Alaska Dispatch News

Norwegians and Icelanders let Alaskans in on the secrets to economic prosperity

A year and a half into Alaska’s recession, in which thousands of jobs have been lost statewide, Alaskans are looking for salvation. Some see it in a sound fiscal plan, with the definition of “sound” being up for debate, others in a natural gas pipeline that will cost the state billions of dollars. And some are content to simply wait for the price of oil to bounce back, as it’s always done before.
May 16, 2017

Beaufort Sea polar bears are spending more time ashore

As Arctic sea ice dwindles, polar bears are spending more time on land. Now a long-term study tracks the dramatic change in behavior over the recent warming in the Beaufort Sea off northern Alaska and northwestern Canada.
June 14, 2016

Repsol joins oil-company exodus from the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea

Spanish oil company Repsol has relinquished its federal leases in the Chukchi Sea, joining other companies that have exited the Arctic Ocean region in the wake of Shell’s high-profile pullout last fall.
June 08, 2016

Trump energy plan calls for more drilling, fewer environmental protections

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump pledged Thursday to push aggressively for more oil drilling if he becomes president, including on federal lands in Alaska.
May 28, 2016

U.S. Congress takes big step toward new $1 billion Arctic icebreaker

Alaska moved significantly closer to seeing a new Arctic icebreaker Tuesday as a Senate appropriations subcommittee added $1 billion to a bipartisan funding bill for a Navy-built ship.
May 26, 2016

Shell gives up on all but one Chukchi Sea lease

Royal Dutch Shell has decided to give up all but one of its federal offshore leases in the Chukchi Sea, bringing what appears to be an anticlimactic end to its multibillion-dollar effort to turn those icy Arctic waters off northwestern Alaska into a new oil-producing frontier.
May 11, 2016

With Shell gone from Arctic, US official fears fading attention to region

Royal Dutch Shell’s decision to pull the plug on its offshore oil exploration program in Alaska’s Arctic waters could have the unfortunate effect of shifting the nation’s gaze away from Arctic issues, according to the State Department’s top Arctic official.
May 06, 2016

Arctic remains refuge of friendly US-Russia relations

In 1987, in the glow of glasnost, then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev detailed his vision of an Arctic that would be a “zone of peace” where nations cooperate to protect the environment and promote sustainable development.
March 29, 2016

Obama, Trudeau announce plans to fight Arctic oil and gas pollution; Alaskans criticize lack of input

March 14, 2016