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The opinions expressed on this show are those of the host and not of iHeart Media or its employees. Thank you for listening to NewsRadio 650 KENI. Amy Demboski. The show starts now. Our lines are open at 907-522-0650. This is The Morning Drive on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Did you really not have any idea? Today morning. We have made it to the month of June. Monday, June 2nd. Current time, 6.06 a.m. Oh, Daryl.
You know, I will tell you, I'm hoping we don't get one of those summers where it's just cloudy all summer. I'm like ready for, I know it increases the fire danger, but I'm ready for some sunshine. You know, I would like a little bit of it, but not too much because I get overheated way too easily. But what do you mean second of June? Wait, wait. What happened to the first of June? Well, that was yesterday. Oh. That was yesterday. Okay.
So I am looking forward to a nice sunny June. Like, bring on the sun. Because, you know, July, oftentimes it rains in July here. So, I mean, my grass could use the rain, but, man, it was windy out here again yesterday afternoon. In the evening, out in Palmer, it was like windy, windy. See, yesterday, not so bad. Saturday, we had some solid. I had a gust of 15 to 16 over in Spenard, which for Spenard, that's a pretty solid gust of wind that popped through there, but...
Yeah, it feels like it's a weird summer. Like, I've noticed, you know, typically it's like the fall where we really get the wind in, you know, February when it gets cold. But it's been a weird summer. I feel like we haven't really gotten that much rain, to be honest with you. You know, the winds only really showed up in the last, what, maybe week once the legislature got out of Juneau when they all hit back up here. That wind just started blowing up. Solid!
Solid, solid. Oh, I can't dispute that. When Daryl has a solid, you just have to go with it. You know, I think you're right about that, Daryl. I think you're right about that, yeah. And I discovered something that I didn't realize was a trend or a thing, and that also explains... That's why June 1st, yesterday it was done. What? The changing of the blankets or the covers. Do you go through the house and change all your winter blankets to heavy blankets off and put on summer ones?
I do not. Wow. Okay. Well, that's become a ritual around my place. Nice. I don't know about nice for you. I mean... undo every bed even though I gotta be honest with you it makes you feel like the seasons have changed though you know it's kind of like spring cleaning where you go through and you just kind of wipe through you know I'm look I'm of that age I'm hot all the time so we always have summer blankets on the beds now. Well, I was going to say, what cleaning?
And I got to be honest with you, like last night I slept with the air conditioner on and my fan. Well, the fans going in, like I said, and I was thankful that we did take all the thick blankets off because those have been just getting piled off to one side. But somehow they seem to end back up. on me, which I'm going to die of heat. But yeah, it's this ritual that all of a sudden, we do it every year. It's like, do we? Do we, do we, do we? Exactly. Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
Well, Huey and Louie. Dewey is always there. Oh, here we go. See, I'm just starting on my first cup of coffee, Daryl. I'm not quite up to the task yet. Well, let's do some public announcements, shall we? You know, I was looking at the weather, and right now I'm sitting at 50.3 in Palmer. Hold on.
Am I winning? I'm winning, aren't I? I feel like I'm winning. 47, 48 degrees is the best I've got. Oh, see, I feel like I'm winning. Yeah, we're definitely winning. Kenai's checking in at 47. Big Lake, 46. Fairbanks right now is the closest. They're at 49 degrees. So, you know, not terrible. It looks like it's a little overcast today. I saw the announcement from DOT over the weekend.
Uh, that other flipping bridge. Yep. They're supposed to flip the bridges today. So one of the connect river bridges is supposed to be shut down today. We're back to our zipper traffic, you know, merge politely. I was so impressed with the first bridge. So the second bridge is supposed to be closed for 30 days while they repair it. So we will see. We'll see how it goes. But all in all, it was...
It should be a decent week as we're looking around. I'm looking at the public announcements for today. There's not a ton of them. There's a few in the Mat-Su borough. Let's start with them. Today for Monday, June 2nd, the Joint Assembly School Board Committee on School Issues out here in the Matzeau Borough has been canceled for today, so that's not going to happen. So mostly we have community council meetings. Starting at 6 p.m. tonight, the Fish Hook Community Council
has their board meeting at St. Herman Church. That's off of Endove Road in Wasilla. The Planning Commission has a meeting tonight. That's going to be at the Assembly Chambers over there at the Palmer Borough Building, the big white building. At 7 p.m. tonight, the South Lakes Community Council has their meeting. They meet at Northern Lights Chapel, which is on the Palmer-Westzilla Highway.
And then the Talkeetna Community Council also has a meeting this evening, and that is going to be at the Talkeetna Public Library. Again, that's at 7 p.m. If you need more information for any of these meetings, some of these community councils do have a... ability to attend via Zoom or telephonically. So if you need those digital links, just go to matsugov.us and scroll down to Public Meetings Calendar, and you'll be able to find the links there.
All right, that does it really for the Matsu. I didn't see anything on the calendar for Wasilla or Palmer. So we'll sneak on over to the municipality of Anchorage. The only thing on their calendar today for Monday, June 2nd, there's a military... Veterans Affairs Commission meeting today at noon this is going to be a hybrid meeting so in person it'll be at City Hall and it'll be in the mayor's conference room that's on the eighth floor
And then if you want to attend via Zoom, you have to go to the link. So go to muni.org, click on the Mayor's tab, then click on the Events. There's also a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting tonight for the Municipality of Anchorage. That'll be at 6.30 p.m. And that's at the LUSAC Library in the Assembly Chambers. So, again, if you need the agenda or if you need more information, just go to muni.org.
and then when you click on the Mayor's tab, just go to Events, and it brings you to all the boards and commissions. There's nothing on the calendar right now for the Municipal Assembly, the Anchorage Assembly, so you're good for a couple of days there. As far as the Kenai Peninsula, There is a school board meeting tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. That will be at the Kenai Peninsula Borough Admin Building, which is located at 144 North Binkley Street in Saldotna.
And then also tonight there's a Seward-Bear Creek Flood Service Area Board meeting from 6 to 8. That's going to be at the Kenai Peninsula Borough Bear Creek Fire Station, which is located at 13105 Seward Highway in Seward. All right. If you need more information on these meetings, just go to KPB. That stands for Kenai Peninsula Borough. KPB.US.
As far as the city of Sildatna goes, I'm looking at their calendar for today. I don't see anything on their calendar today. The next meeting in Sildatna is going to be a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on... But other than that, they don't have anything really going on. I didn't see anything for the city of Kenai today either. Down in Homer, we do have a special city council meeting at 5 p.m. today. That is going to be, of course, at the Cal's Council Chamber, Homer City Hall.
You can attend via Zoom or by phone if you want to attend virtually. You can certainly do that. But that special city council meeting tonight, their agenda is up. They're going to be talking about the Homer Harbor expansion. plan and there's going to be a discussion by HDR, Ronnie McPherson.
um so if you want to talk about the homer harbor extension and see what the plan is for that or what the proposed locally preferred plan is uh you can either Zoom in, you can call in, or you can go to Homer City City Hall tonight and you can watch it.
