(The Center Square) – An Alaska power cooperative is suing the United States Department of Agriculture, saying the agency exceeded its authority by banning new roads that could provide new alternatives to power in the state’s Tongass National Forest.
The USDA issued the Alaska Roadless Rule in 2020 that exempted 9.3 million acres of forest from the national rule, which prevents the construction of new roads into some national forests. The Biden administration reinstated the rule in January.
The rule is preventing Inside Passage Electric Cooperative from finding green alternatives to diesel that would provide power to more than 900 residents of the remote village of Hoonah, the company said in a complaint filed on behalf of the company and the Alaska Power Association by the Pacific Legal Foundation in U.S. District Court for the state of Alaska.
“That is so because without road access, the cooperative would be limited to transporting necessary building materials and equipment by helicopter,” the lawsuit said.
Jodi Mitchell, the cooperative’s CEO, said diesel is one of the most expensive power generation sources.
“As a result, these communities pay some of the highest electricity rates in the state and among the highest in the country,” Mitchell said in a news release by the Pacific Legal Foundation.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to set aside the rule because it “reimposes the Roadless Rule without statutory authority or in violation of the non-delegation doctrine, and that the Department lacks constitutional authority to enforce any rule bluntly restricting road construction through vast swaths of federal lands.”
“Congress has mandated that regulation must account for both preservation and reasonable economic use,” said Luke Wake, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, in a news release. “When executive agencies wrest legislative power from Congress, they tend to pursue whatever goal they have to the exclusion of all other priorities — as is happening here.”
The state of Alaska also filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging the rule.
“The Tongass National Forest has robust environmental protections in place, and the Roadless Rule is both unnecessary and continues to cripple to the future of Alaskan communities,” Attorney General Treg Taylor said in a news release.
