Alaska Industry representative hoping for less “red tape” with Trump

The change to a Republican administration has the Resource Development Council hopeful for regulatory changes in all of the five industries it represents: fishing, mining, oil and gas, timber and tourism.

It’s working on updating its natural resources policy paper to educate President-Elect Donald Trump about issues important to RDC.

“It was important for us to have good communication with him but at the same time we may be lucky to see a little change in maybe the overly burdensome or often unnecessary federal regulations that we’ve seen come over the last several years,” said Executive Director Marleanna Hall.

“That sounds nice but basically what they’re hoping is they can get their permits through without scrutiny,” said Wilderness Society Program Director Lois Epstein.

The Wilderness Society says it expects different challenges under a Trump administration, but will continue to act as watchdogs to ensure strong regulations are in place.

“We want to protect the areas that are most sensitive,” Epstein said.