked at the Nome State Trooper post his entire career.
It was not the first time Worland had to protect his dogs from muskox. In 2020, a mature bull muskox that got into the dog yard owned by Kamey and Curtis Worland wounded one of the sled dogs. The must broke through a fence of the dog lot, which is close to the Nome-Teller Highway. That attack was discovered by an employee who came to feed the dogs, and found the bull in the dog yard. Troopers moved the dogs to safety and tried to remove the muskox, but it was uncooperative. The muskox became more and more agitated until Troopers found the only way to deal with it was to put it down. It was killed and the meat salvaged by a subsistence permit holder.
In that incident, a female dog was injured and required a medevac to Anchorage, where it underwent lifesaving surgery. Read about that incident at the Nome Nugget.
Sam Bankman-Fried gave $40 million to Democrats and their political campaign committees. Hundreds of thousands of dollars was given to a political entities run by D.C. insiders and former staffers of Congressman Don Young. Those funds were used to fight Alaska Republicans candidates so that Democrat Mary Peltola could become Alaska’s U.S. Representatives. Nearly $10,000 went to the Alaska Democratic Party. It worked.
It was a massive election campaign fraud involving ripping off investors and giving the money to Democrats, but one of just many perpetuated by Bankman-Fried and the Democrats.
Now, the Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Samuel Bankman-Fried with orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors of his FTX Trading Ltd. (FTX), the cryptocurrency trading platform of which he was the CEO and co-founder.
In an indictment unsealed Tuesday, Bankman-Fried is charged on eight counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customer and lenders, wire fraud on customers and lenders, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering.
But wait, there’s more: Documents show that Bankman-Fried is being charged with conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws, as he “willfully and knowingly did combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to commit offenses against the United States by engaging in violations of federal law involving the making, receiving, and reporting of a contribution, donation, or expenditure, in violation of Title 52, United States Code, Sections 30109(d) (1) (A) & (0).”
The federal changes say Bankman-Fried “did defraud the United States, and an agency thereof, by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of a department and agency of the United States through deceitful and dishonest means, to wit, the Federal Election Commission’s function to administer federal law concerning source and amount restrictions in federal elections.
Bankman-Fried had been under criminal investigation by federal and Bahamian authorities after his FTX house of cards collapsed in November. The company filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, just after the Nov. 8 election, a year in which Bankman-Fried had donated tens of millions to mostly Democrat causes and campaigns.
According to the SEC’s complaint, since at least May 2019, FTX, based in The Bahamas, raised more than $1.8 billion from equity investors, including approximately $1.1 billion from approximately 90 U.S.-based investors.
Bankman-Fried promoted FTX as a safe, responsible crypto asset trading platform, specifically touting FTX’s sophisticated, automated risk measures to protect customer assets.
The complaint alleges that, in reality, Bankman-Fried orchestrated a years-long fraud to conceal from FTX’s investors:
the undisclosed diversion of FTX customers’ funds to Alameda Research LLC, his privately-held crypto hedge fund;
the undisclosed special treatment afforded to Alameda on the FTX platform, including providing Alameda with a virtually unlimited “line of credit” funded by the platform’s customers and exempting Alameda from certain key FTX risk mitigation measures; and
undisclosed risk stemming from FTX’s exposure to Alameda’s significant holdings of overvalued, illiquid assets such as FTX-affiliated tokens.
the commingling of FTX customers’ funds at Alameda to make undisclosed venture investments, lavish real estate purchases, and large political donations.
Read the SEC complaint against Bankman-Fried here:
“We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “The alleged fraud committed by Mr. Bankman-Fried is a clarion call to crypto platforms that they need to come into compliance with our laws. Compliance protects both those who invest on and those who invest in crypto platforms with time-tested safeguards, such as properly protecting customer funds and separating conflicting lines of business. It also shines a light into trading platform conduct for both investors through disclosure and regulators through examination authority. To those platforms that don’t comply with our securities laws, the SEC’s Enforcement Division is ready to take action.”
“FTX operated behind a veneer of legitimacy Mr. Bankman-Fried created by, among other things, touting its best-in-class controls, including a proprietary ‘risk engine,’ and FTX’s adherence to specific investor protection principles and detailed terms of service. But as we allege in our complaint, that veneer wasn’t just thin, it was fraudulent,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “FTX’s collapse highlights the very real risks that unregistered crypto asset trading platforms can pose for investors and customers alike. While we continue to investigate FTX and other entities and individuals for potential violations of the federal securities laws, as alleged in our complaint, today we are holding Mr. Bankman-Fried responsible for fraudulently raising billions of dollars from investors in FTX and misusing funds belonging to FTX’s trading customers.”
The SEC’s complaint charges Bankman-Fried with violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The SEC’s complaint seeks injunctions against future securities law violations; an injunction that prohibits Bankman-Fried from participating in the issuance, purchase, offer, or sale of any securities, except for his own personal account; disgorgement of his ill-gotten gains; a civil penalty; and an officer and director bar.
In parallel actions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced charges against Bankman-Fried.
The case of Alaska State Rep. David Eastman is bizarre and unprecedented, but it isn’t complicated. Put simply, left-wing activists are trying to trample the First Amendment and disenfranchise voters in Eastman’s district by asking a judge to rule him ineligible to hold office in the state.