That will actually be a big deal for Homer because obviously the harbor is a big deal down there. So how they're going to expand that, what it's going to cost, all of those kind of things will be discussed. So it should be an interesting meeting. It should be an interesting meeting. As long as they don't mess with the snagging hole. Right. No, they shouldn't. I was going to say, I would be surprised if they did.
But, you know, sometimes, sometimes politicians, you know, mess with something that's very popular. It's usually not a good thing. I'm just not sure if any Anchorage politicians have moved down to Homer or anything, so just, you know. It could be one of those things. I hope not. I hope not. I hope not. Well, you know, the buzz is starting. There's no question about it. When you start to look at APOC now and you start to see.
A lot more people have filed to run for re-election. A lot of legislators. Yesterday, I went to the, there was a press availability. Yesterday, there was a roundtable with the governor and the senators. The U.S. Senators, yeah. And a couple of people from Trump's cabinet. And there was a ton of legislators there, obviously. So it was interesting to see. Not necessarily what was said. We expected what we heard, which is basically drill baby trail. That's what I expected.
But it was fascinating to see certain legislators, who they were sitting with, who left when they left. It was fascinating. We should take a break. When we come back after the break, we'll get into that just a little bit. And, of course, it's Monday. So let's get into the news of the day. We'll be right back.
Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on a Monday morning. Traffic's light coming inbound on. Is expected for your Monday with a chance we could see some spotty to isolated showers. Additionally, some breezy conditions remain with us with temperature today warming into the low to mid 50s. Alaska's weather source, meteorologist Aaron Morrison. Amy Demboski, 6 to 8, mornings on News Radio 650, KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650.
Welcome back, current time, 621. Well, I spent my Sunday afternoon yesterday. I thought, you know... I don't know. You know, a lot of these energy conferences, the governor's having an energy conference this week. It is expected for your Monday with a chance we could see some spotty to isolated showers. Additionally, some breezy conditions remain with us with temperature today, warming and. the low to mid 50s. For Alaska's weather source, I'm a meteorologist. Aaron Morrison.
Welcome back, current time, 621. Well, I spent my Sunday afternoon yesterday. I thought, you know... I don't know. You know, a lot of these energy conferences, the governor's having an energy conference this week. It kicks off tomorrow. It goes the 3rd through the 5th. It'll be in Anchorage. But all the heavy hitters are already in Alaska. yesterday.
there was an energy round table at the Captain Cook. And see, Daryl, I did my due diligence. I have my notes in front of me. All right. So as we were there, so you had, obviously, Senator Sullivan. was there he was the one who was leading it Senator Murkowski was there. The governor was there. Then you had, at the table, you had the Resource Development Council. The RDC was there. AOGA was there. That's the Alaska Oil and Gas Association.
The Alaska Chamber of Commerce was at the table. So they had a discussion on energy. I thought it was fascinating that Joey Merrick was at the table. Big labor boss, Kelly Merrick's husband. And I had a couple good conversations with a couple of legislators. It was interesting because the legislators, obviously the roundtable was a couple hours long, and they didn't let the press in until the last.
30 minutes of it or so. And so, but before that, you know, going in and out of the room, there were a lot of legislators. I mean, you look around the room. I didn't see Stedman or Stevens there, but, you know, Bryce Hedgeman was there. I saw Representative McCabe. Representative Tilton, Alexi Moore and Julie Underwood were there. Andrew Gray came over and said hi to me. There was just a ton of them there. There were a lot of them there.
I said hi to Will Stapp. He was there from Fairbanks. So there was a lot of legislators that were there to listen to the discussion between the federal delegation that came up and obviously our... federal delegation and the governor and so i think all in all it was probably a good conversation But, you know, the big elephant in the room really is how, and this is a question that, of course, nobody asked. They took like maybe three or four questions from the press. That was it.
But the most fascinating part of the whole conversation, like I said, I didn't hear the first two hours or hour and a half of it because they didn't let the press in until afterwards. But. You know, when I went in, it was interesting because to me the most interesting thing is body language and who is in corners talking to who, who's having convos. Exactly.
And, you know, the federal delegation was very, very much pro, hey, we've got to develop the resources here in Alaska. And I will tell you this. no question in my mind why Doug Burgum was picked as the Department of Interior Secretary. That guy is wicked smart. Wicked smart. And... you know as we're listening to i'm listening to the conversation it was everything i expected to hear
Right. So Senator Sullivan kicked off the closing remarks by talking about the top issue as being permitting reform. And as he talks about that, I mean, it shouldn't take you 20 years to permit something. Right. Well, that's the big problem now is first you got five years to get the lease and everything going. And then all of a sudden they've got...
10 years at least of permits and lawsuits and lawsuits and studies that you've got to do. By the time it comes around, you're 30 years down the road. That does not work. Yeah, exactly. And so I think Senator Sullivan rightly points out some of the issues with permitting that they're going to address. And Senator Murkowski had some good comments, too. And she talked about...
You know, energy dominance begins with the state of Alaska, and she talks about the next steps, permitting, agency coordination, and she said looking at litigation delays. So she didn't really give us a, you know. It was kind of a fence-sitting comment about litigation delays, but she was saying the right things. And so I was like, okay, okay, that's fine.
And the government gave his little, you know, his little wrap-up comments. But, you know, it was good hearing from like the EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin. He made the comment that, you know, yes, we can protect the environment at the same time. we grow the economy and he was you know for him he said there's three words that are the basic takeaway approved primacy and durability and I love
to hear him say that, because what it tells me is they're very focused on understanding the issues. So when he's talking approved, obviously he's talking about permitting, right? Primacy, the ability to develop your resources. Durability is long-term longevity. And the ability to do that. And it was really good to hear. But when I heard Burgum talk, I mean, he was so articulate and he was so dialed in. And you really got the sense that he knew what he was talking about and understood.
This is one of the things that really surprised me. He went on a little bit of a tangent, and I loved it, every minute of it. But he started talking about Germany, and he started talking about the diversity of energy. And look, we can manage our own decline if we want to.
But take a lesson from what Europe has done. So Germany, over the past many years, has been diversifying their energy. They've been getting away from mining oil and gas, right? And they've been going to a lot of these green energies. And he said all these years of doing that, right now, today, Germany is producing 20% less energy than they did back in the day when they were reliant on fossil fuels, oil and gas, minerals. and mining. Listen to this. They're producing 20% less energy today.
And it costs them three times as much. See, that's crazy. That affects their manufacturing and everything else when you do that. That drives your manufacturing costs up. I mean... Oh, yeah, and so as he's talking about it, and he said there's an unnamed NGO that wants to treat Alaska like a snow globe, and he made the point. He's like, we're not going to do that because he recognized.
that Alaska and North Dakota in general, we really need to focus on our ability to produce more. He said they're producing less, and Iran is actually producing more under the Biden administration.
