Washington, D.C. — Today, as part of its regulatory review process, the Biden administration announced that it would “repeal or replace” a midnight rule from the outgoing Trump administration that would have allowed for roads, logging, and other development in parts of southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. The Biden administration’s proposal will instead restore protections to 9.3 million acres of forest, including large areas of old growth, with significant positive implications for climate action, tribal sovereignty, and the region’s billion-dollar salmon fishery and related economic activity.
In response, Christy Goldfuss, senior vice president for Energy and the Environment Policy at the Center for American Progress, released the following statement:
The Biden administration has promised bold climate action, which also requires healthy natural carbon sinks. That is why protecting the Tongass National Forest’s ability to safely store carbon—and to support the region’s billion-dollar fishing and tourism industries in the process—is both simple common sense and an important step toward the president’s goal of protecting 30 percent of America’s lands and ocean by 2030. I commend the Biden administration for moving to restore these key protections and ensure a safe climate future for all, and hope the administration will take this opportunity to meaningfully engage tribes in the region in a way that the Trump administration did not.
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Ari Drennen [email protected].