Murkowski Introduces Denali Legislation

Senator Lisa Murkowski has introduced into Congress two pieces of legislation related to Denali National Park and Preserve.

The first is S.157: A bill to provide for certain improvements to the Denali National Park and Preserve in the State of Alaska, and for other purposes. The full text of the draft bill can be read through the link, but in summary it seeks three actions: 1) authorization of a land trade with Doyon Tourism, Inc. to facilitate the construction of a micro-hydro project on Eureka Creek; 2) authorization of NPS to grant a right-of-way permit for the construction of natural gas pipeline along the Parks Highway through the park rather than routing the proposed pipeline through roadless areas in the Montana Creek and Yanert valleys to the east; and 3) changing the name of the Talkeetna Ranger Station to the Walter Harper Talkeetna Ranger Station. The natural gas pipeline is the Alaska Stand-Alone Pipeline (ASAP) which you can read about in prior DCC posts.

The second is bill is S.155, which is a bill to change the name of Mount McKinley to Denali. This is the latest effort in this long-running dispute with McKinley supporters in Ohio. KTUU reports that a member of the Ohio delegation has already introduced a counter measure. Murkowski tweets: “We don’t call it Mt. McKinley we call it #Denali. That’s what we’ve always called it- my new bill makes that official.”