That is unacceptable. It's totally unacceptable. And, you know, he kind of took it home, and he said, you know, when you're talking about NPRA, the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska, when you're talking about NPRA, he said, when you look at a map it's the size of indiana and almost all hell broke loose i'm paraphrasing wildly here but basically all the people lost their minds because three oil and gas leases were let in the NPRA, which is set aside for what?
petroleum exploration and development right so when you look at national petroleum reserve alaska the npra and they let out three leases and he said he he made the comment he said npra is the size of Indiana and they permitted three, just three.
You know, and he's like, you know, it's like the size of a postage stamp. And he went on and on about how small those were. And most people couldn't even find the drill pads anywhere in NPRA if they were looking for them because it's such a small footprint. And I think he makes a really good point. And, you know, his point was long-term, the solution is likely going to be nuclear. But short-term, he's like, it's got to be LNG.
And he said everything from mining. He really focused on mining. He focused on oil and gas. He focused on timber and fishing. I mean, these guys weren't just... Myopic. They weren't just looking at one thing. And it was really reassuring to recognize that our federal administrators that run these departments, the Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright was here too. He had some really good comments. But the most fascinating thing about this entire conversation...
was they had their little energy roundtable, right? They let the press in the last 30 minutes or so, so we could hear their closing comments, which was great. And then as soon as... They they're finishing their closing comments and they open questions up to the press Lisa Murkowski walks out of the room Now it's even better than that. It's even better than that
Because I actually wrote this down as soon as it started happening. It's on my little notepad. Because I was watching. Because I told you, the best thing about these meetings, it's not always what is said. There was no big announcement that was made at this meeting. But Lisa Murkowski walks out of the room. Who gets up and walks out right after her? Joey Merrick. Who gets up from the crowd and walks right after Joey Merrick? Brian Murkowski, Lisa's brother.
Who gets up from the crowd and walks out right after Brian Murkowski? Kelly Merrick. Gee, you wouldn't guess that maybe they're going on maybe a lunch date or something like that to figure out how they can get around things? I'm just saying it was so obvious. Now look, I don't begrudge some woman for getting out and walking out after her husband.
But I will tell you, I had legislators literally tell me that they've literally seen Joey Merrick pick up the phone and call legislators and say, you will vote this way. You will vote that way. And if they don't do what he says, he's like, well, we'll just replace them. I literally had this conversation with the legislator yesterday. It was fascinating for me. Like I said, when you get into the crowd, a lot of times the story is not. is not necessarily the most obvious one.
And, of course, I was sitting next to Suzanne Downing. And Suzanne was, you know, she knows all these people. She knows the game. She's been around this business for a very long time in the state of Alaska. And to her credit, you know, as soon as she said, oh, look, Lisa's. leaving before any press questions and I snapped my head up and then I started watching who walked out right after her and I'm like
Yeah, tell me that she's not in the pocket of big labor. And do you think she might be coordinating about this big, beautiful bill that you know she's going to be one of those sticklers against? She's going to be a stick in the mud. And we're going to trigger Ken here because, you know, her brother, Brian Murkowski, who got into the business of all this green energy stuff? Oh, no way. Remember when he set up that business? Yeah.
So I'm just telling you, politics is a dirty business. It is a dirty, but it's a relationship-based business. I mean, that's, look, I've got to be honest with you. That's how you get things done. It's not necessarily what you know. It's who you know. Who you can choose. I'm telling you. I always say it. Follow the money. Who's connected to who?
who's funding the bill who's making money off what who's donating to whose campaign i'm not saying that's everything but it is an interesting aspect to the conversation Always, always, always, always. Gives you the full spectrum of light on something. Yeah, yeah. So I will say my major takeaway was like great news from the Trump administration. I actually really like to hear.
What Lisa Murkowski said, she said the right things. She praised the members of the Trump administration. Of course, she didn't praise the president, but... She did. She looks like she has a good working relationship with those members of the Trump administration. That's good. So look, I'm an equal opportunity critiquer.
I don't care what side you're on. But I also think it's important to say the good things when you see them. And I thought her comments on the issue at hand, I thought they were good. So I thought, okay, you know. We'll go from there. But it was a very interesting thing. The other thing I said to a legislator, I won't say who, but I had a legislator come up to me, and I'm going to sanitize my comments. for radio. Don't worry, Daryl. I won't say a bad word. Can I use the word muck?
Can I use that word? I'll say mess. How about mess? So one legislator comes out, and they're a little critical of what was being said inside, and they're like, oh, this is never going to happen.
going to come to fruition and i have this sense this was a non really excited this is not really somebody i don't think that is a real trump supporter but it's okay so they come out and have a conversation and they're like oh yeah you know i don't know this isn't ever going to happen i said well not if the legislature messes it up see i see You did. I said, you know, seriously, I said any, honestly, if I were to get asked one question, it would be to the governor and it would be.
you know governor what are you going to do to deal with the alaska legislature because if you do anything to bring in if you have to do anything with the alaska legislature they'll mess it up But the reality is there's no point in asking him the question because we already know it. And it's really an answer the governor can't say out loud. The reality is the governor has to go around the legislature and the governor has to work directly with the feds and develop on federal land.
where the legislature can't screw it up because if you bring something look this legislature we saw in this last legislative session if they have the opportunity to screw up a great golden opportunity they will do it Absolutely. So the reality is, I mean, there's no point in even asking the question because, frankly, it puts the governor in a terrible position where he has to basically say, yeah, I don't trust the Alaska legislature. I have to go around them because if they have the opportunity.
and they see great development opportunities in front of them, what will they try to do? They're going to try to tax it. And this is why the 2026 election is going to be so important, because if you want to capitalize on the Trump administration's Alaska agenda, you have to make sure there's a Republican, frankly, in the governor's mansion next year. All right, let's take a quick break. 522-0650 if you'd like to call in.
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states. Anchorage was the only city in Alaska on the list. A statement from Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's office said Anchorage is not a sanctuary city. And the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program at the University of Alaska has named a new CEO. Michelle Yachmaneff says her career is about helping Alaska I'm John Fink. What happens next?
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Listen to Medal of Honor on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow Medal of Honor and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app today. Welcome back, Current Time 641. Well, you know, it's interesting to me. when I was listening to the press questions, because they were all typical. Look, I've got to be honest with you. Typical lefty questions. You know, oh, Senator Sullivan.
You know, Trump wants to get rid of, you know, renewable credits. And how does that, you know, work with, you know, expanding the environment and the all the above energy strategy? And, you know, I mean, come on. I laugh because I'm like, what a softball question. Like Sullivan's going to nail this one. And to his point, he's like, look, we can do both. We can protect the environment.
And we can increase energy production. But the reality is, and here's the reality. The reality is, if you want Alaska, to be an ai center of the world you have got to have energy production minerals oil gas you can't do that on ai you can't you can't in improve and have AI data centers on renewable energy. They don't produce enough energy.
