Gov. Bill Walker says President Barack Obama should direct money to Alaska for clean energy development, engage with villages threatened by climate change, and publicly endorse the state's goal of building a natural gas pipeline.
That's according to a letter Walker sent to the president Aug. 6, in advance of Obama's visit to the state later this month.
The 3 1/2-page letter contains a long list of requests from Obama's administration, including assistance with Walker's plan to expand the Medicaid health care program in Alaska and consideration of a road project to connect the communities of King Cove and Cold Bay through a national wildlife refuge in the eastern Aleutians.
It ends with an invitation to Obama to visit Walker's hometown community of Valdez, with the letter advertising the views of "spectacular tidewater glaciers and the incredible Prince William Sound" that the president could see with a theoretical 40-minute flight from Anchorage.
The White House has said Obama will address a Department of State conference in Anchorage Aug. 31, but it has not yet released additional details about his itinerary.