"About 250 people turned out Tuesday at a meeting in Fairbanks to offer comments on a federal plan to launch an oil and gas leasing program in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Most of those who showed up for the meeting at the Carlson Center oppose the plan; they say it would disrupt caribou calving season and harm Native subsistence and culture – and the environment. Backers of the plan say coastal-plain development would boost Alaska’s economy.
Eighty-four people signed up to talk about the plan to open the coastal plain to oil and gas development. By the time a half-dozen of them had spoken, nearly a hundred protesters showed up outside the Carlson Center to offer their public comments.
“I do have hope and faith that the Alaska Natives are going to stand up and they’re going to put a stop to this,” Fort Yukon Gwich’in Bernadette Demientieff told the crowd with a bullhorn. “Because when it comes down to it, we’re all going to be affected. Climate change don’t care if you’re upriver or downriver. We’re going to all live with the effects.”"
Tim Ellis reports for KUAC (Alaska Public Media) May 30, 2018.
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