Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, wants action this year on a controversial land swap involving an Alaska Native corporation.
Young said President Bush needs to make a decision on the swap between Doyon Ltd. and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "The window is the election," Young said, Reuters reported.
Doyon wants to give 150,000 acres in exchange for 110,000 acres within the Yukon
Flats National Wildlife Refuge, plus mineral rights on an additional 97,000
acres. The corporation plans to drill on the land it acquires.
Several tribes oppose the swap, fearing a negative impact on the environment. "Usually, the indigenous people are at the losing end of any sort of oil development," Dacho Alexander, the first chief of the Gwichyaa Zhee Gwich'in Tribe, told Reuters.
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