Alaska’s Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy has filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden and his administration to hold them to account for multiple failures in the state.
Gov. Dunleavy is suing the Biden admin for failing to clean up contaminated Native American lands.
“They pay lip service when it suits their political aims, but when it comes down to helping these folks, it’s a poor record at best and dismal at its worst,” the governor said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
“To this day, the federal government does not appear to want to take responsibility.
“If they don’t allow development on (Alaskan) lands because of contamination, it will have an economic impact and more people will end up leaving the state.
“It’s certainly not helping the state of Alaska or the people of Alaska realize the promise of statehood, and that is to be able to take care of ourselves and create opportunity for our people,” he said.
Dunleavy and the state of Alaska filed the lawsuit in mid-July as a last resort after the DOI allegedly ignored calls to identify and clean up 650 former federal military installations, oil drilling sites, and other projects that are contaminating Native Alaskan lands, according to court filings, According to The Daily Caller.
Despite the Biden administration’s emphasis on securing “environmental justice” for minority communities, the DOI’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), nor any other associated federal agency, is taking responsibility, the lawsuit alleges, allowing pollution and toxic waste to creep into natives’ food and water systems.
The lawsuit alleges that the Alaska Native community expressed numerous concerns over health, safety, and economic issues relating to the presence of hazardous materials.
Over 920 contaminated sites were originally given to Alaska Natives and some of these sites may have contained high levels of hazardous waste like asbestos, explosives, mercury as well as polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), according to a 1998 BLM report.
The White House issued a statement on May 23 touting what they were doing.
According to Dunleavy, however, it was all just hot air.