That is the hard brass tacks of it. That is the fact. And this is the reason why Germany will never be an AI capital, because Germany has diversified their energy to the point where they've weakened their energy. own system by 20% of energy production and it costs them three times as much. You need cheap energy to produce the amounts of energy.
needed for these AI centers and so you know the governor's been on this kick of bringing trying to entice AI centers here in Alaska because our climate is the right kind of climate for it we have the right space for it we have the right resources to be able to But the fact of the matter is if you do not produce oil and gas and mining, you're not going to produce enough affordable energy to run AI data centers. And it was fascinating for me to hear some of these secretaries.
from the Trump cabinet talk about AI. I mean, I'm telling you, I rarely am surprised. Rarely am surprised in politics. I actually walked away from that meeting going, oh, my gosh, like Trump absolutely paid. And, you know, I was a fan saying, oh, this would be great for Alaska if Dunleavy was picked as the Department of Interior secretary. Burgum was absolutely the right choice. Absolutely. The guy, I was very impressed. It is hard to impress me in politics.
He is smart as a whip. I'm telling you what. And he had his finger on the pulse of these issues. I mean, he was, I mean, he really, really, he was talking about today. Like, for example, he said. The average, you know, warehouse, you know, is going to need between about 25 kilowatts, you know, of power per square foot.
to generate. And he said that's the average. The new technology today, as you're improving technologies in these new warehouses, up to 40 kilowatts per square foot for a warehouse. We're talking about warehouse. Now think about... AI and how much data they're using. And so he really understands if you're going to expand the economy, if you're going to expand, and this is, I mean, you talk about arms races, the global race right now.
The global arms race, if you will, right now, it's not for weapons. It's AI technology. And he understood it. He understood it. He communicated it. And he fundamentally understood what it meant. And it seems the Trump administration is super focused on this. And they understand right now we are in a global AI.
race for dominance and the key to that to be able to do that is energy dominance because you have to be able to power these data centers on a side note did you know that the computer program has got a new favorite song out there Oh, God, what? Oh, so there's a server here. There's a server there. Here's a server there. A-I-A-I-O. Oh, so sad. So sad. I know you try. It's so sad.
Well, I will tell you. So it was a good way to spend my Sunday. I didn't spend it with Jesus yesterday, but Jesus is with me all the time. He was there with you. Oh, he was there with me. I had my protective bubble around all those politicians, I've got to tell you. One thing I didn't go, there was a GOP picnic or something. I don't know. There was some sort of Alaska GOP. legislative luncheon, like,
Thank a legislator type of thing. So what? In South Anchorage yesterday. I did not go to that. I couldn't, like, I got to be honest with you. I didn't bring my hip waders, so I wasn't about to go, you know, wave through that. I was thinking Mike Showers and a couple others might have showed up, and that would be it for GOP. Come on, let's be honest.
Well, I got to be honest with you. You know, it was fun. I got to see. Let's see. I only talked to a few legislators because, honestly, I'm not ready to have those conversations yet because I wouldn't be nice. Like I said, I only dropped a few F-bombs yesterday. But I really try not to. But, you know, it was good. I saw Representative McCabe there. He was there, and we had a nice little chat, and I saw Representative George Rauscher there. I love George Rauscher. He's such a great guy.
a good guy. He is a good egg. You realize that actually he brought probably a lot of God to that. meeting that you went to that people were looking at you and going, oh, God, oh, God. I mean, wow, we need to send her out more often. You know, I laugh because I walked in with Suzanne Downing and you should see the looks we got from some of the Alaskans.
Some of the Alaska GOPs, like I said, I think the Democrats were more welcoming, frankly, than some of the Alaska GOP. People just don't like accountability.
But, you know, we'll see. With time, all wounds heal, as they say. So I'm sure, you know, eventually, you know, we'll put some little ointment and Band-Aids on their boo-boos. And I might be sending out some... girl panties to some of them i don't know we'll see all right let's go ahead and take a quick break if you'd like to call and be part of the show 522-0650 looking at your lap is another day of hopelessness there are thousands of kids who've been waiting over a year
and their weight. Sponsor a child with compassion today. Just text the word radio to 83393. Mostly cloudy, too. Overcast skies expected for your Monday with a chance we could see some spotty to isolated showers. Additionally, some breezy conditions. remain with us with temperature today warming into the low to mid 50s. For Alaska's weather source, I'm meteorologist Aaron Morrison. Now back. to the boss, Amy Demboski. Call 907-522-0650 and be a part of the show on News Radio 650. KENI.
Welcome back, current time, 651. Well, right after this energy conference roundtable yesterday, I should say roundtable yesterday, a bunch of them. uh the secretaries the governor's office the senate delegation some of them they jumped on a plane and went up to uttiavik yesterday and they're supposed to be in uh on the slope today i don't know where exactly but Suzanne Downing has the story up. In Utyavik, Burgum announces rollback of NPRA rule pledges to unleash Alaska's energy potential.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum on Sunday evening announced that the Department of Interior is moving to rescind a 2024 rule that placed a significant... new restriction on oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska. The announcement was made in Utjavik, where Burgum said the move would restore the original intent of Congress to promote responsible energy production.
in the reserve you know this came up during the roundtable and they were talking about it and the reality was this this area the NPRA was designed it was set aside for oil and gas development
And, you know, the Biden administration was trying to make it a national park. And the reality is it was meant for energy production. Burgum, along with Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, was in America's most northern community to meet with residents officials and roll out more of Trump's American energy dominance plan.
According to Burgum, here's a quote. Congress was clear. The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska was set aside to support America's energy security through responsible development, end quote. The decision follows. a thorough legal and policy review conducted by the Bureau of Land Management and senior officials, according to this Must Read Alaska article.
The review concluded that the 2024 rule under President Joe Biden, formally titled Management and Protection of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, exceeded the agency's statutory authority.
under the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976, conflicted with its purpose and created unwarranted barriers to energy development. Yeah, no duh. I mean, this was pretty obvious. I mean, when you have something called the National... petroleum reserve and they're saying you can't do or develop oil and gas petroleum right
products in that area, it kind of is obvious that it conflicts. I just want to point out the obvious here. It's the Democrats, though. Remember, they reverse everything. Inflation Reduction Act added $3 trillion in public inflation. I mean, it's just, you know. Exactly. Exactly. The NPRA covers approximately 23 million acres in Alaska's North Slope. It was established by Congress as a strategic energy reserve in the wake of the 1970s oil crisis.
BLM to carry out an expeditious program of competitive leasing while also protecting surface resources so this is a this like this is not a surprise to me I'm really glad it happened but look the Trump administration been very aggressive in identifying Alaska's strategic importance to the nation not only in strategic location i.e. why we would be a focus with the golden dome to protect from potential missile missile strikes
but also in energy dominance. And when you realize that AI has such an impact and such a potential for, frankly, world dominance, you realize that you really do need a lot of energy to be able to... to fund and have these different AI centers.