Why? Because Eastman, 41, is a conservative. So are his constituents in Wasilla who recently elected him to a fourth term. If freedom of speech and association mean anything, Eastman should win his case easily. But the fact that he has to fight in court for the right to represent the people who elected him, and to clear his good name, is a testament to the relentless efforts of the left to criminalize the views of their political opponents and slander them as insurrectionists.
The details of Eastman’s ordeal almost defy belief. This week, a trial began in Anchorage to determine whether the Alaska lawmaker’s association with the Oath Keepers disqualifies him from holding office on the grounds that his alleged membership in the organization runs afoul of the Alaska constitution’s loyalty oath, which bars individuals from holding office if they belong to a group that “advocates the overthrow by force or violence of the United States or of a State,” or if they themselves advocate the same.
Editor’s note: Weather delayed the start of the trial on Monday, but it is expected to start Tuesday, Dec. 13.
A second part of the suit demands that the Alaska Division of Elections conduct assessments of every candidate’s loyalty to the Constitution so that voters will only be able to vote for candidates whose views have been officially approved by the state’s election bureaucracy.
Setting aside the outrageousness of allowing a state agency to vet the opinions of political candidates before their names can appear on the ballot, consider the gravity of what’s at stake in Eastman’s case: guilt by association. By his own admission, Eastman’s connection to Oath Keepers, a loosely organized group with some 38,000 members, is a “slight one.” He made a donation to the organization more than a dozen years ago and received a “lifetime membership” but never attended a meeting.
Read the rest of this report at The Federalist. John Daniel Davidson is a senior editor at The Federalist. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Claremont Review of Books, The New York Post, and elsewhere.
Republican Party officers of House District 29 voted unanimous support of three state senators who were excluded from a caucus that was formed by lawmakers to give Democrats control of the Alaska Senate.
The three are Republicans Sen. Mike Shower of Wasilla, Sen. Shelley Hughes of the Mat-Su/Palmer, and Sen. Robb Myers of North Pole, all of whom were not asked to join the 17-member caucus that puts Democrats in charge of most committees.
While the Alaska Senate has 11 Republicans elected, the caucus in charge of the body has nine Democrats and eight Republicans.
The resolution notes that eight Republican senators abandoned their three colleagues and aligned themselves with the anti-development, pro-tax, inflationary policies of President Biden.
The officers note that this leftist-controlled coalition is “fundamentally at odds with the interests of the residents of district 29 and Alaskans across the state,” and that it is a binding caucus that will put the interests of the Democrat majority over the interests of District 29 residents.
The three who were not included in the caucus remained faithful to the voters as well as 65% of Alaskans who chose Republicans as their first choice during the most recent election.
Shower, Hughes, and Myers are focused on fixing the state’s long-standing fiscal problems and moving the state forward, the resolution states.
The three received the commendation and thanks of District 29: “Now therefore be it resolved that District 29 of the Alaska Republican Party is exceedingly proud of the principle, character and integrity shown by our Senator, Mike Shower, and That District 29 of the Alaska Republican Party commends Senators Shower, Hughes, and Myers for standing up for the will of their constituents above that of the liberal-led, Democrat dominated State Senate.”
District 27 and 28 Republicans have asked Sen. David Wilson of Wasilla to renounce his membership in the binding Democrat-controlled caucus. It has become clear, however, that he does not intend to run for reelection for this deeply conservative district and, as of yet, has not left the caucus.
Congresswoman Mary Peltola has been voting by proxy, which means not showing up in Congress on the floor to cast her ballot.
Since winning on Nov. 23, she cast a vote through two different colleagues on two different occasions:
Reps. Luis Correa of California and Haley Stevens of Michigan did her work for her.
On both of her official proxy letters, Peltola cites the “ongoing public health emergency” as her reason for having someone else cast her vote for her.
“I am unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency and I hereby grant the authority to cast my vote by proxy to the Honorable Haley Stevens (Michigan), who has agreed to serve as my proxy,” Peltola wrote to the House Clerk on Nov. 29.
She used the same language on Dec. 8, awarding her proxy to Correa for her vote in favor of H. R. 8404, the “Respect for Marriage Act.” See documentation here.
She awarded her vote to Correa for the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, H.R. 7776.
Peltola wasn’t sick, and she wasn’t staying home. She attended parties and had her picture taken with friends and supporters. But she was taking advantage of a Democrat-led rule in the House that allows members to award their vote to a friendly colleague to cast for them.
As the Covid pandemic swept the nation, Congress changed rules in January of 2021, so that members could simply file a letter stating that they can’t physically attend proceedings. In August, Speaker Nancy Pelosi extended the proxy rule to the end of September, so that her members could campaign or go camping, rather than show up for work.
In her letter, Pelosi stated that the extension was due to the “public health emergency.”
“In light of the attached notification by the Sergeant-at-Arms, in consultation with the Office of Attending Physician, that a public health emergency is in effect due to a novel coronavirus, I am hereby extending the ‘covered period’ designated on January 4, 2021, pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution 8, until September 26, 2022,” Pelosi wrote in August. By then, more than 5,600 proxy letters had been filed by congressional members with the House Clerk, many of them so that members could simply take vacations.
Last month, Pelosi extended the proxy vote rule until the end of December — nearly until the end of her term as Speaker.
Members of the House GOP leadership team say they plan to end the practice when they take over in January. Incoming Speaker Kevin McCarthy said in September, “We will immediately reopen the Capitol and end the Democrat proxy voting and remote work schemes that have inflicted untold damage to this institution.”
