The huge $388 billion appropriations bill herded through the lame duck session of Congress and passed Nov. 20 provides the usual Alaska perks as Sen. Ted Stevens reaches the end of his six-year reign as head of the Senate Appropriations Committee. But a separate bill authored by Stevens and the state’s junior senator, Lisa Murkowski, could help untangle the snarl of land ownership across the state.
The Alaska Land Transfer Acceleration Act is intended to speed the conveyance of 89 million acres of federal land into the hands of the state and Native corporations. It was approved by the House of Representatives on a unanimous vote Nov. 17 after Senate passage Oct. 11.
Money for BLM
Perhaps as important, a $9.5 million increase in Bureau of Land Management spending was included in the big appropriation measure, giving the BLM more money for surveying and conveying the acreage. The goal is to complete the process by 2009 — the 50th anniversary of Alaska’s statehood.
Alaska Native corporations still haven’t obtained title to 29 million of the 44 million acres they were promised under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. And the state is still 60 million acres short of its statehood entitlement of 104 million acres. The resulting haze of ownership complicates resource development in the state.
“With passage of the land conveyance bill, this funding (in the appropriations measure) is vital to put the act into effect to help speed up the conveyance process so Alaskans can more conveniently manage our land entitlement — making it easier to benefit from the natural resource potential of those lands,” said Murkowski in a statement on the money bill. Without the bill, it would have taken at least 20 years to get the conveyances completed, she says.
Streamlining changes
The bill includes several technical changes to solve a host of land conveyance problems. It provides a process giving BLM broader authority to settle land claim disputes and sets up a timetable for the state and Native corporations to submit their priorities for land transfers. It provides for an Alaska field office of the Office of Hearings and Appeals to speed the pace of hearings. The bill gives the Interior secretary authority to identify specific lands to be transferred to the state, streamlining that process. And it clarifies miners’ rights to convert to state from federal mining claims without jeopardizing current operations.
The spending bill also includes $1 million for the U.S. Geological Survey to continue its Alaska mapping project, with half going to map the Arctic coast and the rest for projects elsewhere in the state.
The USGS also is getting $1.15 million for its share of the Alaska Mineral Resources Assessment program. That will pay for geologic mapping of potential oil, gas and other mineral deposits on public lands. In addition, the agency is getting $100,000 for a new Geological Materials Center project analysis to support energy and mineral exploration.
Power projects
Other Alaska spending includes $28 million for grants to develop power projects to cut electricity costs in rural villages. There’s also $45 million in water and sanitation improvements and $21 million for facilities in rural communities suffering economic hardships.
In addition, the spending bill provides $1.5 million to help reopen the Healy clean coal electric generation plant and $375,000 for the state for haze monitoring sensors.
