A political battle is brewing in Washington D.C. over King Cove’s push for a road through a federal refuge. It’s an issue Sen. Lisa Murkowski has taken up time and time again.
Last month, she took time to confront U.S. Secretary of the Interior
Sally Jewell at a budget hearing. Murkowski and King Cove residents have said it over and over:
They’re not backing down. At an energy and natural resources budget hearing March 26, Murkowski
said she “channeled her inner Ted Stevens” by wearing an Incredible
Hulk scarf to convey her passion about the issue.
“I will not stand by and watch as more Alaskan lives are put at risk.
Put at risk, potentially, to die,” Murkowski said to Jewell. “I will
not let this issue die.” The proposal sounds simple: A 10-mile, one-lane gravel road from King
Cove to an all-weather airport in Cold Bay. In practice, it’s anything
but. The road would go through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge —
federally protected land — which is why Jewell rejected it. “It is a very important and unique habitat and the determination by
Fish and Wildlife Service is it would be very disruptive to build a road
through that area,” Jewell said. Murkowski hasn’t been shy about letting Jewell know her position on the issue. “The only thing that is standing in the way is our own federal
government’s decision to place a higher value on the birds than it does
on the health and safety of my state’s citizens and that is simply
wrong,” Murkowski said as she lambasted the interior secretary. A handful of King Cove residents traveled more than 4,000 miles to be
at the March hearing. For the first time since Jewell’s visit to the
community last fall, they got to meet with her one-on-one and question
her decision to put the refuge before the residents’ health. “This is insulting, disheartening, it’s sickening to be told that our
lives are worthless because it’s what we face every single day,” said
Bonita Babcock, a community health aide at the King Cove Clinic...
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