Governor Mike Dunleavy spoke on a podium adjacent to President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. at a White House event on Thursday afternoon. The Governor lauded the President’s deregulation initiatives, including a new overhaul of a longstanding environmental law.
The aforementioned deregulation initiatives aim to, collectively, save Americans more than $220 billion each year, according to the White House. These changes include what the White House says is “work to reduce outdated regulations,” rolling back environmental rules in an attempt to provide relief to farmers, and expanding Medicare telehealth coverage.
President Trump said Governor Dunleavy is working with the administration on continued deregulation: “Vice President Pence is also working closely with state, local, and tribal leaders to streamline occupational licensing. Over 30 states have taken steps to reduce these barriers to unemployment, and to employment, including a state I love very much – I have a little history in that state. The great state of Alaska. Thank you very much, Governor, for being here. Mike Dunleavy, thank you very much.”
Dunleavy celebrated the President’s decision to scale back review of resource development projects, which includes Thursday’s release of a major overhaul of the National Environmental Policy Act. He also took time to mention the success of the expansion of telehealth in Alaska, as evidence to applaud Trump’s expansion of elderly Americans’ access to telehealth.
Governor Dunleavy: “In Alaska, for example, we have communities that are 500 or 600 miles off the road system. The telehealth regulations that have been put in-place now, are not only going to be good for medicine, but they’re going to save lives as a result of the work that you and your team have done. We look at our resource development, we look at businesses small and big, and you’ve restored, you’ve renewed hope that it is possible to achieve the American dream. These regulations over the past 40 years have really, in many respects, killed the American dream. As you said, they’ve strangled the American dream.”
The President’s decision to scale back the National Environmental Policy Act is certainly well-received by the Governor, but some environmental groups have publicly expressed concern that the changes go too far and could be harmful.