Alaska lawmakers on guard for new marine national monument proposals

WASHINGTON — Alaska lawmakers are on the lookout for potential presidential decrees that could block fishing and drilling in the state's ocean waters.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski and others have introduced legislation that they hope might stop future presidents from using a 110-year-old law — the Antiquities Act — to carve out lands and waters for new environmental protections. But the chance for new federal legislation to curb executive powers during President Barack Obama's term has all but passed.

Now, with Obama's recent expansion of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine Monument in Hawaii and designation of the first-ever marine monument on the East Coast, worries about a surprise Alaska announcement have arisen again.

[Obama designates first ever marine monument off the East Coast] 

"It seems like we read about a new designation every week — that's probably an exaggeration, but it just seems like that," Murkowski said Thursday. The Obama administration has used the 1906 Antiquities Act "as a tool to both sidestep and threaten Congress," Murkowski said.

"I don't have anyone in my office talking about monuments in Alaska," Neil Kornze, who heads the Bureau of Land Management, assured Murkowski at a hearing Thursday.

"I can't tell you what the president is or isn't thinking, but in terms of my interaction with these issues, I'm not aware" of any potential new monuments in the making, he said.

Asked by Murkowski if he was aware of any "conversations outside of your particular office where there is discussion about designation, either onshore- or offshore-monument designation in Alaska," Kornze said "no."

The concern, like the law that grants broad presidential authority to create protected areas, is not new.

Since the Antiquities Act was signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, 16 presidents have designated more than 150 national monuments. The law is aimed at protecting natural, cultural or scientific features of the land — a broad requirement. The law sprung from worries that collectors on the hunt for ancient artifacts were doing significant damage to lands in the process.

Where the congressional process for creating a national park can take years, a presidential designation is a much easier path to protecting lands and waters from development.

Since his first designation in 2011 (Fort Monroe in Virginia), Obama has tallied up 25 new national monuments, at an increasing rate during the end of his term — eight so far this year. He designated six in 2015.

The uptick in pace hearkens back to recent history, when President Bill Clinton seemingly discovered the power of the Antiquities Act in his last year in office, and made 17 designations over the course of 2000 and the start of 2001.

For Alaska, this is not a new concern, only one that is mounting as the president heads into his final months in office.

When Obama visited Alaska last year, the idea that he might show up and cordon off Arctic waters — putting a stop to dreams of a pipeline full of Arctic oil — reached a fever pitch.

With last week's surprise designation of an Atlantic Ocean monument just under 5,000 acres, the concerns are renewed.

"Our constituents are enormously concerned about this," said Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, noting a recent visit to Unalaska where the Dutch Harbor fishing industry is worried that a new monument could be detrimental to business.

Alaska does well managing fisheries, Sullivan said, and so "to have the president come in and designate an area… would be something that I'd be utterly opposed to."

Alaska is "mostly exempt" from use of the Antiquities Act on land, Sullivan said, noting a provision in the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) requires that Congress approve any use of the Antiquities Act on areas more than 5,000 acres.

ANILCA, and Alaska's carve-out in the Antiquities Act, came in response to President Jimmy Carter's use of the law to establish 15 new monuments in Alaska.

But that doesn't apply to the water, Sullivan said.

"I found it rather interesting that it was president Franklin Roosevelt who used the authority the most often — 36 times," Murkowski said. But Roosevelt's use of the law was limited to the land, and to just 2.8 million acres. "And yet when you look at what has come out of this administration, President Obama has clearly proclaimed the most monument acreage — 553 million acres — both on land and on sea," she said.

The concern isn't new, and Murkowski and others have released legislation in recent years to alter the law. Murkowski held a hearing on her bill to restrict the president's ability to unilaterally designate new monuments on Thursday. But there's little chance of it moving before the end of this administration.

Murkowski's bill would require congressional approval, compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, and approval from a state legislature before the president could use the Antiquities Act on public land. And before federal agencies could impose restrictions on use of marine monuments, they would have to get congressional approval and go through a period of public review.

"What needs to be recognized is that monument designations have an impact on local communities," Murkowski said.

Nevertheless, there is pressure on the administration to designate new marine monuments in Alaska. Environmental groups have pushed for Arctic monuments to protect sea life there.

But the administration has shown signs that it may not be interested in expanding Alaska protections, by allowing exploratory drilling in some Arctic waters. And in 2015, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration rejected a petition asking for a marine sanctuary in the Aleutian Islands, saying the request lacked widespread support.