"Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young played an outsize role in shaping many natural resources policies during his nearly half a century as Alaska’s lone House representative, leaving a mark on issues like oil and natural gas, fisheries and endangered species.
The gregarious, often blunt lawmaker, who died Friday at the age of 88, served as chair of the House Natural Resources Committee from 1995 to 2001, a post he used to push priorities like drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and easing Endangered Species Act rules on property owners and companies.
Young famously renamed the panel the “Committee on Resources” when he took over after the 1994 Republican Revolution, to signal increased emphasis on commercial activities and less on conservation. Democrats changed the name back when they took the House majority in 2007."
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