Twenty years ago Alaska voters created the Ocean Ranger program which put state environmental observers on large cruise ships and created a $4 per-passenger tax to fund the program. But Gov. Mike Dunleavy's administration axed the program, telling the legislature in 2020 that it was "costly for its outcomes," and subjected the cruise industry to a uniquely burdensome level of oversight. That per-passenger fee is still charged on each cruise ship, the account that funds the program is expected to have $26 million in it by June. There are restrictions on how that money can be spent, but both the Governor's draft budget and another coming from the Senate finance committee propose putting millions into port electrification projects in Juneau and Ketchikan cruise ship terminals. Will Steinfeld reports this week on the program and why Haines is unlikely to see any benefit from state spending on port electrification - at least for the forseeable future.
This weekend is the third meeting of our community book club. In honor of national poetry month, we've been reading X'unei Lance Twitchell's G̱agaan X̱ʼusyee/Below the Foot of the Sun and Kara Briggs' Rivers in My Veins. Our club partners at The Bookstore are hosting a potluck and discussion on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. that will feature a reading by Twitchell, a renowned Lingít language teacher, scholar, and poet.
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