20 years ago

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., president of the national Waterkeeper Alliance, will join Alaskans later this week in celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Cook Inlet Keeper program, and to mark the launch last year of a new keeper organization in Prince William Sound. “Alaska’s magnificent marine and coastal habitats support some of the most productive fisheries left in the United States, Kennedy said in a Cook Inlet Keeper press release. “That’s why it’s critical to promote policies that recognize the inherent links between sustainable fisheries, healthy families and strong communities.”

— From the issue of July 14, 2005

30 years ago

Oil and gas development irrevocably alters the existing economy of a region and many people in Homer are worried that’s just what would happen if land just north of the city city is opened to exploration, state resource officials were told this week. Opposition to a proposal to add over 192,000 acres of state land on the lower Kenai Peninsula to state oil and gas Lease Sale 85A isn’t coming only from tree huggers, an oil-industry critic said at Tuesday’s Homer Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Whenever the oil industry comes into an area, the existing economy goes, Mike O’Meara told Jim Hansen, a geophysicist and leasing manager for the Alaska Division of Oil & Gas.

— From the issue of July 13, 1995