Tag: Alaska

Whatever else you can say about Donald Trump, it's safe to say that no other president has ever gotten himself involved in a Twitter war...

Catching up? Bernie sweeps on Saturday, including a big win in a biggish state. Is the race back on? Via The Atlantic. History lesson A prominent lefty...

Some the most anti-environmental legislation to pass the House has been bundled together into an omnibus bill in the Senate called the Western Economic Security Today (WEST) Act.

Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Rick Palacio today went on the offensive against U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican who has sponsored a bill being debated on the House floor that would remove regulatory hurdles for companies engaged in offshore drilling in Alaska.

Colorado 4th Congressional District Rep. Cory Gardner has been steadily trying to chip away at the regulatory authority of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since taking office in January, and Colorado conservation groups are increasingly targeting the freshman Republican for backing “Big Oil” interests above environmental concerns.

A group of citizen activists in the Western Slope retirement community of Battlement Mesa is hoping a type of health-impact study used successfully in the oil fields of Alaska’s North Slope can help them curtail pollution, traffic and noise from a looming natural gas drilling plan in their Garfield County town of 5,000. They have their work cut out for them. In conversations with the Colorado Independent, citizens say they have little faith that county commissioners elected to protect public health but backed by oil and gas money will put residents' interests before those of the energy companies.

Not that she was likely on any short lists for any remaining, unfilled Cabinet positions in an Obama administration, but a ruling this week that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin must pay back taxes on nearly $17,000 in per-diem payments won't help. The Anchorage Daily News reports the governor is staying mum on how much Palin might owe the Internal Revenue Service after billing the state for meals and incidental expenses while living in her own home.

Even as Sarah Palin “keeps pushing” Sen. John McCain on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), environmentalists have formed a 527 group to fight the Alaska governor and her oil-and-gas industry allies and keep McCain from caving on the issue during his presidential campaign.

This November, Coloradans will be faced with two ballot initiatives dealing with how the state collects and allocates taxes on the oil and gas industry. Severance tax, so-named because it applies to natural resources permanently severed from the earth, not only dominates part of the the state's ballot, but also much of the political discourse this election season. Some fear that increasing taxes on the industry — as Governor Bill Ritter's Amendment 58 will do — will only scare off oil and gas companies or raise gas prices in Colorado.

If John McCain manages to carry the 2008 presidential election, his victory will be due in no small part to his success in persuading a passel of independent voters that Sarah Palin was chosen for some reason other than her appeal to the variety of conservatives who continue to dominate the Republican party.