Republican lawmakers are working to repeal the Roadless Rule through Congress at the same time that the U.S. Department of Agriculture pursues an administrative rescission of the rule.
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The 2001 Roadless Rule prevents new roads in national forests, including more than 9 million acres of the Tongass National Forest. The rule has been rolled back and reinstated in a ping-pong between Republican and Democratic administrations.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee tacked on a repeal of the rule to the proposed Wildfire Prevention Act before it passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in an 11-9 vote on Wednesday. Next, the bill will be considered by the full Senate.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted in favor of repealing the rule.
“In Alaska, the Roadless Rule has been a real challenge for us for decades,” Murkowski said at the committee hearing. “Most Alaskans maintain that the Roadless Rule should never have applied to Alaska. We didn’t ask for it. We consistently opposed it.”
But a 2020 poll of Alaska voters found 43% were in favor of eliminating the Roadless Rule. Nationwide, more than 99% of the public comments submitted on the latest administrative rescission effort are in favor of keeping the rule, according to an analysis by the Center for Western Priorities.
Murkowski said her intent isn’t to open up more land to clear-cut logging in the Tongass. Instead, she said it’s to open pathways for hydropower projects.
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“We’re not asking for permission to clear-cut an area,” she said. “It’s not about harvesting, it’s basically being able to access for whether it’s energy, or renewable energy resources.”
Nathan Newcomer, Tongass campaigner at Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, a nonprofit that advocates for keeping the Roadless Rule, said the rule already allows for the construction of utility infrastructure.
“In fact, there have been examples already in the Tongass National Forest in roadless areas where hydropower projects were allowed to move forward, so that’s just false,” Newcomer said.
That the Whitman Lake hydroelectric project near Ketchikan and the Blue Lake hydroelectric expansion in Sitka. According to a U.S. Forest Service , the agency can’t prevent hydroelectric development approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in roadless areas.
The USDA’s administrative rescission of the Roadless Rule is expected to be finalized this year.
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