It makes a lot of sense why they're going this route. I mean, frankly, you can't run until you crawl, and you've got to have the energy resources in order to fund these AI centers that are needed, right? Not only just to fund them, but to actually run them. So this is a good thing. It says when finalized, the rescission would revert to the NPRA's management framework in the pre-May 7, 2024 regulations. The rules have historically guided leasing decisions through an integrated...
activity plan process that includes provisions to protect wildlife habitat, subsistence use, and surface values. The proposed decision will be published in the Federal Register and open for public comment for 60 days. So there you go. That was one of the big announcements that came from their trip yesterday when they went up north. So we will continue to watch what comes out of this energy conference this week.
It's good to have these federal people up here talking about Alaska, understanding Alaska issues. And I was very happy to hear a Department of Interior secretary. that was actually focused on strategic importance and actually resource development and understand Alaska issues. It was refreshing. All right, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. When we come back on the other side, we will start getting into the headlines of the day. We'll be right back.
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Welcome back, Current Time 706. This is Hour 2 of the Amy Dobosky Show, broadcasting live and local every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m. right here on 650 a.m. if you're listening on the radio. If you're listening to us online, there's two different... ways you can do it. You can listen to us on our website 650keni.iheart.com or you can download the iHeart Media app.
And I'll tell you what, that iHeartMedia app, it is like a Swiss army knife of media things. You get podcasts on it. You can get yourself radio shows on it. You can get just about anything you want. And it's super easy to use. Like I said, those preset buttons, once you figure out what you want, put them on the preset button. And best of all, it's free. Free. I love it. I love it when you tell me something's free, Daryl. I got to tell you, the next best thing is it tastes good.
And a lot of times free and taste good don't necessarily go together. You know, you know, what can I say? Well, we do love everybody who listens, and we appreciate it, whether you're listening to us live or you're listening to us on podcast. Thank you so much for listening. We appreciate it.
The other thing we appreciate is some of our very engaged legislators. Yesterday I saw him on his Sunday morning. He was spending it at the Energy Roundtable. That was Representative Kevin McCabe. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Amy. How are you? I'm good. It was great seeing you yesterday. Yep, good to see you two criminals sitting in the back there. Ha ha!
You know, we got a few side eyes, I will tell you that. I laugh. It's hilarious. But, you know, look, here's the thing I'm excited about. And this is, talk me off the ledge. What I'm afraid of, I'm hoping that the Dunleavy administration can work hand-in-hand with the federal administration, and there will, frankly, be very little role for the Alaska legislature to muck it up.
Yeah, well, that's interesting. One of the things that muck it up is a relative term. We are perfectly capable of doing that, there is no doubt. One of the things that was very interesting early on, and it didn't come up too much in the press availability afterwards, was the mindset of the federal delegation and the secretaries and the EPA administrator about... wetlands and 404 primacy. Oh, it didn't come up at all in the press availability. So what was that conversation like?
Yeah, well, the conversation was, and I didn't even realize this, more than 80% of the United States wetlands designated wetlands or defined wetlands by the Corps of Engineers and the Interior. are located in Alaska, and a good chunk of those are all on the North Slope. So changing that definition so that wetlands, the tundra on the North Slope, for instance,
are not designated as wetlands, it's going to significantly change the permitting and the NEPA requirements and that sort of thing. Wow, that is huge. That is huge. Okay, what about the next issue? So the next issue is related, is the waters of the United States, what they call WOTUS, and getting Alaska to have what's called 404 primacy.
which means that the state controls the waters. You know, there are certain definitions that you have to match before the state can control the waters over top of the... land that we already own and one of those is you have to prove that it's a navigable water or you've had to in the past so for instance it took the state of alaska more than a decade to prove that Lake Basharoff, which is a huge lake, was actually navigable to the federal government. It's ridiculous.
Well, that makes a lot of sense because I remember a few years ago, I think it was under Obama, actually, where the EPA was trying to come in and even saying, like, somebody's ditch could be, you know, waters that they control, a puddle in your yard.
could be waters that they control and I remember the fight back then about that I mean it was it was a borderline not even borderline it was absolutely ludicrous you know and this goes hand in hand with what Lee Zeldin had mentioned in the press availability was He said there's three words basically that were the takeaway, approved, primacy, and durability. And so clearly that kind of encapsulates, you know, two of the three points that he tried to highlight in the press availability.
Right. And so that kind of circles back to what we have been trying to do in the legislature is get 404 primacy. We got Title VI well primacy, which I know is going to set some of your listeners off, but that was a major focus of one of the bills that we put forth was to get the... federal government out of Alaska and to allow Alaska to have primacy over our own lands and our own wells and our own waters. We focus on that all the time.
There is resistance in the legislature, I will tell you, to getting 404 primacy, and it's mainly centered around Pebble Mine. Some of the legislators, high-powered legislators, do not want the state to have 404 primacy because they are afraid that it will allow further development of pebble mine. And it's unfortunate.
Because we absolutely must get 404 primacy. We need to get the waters of the state of Alaska away from the federal government. The rivers, the land underlying the rivers already belongs to us. It's just the waters that are...
that are the crazy thing. I think one of the figures I heard was if you were to take all the waters in the state of Alaska and line them up end to end, They would stretch, or the major rivers, they would stretch a four-lane highway all the way across the United States from Maine to, you know, Southern California. And the federal government controls those because those are federal waters, waters of the U.S. And we need to get control of those because we own the land underneath.
Well, I think that makes a lot of sense. You know, it surprises me when I hear it. And that's why I said, you know, the one question that I had thought of, and I thought, well, I'm not even going to ask it because I already know the answer, but here's the challenge you have is so many of these... They do intersect or are on federal lands or have some federal control aspect of it. Generally speaking, I think it's better for Alaska to control our own destiny than have to rely on the feds.
Oftentimes, the federal government treats us like a national park or they try to. But the challenge I see with the Alaska legislature, even things that shouldn't be controversial, where you'd think it would be an easy thing to say, yeah, we should control our own destiny, you have some legislators that are fighting against that.
and we come up on 2026, which is an election year, and I just don't see the Democrats in the legislature wanting to give Dunleavy a win or wanting to give Trump a win. And so I think... You know, I think, unfortunately, politics will intersect. And, you know, you see this on a federal level, too, where common sense things, i.e. defining a woman as, you know, obviously.
you know, a woman. And some of these things are just common sense. It seems like for political points, people will just oppose it simply because the other side's proposing it. 100%. A hundred percent. And I think that, you know, we need to, I mean, Ted Stevens said it best, to heck with politics, do what's right for Alaska, right? And that's what we need to get back to. I mean, that...
that mindset has got to filter down through all of us. Even the Republicans, the hardcore conservatives that don't quite understand exactly what the legislature is trying to do. If they just need to step back and take a look at things and listen to the legislators maybe that they trust. I mean, if they don't trust me, that's fine, but find a legislator that you trust.
and ask them to go through the bill with you and try to understand a bill or what we're doing. And the 404 primacy is a classic example. I've been through that for the last four years, trying to get this through. And some Republicans, it's the same with the carbon sequestration, the Title VI wells. They just don't understand, and so they line up against us, along with the Democrats that have lined up against us.
and all of a sudden we have a group of folks that are opposed to us that we just can't get past. So I will say the legislature is perfectly capable of screwing things up, but it's... I still hold out hope. I still hold out hope. Like, here's the thing. Look, I am one of the toughest people on some legislators. I recognize that. And I think what I'm communicating oftentimes, look, I'm very direct.
