On the second-to-last week of the campaign trail, a contender for the state’s only U.S. House of Representatives seat was making the rounds in Southeast last weekend.
Democratic Party candidate Steve Lindbeck was due to visit Wrangell on Saturday morning, but was unable to fly from Petersburg due to foggy conditions.
“Life in Alaska. We love it,” he commented during an interview over the phone. “I’m really sad to miss Wrangell this time, but I’ll get back.”
Formerly the Alaska Public Media general manager and associate editor for the Anchorage Daily News, Lindbeck is one of several candidates running to unseat long-time Republican Rep. Don Young, who has represented the state since 1973.
Speaking of his campaign, Lindbeck explained he wanted to run because of the various economic challenges currently facing the state. He said the people he had met with on the trail were largely concerned about the
state’s finances and the economy.
Asked about policies he would be supportive of to help in that regard if elected, Lindbeck pointed to several areas for improvement where the federal government could be of help. One was in infrastructure, not only with physical transportation routes or utilities but the state’s broadband
connectivity.
“We need to be able to give Alaskans the tools to go
compete,” he commented. “Obviously we have some
work to do to get broadband infrastructure expanded so everybody can take advantage of the world through the internet.”
Once connected, Lindbeck suggested residents would be better able to take advantage of the online economy, overcoming traditional hurdles to commerce posed by the state’s geography.
“One thing I think we’ve learned about the internet is it’s going to take creative, entrepreneurial people and they’re going to dream up things you and I might not have imagined yet, but we need to make sure we have the infrastructure to do it. But also the educational infrastructure, so that Alaskans can learn the tools to be able to go compete.”
Turning thoughts
northward, Lindbeck also stressed issues facing Alaska’s Arctic, such as that posed by climate change. Warming trends have been disproportionately affecting the region when compared to elsewhere in the world, and retreating ice coverage and thawing permafrost pose problems both to wildlife and the physical infrastructure.
The changes could afford opportunities as well as
problems – such as new openings for marine transportation – but would need to be properly researched and plotted out. There are geopolitical
considerations as well, he said, for which an expanded Coast Guard presence, enlarged fleet of modern ice breakers, and
ratification of the Law of the Sea Convention would be of advantage to the country’s interests.
“In Southeast I suspect the biggest climate change issue we’re wrestling with is ocean acidification,” he acknowledged.
Another area of local
concern Lindbeck addressed was that of Canadian mining developments near shared transboundary waters. Galvanized by the sizable tailings dam breach at the Mount Polley mine in British Columbia in 2014, local subsistence groups, tribal governments and commercial fishing organizations have united in pressing for greater oversight over the province’s various projects.
“I think that’s a really
serious one, and I think we need to make sure the State Department pays close attention to that and argues on Alaska’s behalf the dangers of the transboundary mines,” Lindbeck said. “The fish live here. The mine may be in Canada, but the fish live here. This thing should be referred to the International Joint Commission.”
He also expressed
support for a moratorium on new permits until issues with current and decommissioned B.C. mines are resolved. “If I’m in Congress, I would really press for that,” he said.
On the state’s own mining operations, Lindbeck was supportive of responsible development. He was opposed to the proposed Pebble Mine, a large but contentious project which was sidelined by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2014 prior to permitting.
“It’s just the wrong
mine in the wrong place. It’s too big a threat to the Bristol Bay fishery,” Lindbeck commented. “It’s too bad, it would be nice if we could develop a prospect that rich and provide jobs in a whole bunch of communities. This I think is a good example of the hard work and struggle we need to make in Alaska as we consider development projects.”
He was supportive of the federal government ceding additional regulatory oversight to the state, but noted that implicitly Alaska’s government would need to make smart choices for that to happen. He noted to its credit six other large, but well-regulated mines which are doing well with modern regulatory regimes and oversight structures.
Lindbeck expressed
support for the state’s petroleum industries, but stressed that a diversification of Alaska’s economy should be a
priority. Currently the state depends on revenues and royalties tied to oil and production, providing up to 90 percent of the government’s revenues. Sharp declines to the market value of oil have contributed directly to the state’s multi-billion dollar deficits the past several years.
The candidate was
supportive of increased support for the state’s fisheries
management and industry, citing a need to reauthorize the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. First issued in 1976, an expanded renewal of the act was introduced by Young
last year and after passing the House awaits action in the Senate.
“In general, it’s been a very good thing,” Lindbeck
commented. He pointed out the act’s strength is its emphasis on sustained yield, a point
which he felt has helped hold up its adoption. “That’s something we settled in Alaska long ago, and that’s something we need to bring the rest of the country up to speed on.”
After his near-visit to Wrangell, Lindbeck
was to head to Juneau afterward before continuing into the
campaign’s home stretch. Though early voting is
already underway, Election Day polling is scheduled for November 8.
“I’d say the most important thing is that people are just feeling the economy is challenged in ways that we haven’t seen, if not ever, then certainly not for a long time,” he said. “Everywhere I go in Alaska, people say it’s time for a change.”
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