Alaska | Spark of Genius

Nurse practitioners can provide abortions in Alaska, judge rules

By Peter Schulte / September 5, 2024

A judge has struck down an Alaska law banning qualified nurse practitioners and physician assistants from performing abortions, siding with a legal challenge by a Planned Parenthood affiliate. Alaska Superior Court Judge Josie Garton in Anchorage has ruled that the law violated Alaskans’ rights to privacy and equal protection under the state constitution. The state’s top court found that those rights include a right to abortion in a 1997 ruling, and abortion is legal in the state at all stages of pregnancy.

A Polar bear surrounded by arctic wilderness

Biden limits oil drilling across 13 million acres of Alaskan Arctic

By Peter Schulte / April 19, 2024

Future oil and gas drilling will be limited across more than 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, the nation’s largest expanse of public land, under a sweeping Biden administration plan aimed at protecting sensitive ecosystems and wildlife. In a separate move, the Department of the Interior has announced that it will block a controversial road crucial to operating a planned copper and zinc mine in northern Alaska, saying it would threaten Indigenous communities and fragment wildlife habitat.

Biden administration cancels remaining oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

By Peter Schulte / September 7, 2023

The Biden administration also announced proposed rules aimed at providing stronger protections against new leasing and development in portions of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska that are designated as special areas for their wildlife, subsistence, scenic or other values.

Biden restores protections to Alaska’s Tongass National Forest

By Peter Schulte / January 31, 2023

Spanning nearly 17 million acres – an area larger than the state of West Virginia – the Tongass stores 44% of all the carbon dioxide contained in national forests across the country.

Second oil company cancels its oil and gas lease in the Alaskan Arctic

By Peter Schulte / November 11, 2022

Knik Arm Services has canceled its oil and gas lease for a tract of land in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, following fierce opposition by the Indigenous Gwich’in committee and environmental groups.

Three oil companies pull out of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

By Peter Schulte / June 6, 2022

Indigenous and environmental groups led a campaign against drilling in the refuge, and 29 banks and 14 insurers now say they won’t fund drilling in the refuge.

U.S. EPA limits pesticide pollution into rivers and streams to protect Pacific salmon and trout

By Peter Schulte / August 25, 2021

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finally acting to protect more than two dozen endangered West Coast salmon and steelhead species from pesticides.

Biden suspends oil leases in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

By Peter Schulte / June 2, 2021

The suspension includes 10-year leases that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued on Jan. 6, 2021, which span more than 430,000 acres of the refuge.

Anchorage introduces team of mental health first responders

By Peter Schulte / December 4, 2020

Starting next year in Anchorage, Alaska, a new team of mental health first responders will replace police for emergency calls for someone with a mental health issue. The Mobile Crisis Team is funded by a new local alcohol tax and the team is trained to be dispatched to situations police do not have adequate training to address.

Austin Quinn-Davidson to become Anchorage’s first gay and first woman mayor

By Peter Schulte / October 20, 2020

The city of Anchorage, Alaska will have its first woman mayor and its first gay mayor as Austin Quinn-Davidson is set to become the city’s acting mayor after Mayor Ethan Berkowitz (D) announced his resignation amidst sexual harassment allegations.