And I feel like there's a lot of people that appreciate that. Even legislators that I talk to, they're like, okay, I get where you're coming from. But I think what we have is a lot of frustration on behalf of a lot of Alaska voters who see that. this golden opportunity in front of us, and we see the political games that are played in Juneau, you know, it's incredibly...
frustrating when you see the Trump administration come out and say, look, Alaska is vital to our strategic dominance, not only in national defense, but in energy dominance. So we can do these things. Like, example, AI, right? So we can do these things and be dominant on a global level. And then you see things like, given the opportunity, every legislative session, there are some, i.e. Bill Wilkowski. who will always introduce or be pushing for.
you know a higher tax on oil and gas companies and to me there's so many alaskans that look at that and say what are we doing we're shooting ourselves in the foot here because the trump administration is giving us basically the golden ticket and then we're turning around and and we're You know, we're injecting some way to screw it up. And I think that's what...
I don't know. I feel like we've been burnt a lot of times in Alaska politics. And if we could just get out of our own way, I think everybody would flourish. Imagine if we could unleash Alaska's resource potential. If they want more money for schools, that's... That's the way to do it. I'm just saying. Yep, I totally agree. More money for schools, more money for the PFD, more money to develop Alaska responsibly the way that we want to do it. It's huge.
We first have to have an honest conversation. There has to be honesty and not the emotional rhetoric that we're all capable of doing. Whether we describe a project, oh my gosh, it's going to kill salmon. Well, is it really? Is it though? Is it though? Yeah, exactly. So let's have an honest conversation. Same with the school. Same with the BSA. Let's have an honest conversation and get rid of the emotional rhetoric that's designed to...
make Alaskans call their legislators and demand something or other. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about why the Anchorage School District is so upside down. There's a number of issues, all issues. Oh, yeah. Oh, I always like talking about solutions. Yeah, I like talking about solutions. And that's why I start with every conversation when legislators are talking about specific big policy changes or spending bills. I always ask, like, where's the money coming from and what am I going to do?
to get for it. I think those are two fair questions. Yeah, exactly, when it comes to these type of topics. Are you going to be at the Energy Conference this week? Sure. Yeah, there's a number of sidebars that I'm interested in. I know that there's some that say, oh, you can't go to that because it's associated with green energy. Well, there's other pieces of energy.
discussions in there that I want to go to, that I want to talk about. I think it would be foolish not to go. I think it would be foolish not to go because, to your point, there's some heavy hitters that are in town this week that they don't just care about green energy. They care about energy development.
in general, so I'll be interested to see what comes out of it. Now, I'm sorry I just cut you off. What was the other thing you were going to say? Part of the conversations this week would be something including what? Well, one of the big heavy hitters, if you will, is Alex Epstein, who's coming in, or Epstein is coming, I think, on Thursday for lunch, and he's the guy that wrote The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels and Fossil Future.
So just saying, well, this is the governor's green energy conference, well, it's not really. This is a sustainable energy conference, and it has all facets of energy, and we need to be talking about everything. It's all part of the honest conversation we have, have got to have if we're going to. develop Alaska's potential the way it should be developed, right? Well, I'll be interested.
If you get a chance, I know you're going to be very busy this week, but we'd love to hear any takeaways that you get from the conference this week. Because, like I said, I think the thing that has really... Not surprised me, but the truth about politics in general, I mean, you've got to show up to these events and you've got to network because it's the connections that you make that potentially will unleash the projects in the future.
Yep. Whatever those projects are. Yep, you have got to show up. You have to be there whether you agree necessarily with what they're saying or not. You at least have to know. what's being said and what projects are being talked about. Otherwise you're just left in the dust, you know? Yeah.
Yeah, no, I agree. Well, Representative McCabe, thank you so much for calling in and giving us a little of the background of what happened behind the closed doors yesterday. I can't wait to hear what comes out of this conference later. I think this is going to be an exciting week for Alaska. I think there's some announcements coming this week, just like you saw last night. And I think that we have a couple years with Trump, and we need to get on the move.
You know, one of the biggest things was access. You didn't hear much about that in the press either, but we need access. We need West Susitna access. We need rail. rail maybe up to Ambler there's a federally mandated requirement that Ambler Mining District have a road going to it so what are we doing?
Yeah, I did hear a little bit about the Ambler Road come up in the press availability in King Cove, too. So, you know, as we talk about, you know, Governor Purnell was big on roads to resources, and you've been very strong on. accessibility, especially with the rail. I mean, you have to have the infrastructure to be able to take advantage of all the resources that Alaska has. It's unlocking our potential, but it's unlocking the access to those resources.
so we can get them out is really crucial. Representative McCabe, as always, I love talking with you because you're just so darn down to earth and straight talking. We don't always have to agree on what each other are saying, but we appreciate it. I appreciate the conversation for sure. Well, thanks, Amy. I appreciate it. All right, sir. Thank you so much for the call this morning. We're going to take a quick break. 522-0650.
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Welcome back. Current time is 726. Well, I appreciate Representative McCabe calling in to tell us a little bit about what happened behind the scenes at the Energy Roundtable yesterday. You know, Secretary Burgum. Secretary Wright, Secretary Burgum is Department of Interior. Secretary Wright is Department of Energy. And EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin were all in Alaska. Most of them will be here for the majority of the week, two of the three anyway.
And we're talking energy development in Alaska and energy issues in Alaska. So that will be the topic du jour for many of the local reporting that you see this week. Interesting, there's some heavy hitters from national media. outlets that were up in Alaska yesterday. I talked to a reporter from Bloomberg who was here, and when you have this many people that show up,
For an event, it's not unusual to see them use this as an opportunity to make announcements. Yesterday in Utyavik, you know, Burgum made the announcement that they're rolling back some of the new Biden administration rules in the NPRA that they believed. We're an overstep. So what does that mean? That means the ability to develop was inhibited by the Biden administration. So obviously the Trump administration has a different perspective, and I agree with them. Not a shocker to anyone.
that I think you can develop and you can grow the economy. You can develop in a responsible... I think we do development here in Alaska better than any place on Earth. They're very, very conscientious about the environment here in Alaska when they develop. And then on top of it, you can grow the economy at the same time. I think it can be a win-win. And so today they're expected to fly over and do an oil worker rally.
