House Democrats voiced their opinions about last week’s announcement of a lawsuit by the State over the Department of Interior’s refusal to consider Arctic National Wildlife Refuge exploration.
House Democratic Leader Chris Tuck of Anchorage said he supports the lawsuit.
Rep. Tuck: “We’ve done a very good job up on the North Slope. We don’t want to see development get pushed off shore to where we have so many conditions that can cause a bigger accident up there than what we need to have. So anything we can do to get ANWR going I think is smart, I support the Governor’s plan on making sure that we have access.”
Representative Scott Kawasaki of Fairbanks said that overall Democrats support development in the state when it is done in the right manor however questioned the lawsuit’s timing.
Rep. Kawasaki: “Litigation like this comes up during election years it seems like. I don’t know how serious the Governor is on this proposal. I would suspect that he like a lot of Alaskans do support opening up ANWR and would like to see it happen rather than having these places locked up.”