Somewhere on the slope. I would say Prudhoe, but I don't know specifically where they're going to go. But they're supposed to do that today, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if you hear another announcement come out today from the Trump administration.
conference if they're gonna have it and they have these national hitters up here it would be very likely that you'll start to see a couple big announcements come out this week as relating to Alaska hence why they're in Alaska I think it would it would go It would go on and on, you know, hand in hand, I would think. I think I'm going to go ahead and take this call. I have about a minute here, so let's go ahead and grab this call from Joe. Good morning, Joe.
Thank you, Amy, and I'm sorry that you only have a minute for me, but Representative McCabe brought up some things in Must Read Alaskan when he was just on your show a few minutes ago, but the U.S. Supreme Court... throughout Dunleavy's lawsuit on Pebble and the work of the Army Corps of Engineers, EPA. And, of course, Pebblewood also needed Coast Guard permits because they were going to run a gas line underneath Cook Inlet through Lake Iliamna.
to get gas to run that mine, and they would be competing with Anchorage. The whole thing, it's defunct. And I don't know why Representative McCabe doesn't do his research. Because when you do not know what you're talking about and get the facts straight, Amy, it makes you a fool. What is it? What specifically are you talking about? Are you talking about Pebble specifically by itself, where you're saying he doesn't know what he's talking about?
Are you talking about, because we were talking about, specifically, we were talking about different things like state primacy. We were talking about, you know, the ability to streamline permitting. So what specifically... I'm just missing it here. Help me. He did mention Pebble once, and I'm also talking in reference to his Must Read Alaska article. But the water rights for...
Alaska versus, you know, the EPA, Army Corps of Engineers. And he talked a little bit about that. I just heard him. Yeah, he was talking about 404 primacy. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out the lawsuit against the EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers, decision to deny Pebble permits. for putting a mine in that area, and it was under Trump's watch in his first term that the Army Corps of Engineers throughout Dunleavy's lawsuit. And it was a very strange lawsuit because he bypassed
What are the specific holdings on the Supreme Court decision? On what basis did they throw it out? Do you know? Because that matters. The Army Corps of Engineers EPA permitting is legitimate. And I don't have their decision right in front of me, Amy, but you and I need to... I'd like to see if I can talk to you about this someday and maybe really go at it and finally put this thing to rest because it is just so stupid. The pebble mine is defunct. It's gone. It's not going.
The Northern Dynasty is on the hook for over $200 million in a securities fraud case relying on the permits. Well, okay. Joe, I appreciate you. I've gone two minutes over here, so I do got to take a break. But here's the reality. Number one, when I was talking to Kevin McCabe, we were talking about very specific issues. I wasn't talking about his article in Mustardia, Alaska. Frankly, I haven't read it, to be honest. I know.
So, but when we talk about, you know, this is not really a discussion about pebble mine, to be honest with you. That's not what we were talking about today. We were talking about. Well, I get that. But when you call in and say a legislator doesn't know what he's talking about and you kind of go off on pebble, you know, there's really no context to our conversation today because that's not really what we were talking about. We were talking about state primacy and we're talking about.
how much of you know like wetlands for example he was mentioning eighty percent of the country's wetlands are in Alaska and by changing the wetlands rules it will make it easier to develop and so I think those conversations are important conversations to have. I think, you know... You know, this discussion about Pebble is a completely different discussion for a different day. So when we talk about what the Supreme Court did on last week, or actually it was before last week, it was like...
I think it was a year ago, actually. But when the Supreme Court makes a decision on Pebble, what's really important when you read a Supreme Court decision is the very specifics on that Supreme Court decision. Did they say that Alaska has no right or has no ability to seek primacy. Did they say that? Because if they said that, which I don't believe they did, if they said that, that would lead into our conversation today. I don't believe they said that.
but you know when we start talking about the details Those matter. So Pebble's a conversation for a different day. Frankly, it's not one that I want to get into today because it's a much more complicated conversation, and distilling it down into a 30-second soundbite, frankly, isn't a fair way to go out.
after the conversation for either side. All right, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to get into some of the headlines of the day that we really want to get into. Stay with us. Turn up your radio. Here's the Sean Hannity Morning Minute. Where do we get the big, beautiful bill? Energy dominance going, the tax cuts in place, the $10 trillion in committed monies to be spent, manufacturing beginning in the...
country treasury secretary scott besson telling fox news that he has sympathy for some members of the senate who want more spending cuts but the issue can't be solved in a year they're doing their very best but they're also working under the difficulty of reconciliation which is hard But it is, I would argue, the most conservative bill I've seen in my life. Not perfect. And I think they got to get to work right away and take their pen and start slashing as much as possible.
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Anchorage. One woman is dead following a rollover crash on the Parks Highway near Esther. Alaska State Troopers say Jennifer Loving was killed in the crash around 545 Saturday evening. Police say Loving was in a vehicle that was traveling around 100 miles per hour when the vehicle veered into a ditch.
and back onto the highway before rolling. Loving died at a hospital. A Kodiak Fisher is facing jail time after illegally transporting crab from Alaska to Washington state. A judge has sentenced Corey Potter to a year in jail for violating the Lacey Act. The federal court says Potter, his son Kyle,
Kyle Potter and Justin Welch harvested over 7,000 pounds of tanner and golden king crab in southeast Alaska in February and March of last year. They then took their catch to Seattle where they would charge a higher price than in Alaska. And University of Alaska Southeast is announcing a new website to help Juno.
residents prepare for flooding. The university announced the Juneau Glacial Flood Dashboard, which was co-developed by the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center. That's the latest. I'm John Fink. News Radio 650 KENI, your pipeline to the world. Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on this Monday morning. Steady traffic.
You know, Daryl, the longer I do this show, the more I really try not to be a jerk. I really try. Anybody who calls in, I really try to help them sound good without belittling. Because, look, here's the thing. We have different opinions. I am very confident I do not agree with Joe on Pebble. And, you know, look, when you call in, like, more than likely, I'm giving you leading questions to help you sound good.
Right. But generally speaking, I'm not asking a question I don't already know the answer to. Right. Generally speaking. And so, like with Pebble, for example, Daryl and I, like, I've got to be honest with you. I went on a little rant during the break. I can't help myself. I can't help myself. I just cannot help myself. The reality is. The Supreme Court did not strike down Pebble. Nope. They declined to intervene. Right? So the lower court made a ruling. What happened with Pebble is...
Pebble entered the NEPA process. It's a permitting process. I'm trying to boil this down to basics. It's basically a permitting process. The EPA, without that process being complete, came in and issued a a preliminary veto of the project effectively. Now I'm really distilling this down.
And the state of Alaska went forward and said, hang on a second, we're asking the Supreme Court to intervene and basically tell the EPA, like, let us go through the process. The Supreme Court decided last January, last year, that they weren't going to... intervene there's a huge decision difference there's a huge difference between decline declining to intervene and issuing a final decision huge difference
And if anybody knows anything about the Supreme Court and constitutional law, how these things work, sometimes when somebody is right on an issue, if they don't have standing, for example, the court will not take their case. If they haven't taken steps properly.
Exactly. You've got to go through the process. Sometimes the Supreme Court will say, no, it's got to go to this lower court first. We're not going to leapfrog the other courts before they get to us. I mean, that's part of it. But to Representative McCabe's point, He just mentioned the word pebble. We weren't even talking about pebble.
He just mentioned the word pebble. It's the same thing with carbon sequestration. It says there's lots of issues like this. You mention the word, and it triggers people, and they go off on an emotional tirade. Sit in a dam. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Ecclutin hydro triggers me. You know, there's a lot of issues out there that we all let our emotions go.
But, you know, pebble is one of those things. Look, when I see people driving around with no pebble stickers, and I'm sure there's lots of people out there that are listening to the show that actually probably are very conservative that do not want the pebble mine. I just kind of roll my eyes at it, to be honest with you. Because here's the thing I believe. I believe that people should be able to, companies should be able to go through the entire process of having their...
I think that's fair. It makes sense. But here's this emotional look. We all know Gillum has his little, you know, had his little, you know. private, you know, oasis out there. And we all know he put a lot of money in to fighting the Pebble Mine because he didn't want it in his backyard.
Right. And people have an emotional attachment. Oh, we don't want to kill all the fish. Do you honestly think Pebble Mine is going to kill all the fish? No, I don't believe that. I believe technology is such that you can mitigate impacts to potential. I think the Trans-Alaska pipeline is a beautiful example of that. When you see how the caribou herds have actually increased over the years, I think there's a lot of argument that can be made that, look, if there is...
If there is a detrimental impact that cannot be mitigated, that would be a reason. To say no. But the fact of the matter is, when they shut it down before you even get through the process of evaluating all that, look, I've got to be honest with you, I don't think it's a fair process. I think you either have to evaluate it on its merit. and say yes or no at the end of the process. But when you jump in, look, this is the classic NIMBY argument, not in my backyard. That's what it is.
And, you know, is there validity to potential concerns about impact? Absolutely. But the question then becomes, can you mitigate those impacts? Oh, go ahead. I was just going to say, I said I wasn't going to do it. I said I wasn't going to talk about it. But see, Joe, you've triggered me. You've absolutely triggered me. And so here I go again. Here I go again. And with me, with the pebble mine one, where my. issues come with the decision is the EPA, all this information was put in front of them.
they were given models on what would happen for the dam because the big thing was their tailing piles dam and what would happen in this situation, this situation, in earthquakes. And they did it up to like maybe a .7 or 7 earthquakes, 7, 8, somewhere in there. And it was going to... withstand. The EPA said, no, no, no, no, no. You got to do this for like the most critical, massive one you could possibly find.
a 10.0 earthquake yeah exactly what would happen you know the attorney general had a statement out when this happened this is back in 2024 this is coming from trey taylor here's a quote quote the epa set a dangerous precedent when it issued a preliminary
veto of a project on state land. I swore an oath to uphold Alaska's constitution which requires developing and conserving all of Alaska's natural resources for the maximum benefit of its people. Due to national significance of the EPA's veto, So we went to the Supreme Court directly asking it to take up this case so the issue can be resolved as quickly as possible.
While SCOTUS did not pick up the case at this time, it does not indicate how the Supreme Court will ultimately rule on its merits. All this discussion means is that we will take the more traditional route to file the first federal... in the first federal district court, we will continue fighting for Alaska's right to develop its resources through the federal court system."
So, again, you know, like I said, there's a difference between the Supreme Court not taking up a case and the Supreme Court shooting it down completely, which, you know, that's just me. But what are you going to do? All right, well, I have failed miserably. I said I was going to get on to other topics today. I was going to talk about the crazy illegal alien in Colorado that set...
a number of people on fire, you know, screaming free Palestine. Thank you, Joe Biden. But we didn't get to that. But what we will do is take a quick break and then come back. Take your calls. 522-0650.
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Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back. Current time is 7.53. I'm going to go straight to the phones. And Mr. Smolden, good morning, Todd. Hey, good morning, Amy. Hey, it was great to see you yesterday. Yeah, you too. What did you think? You were there all day for the Energy Roundtable. What were your takeaways? Yeah, I was there from about 8.30 afterwards.
I was kind of on hyper-vigilance because I was in work mode and paying attention to the boss and looking out for people who might... I'm not security, but, you know, it's something that those of us who are situationally aware do all the time, right, is watch out for people with backpacks and things like that. So, anyway, I was in hyper work mode. There were some contrasts, some real stark contrasts, and I know we're short of time that I wanted to share. First of all, you know, Trump CEO...
I hope people understand that. I mean, and I appreciate the work that Senator Sullivan and in some small part, Senator Murkowski, but that they've done. But Trump CEO for Alaska is. the work of the governor. And I don't, I mean, you know, again, I don't want to discount what other people have done, especially Senator Sullivan, but our office, you know, is working on things.
to give to the president's team a long list that DNR was as well of things that President Trump could do to unleash Alaska's potential. When I read Trump's EO when it came out,
It seems like I had read that before, Amy. It was kind of like the list you guys gave him, probably. Yeah. But that, when you compare that, and having the cabinet secretaries up here for the energy conference, which... is, you know, the result of a lot, again, relationships the governor has with the president and Secretary Burgum and others, and the hard work of staff and the governor's office organizing the energy conference.
You contrast that with some of the legislators that I saw there who I don't think they want Alaska to develop. In some way, they're kind of like Joe. Their motto is no to the future, not north to the future. You know, I was fascinated because I was sitting behind the Democrats when I walked in the room, you know.
And I'm watching some of them, and I'm thinking as I'm hearing comments being said and people starting to clap, and I'm thinking, yeah, but you guys' actions demonstrate exactly the opposite. When we're talking about unleashing Alaska's energy potential and development, work to fight it at every turn and to stop it at every turn and that's why look I'm generally a very optimistic person but I'm also a realist and I understand the politics at play do any of us actually
leave if given the opportunity and the Alaska legislature could push a yes button or no button to unleash all these things Trump wants to do in 2026 they would push the no button because it's all about politics that's what it comes down to with many of
And I hate to be the Debbie Downer in the group, but that's the reality. And what we see now is the governor has to work directly with the feds to get this stuff done because the legislature is, frankly, They are the pothole in the way of accomplishing many of these goals.
Yeah, and, you know, I know there's been criticism, which I don't believe is valid, of the governor not working with legislators and things like that and being in D.C. But quite frankly... I mean, his time in D.C. and the federal, you know, relationships that he's worked on, that's why we have three cabinet secretaries in Alaska this week. And I really appreciate what my representative, Representative McCabe, had to say, which is that the Energy Conference is about conversation.
One thing I don't understand, and I'm sure, you know, Ken will call in sometime this week, but for people who say they have courage but are unwilling to actually have conversations, I don't... I don't get that. You know, Chad, I get it. How much courage does that take?
I got you. You got to have conversations. And look, and this is why we invite everybody from every viewpoint on the show. You got to have conversations. Well, that does it for Daryl and I today. We will see you tomorrow. Have a great day.