Governor vetoes Alaska bills on invasive species management, plastic food containers

Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Thursday vetoed two environmental-protection bills that had passed with broad bipartisan support from legislators.

Dunleavy vetoed a bill to establish an invasive species council, Senate Bill 174, that was intended to be similar to coordinating organizations managing invasive species in other states, and a bill to ban restaurants’ use of polystyrene containers, House Bill 25.

Dunleavy, in veto messages, characterized both bills as overly burdensome and unnecessary expansions of government.

The invasive species bill would have established a council within the Department of Fish and Game to coordinate efforts that participants say are currently too disjointed to be as effective as they could be.

It was supported by numerous science and resource organizations, including the Alaska Invasive Species Partnership, a coalition of agencies and organizations that try to combat invasive species.

In a letter to lawmakers, the partnership’s chair said the board strongly backed the bill. “This legislation represents a vital step toward strengthening the coordination, education, and actions needed to protect Alaska’s environment, economy, and public health from the growing threat of invasive species,” the letter said.

It passed the Senate unanimously on May 8 and it passed the House by a 35-5 vote on May 19. In addition to the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, 14 other senators from both parties and 11 Democratic, Republican and independent House members signed on as cosponsors.

But Dunleavy, in his veto message, said there is no need to add new invasive species duties to the Department of Fish and Game.

“Rather than strengthening direct operational capacity, the bill adds a formal advisory layer that is not necessary for the department to continue its efforts,” Dunleavy said in his veto message.

Dunbar called the governor’s reasoning “misguided” and “unfortunate.”

“In the battle over invasive species, Mike Dunleavy has joined the battle on the side of the invasive species,” he said.

As to why Dunleavy is contradicting state officials who are Alaska Invasive Species Partnership board members, “I think it boils down to animosity and ideology,” Dunbar said.

The animosity is because members of the Senate “have not been rolling over on certain issues,” he said. The ideology is the resistance to anything that appears to be an expansion of government, Dunbar said, even though experts advised that the more coordinated approach through the council the bill would have established would make invasive species effort more cost-effective.

Invasive species that threaten Alaska’s ecosystems and the livelihoods that depend on them, particularly seafood harvesting, include imported plants like elodea and fish species like northern pike, which prey on native salmon in Southcentral Alaska, and European green crabs, which eat native crabs and damage fishery habitat. European green crabs were first discovered in Alaska in 2022; since then, tens of thousands have been trapped in Southeast Alaska, but the species is expanding northward.

Ban on plastic foam containers nixed

The bill banning restaurant use of polystyrene containers was aimed at reducing plastic pollution in Alaska, particularly pollution from microplastics, the long-lasting remnants of crumbled-up plastic trash that have become ubiquitous in waterways and the food web, even in remote parts of Alaska.

Dunleavy, in his veto message, said the bill would have created an “unrealistic implementation timeline for businesses,” especially affecting rural Alaska.

The bill’s effective date was to be Jan. 1, but the measure included a provision allowing restaurants to continue to use stockpiled supplies of polystyrene containers until they were depleted.

The bill had bipartisan support, though the support was not as wide as that for the invasive species council measure.

It passed the House originally on April 21 by a 25-15 vote. It passed the Senate on May 18 by a 13-7 vote, and the House on May 19 concurred with Senate changes by a 26-14 vote.

Organizations that have been tracking plastics pollution in Alaska and advocated for the bill delivered angry reactions to the governor’s action.

“This veto is shameful,” Pamela Miller, executive director and senior scientist with Alaska Community Action on Toxics, said in a statement. “Governor Dunleavy had a chance to protect children, families, fish, wildlife, and future generations from unnecessary toxic exposure. Instead, he sided with plastics manufacturers and pollution. His time as governor is winding down and this veto will be part of his legacy, a legacy associated with divisiveness, negativity, and a refusal to act when human health is on the line.”

Dyani Lezama, state director of Alaska Environment, said she was “incredibly disappointed” by the veto.

“Polystyrene foam is bad for our health, produces a huge amount of litter and is incredibly hard to clean up. Products that we use for just a few minutes shouldn’t pollute our environment for hundreds of years,” she said in a statement.

“This is a bipartisan issue that most Alaskans agree on, despite significant lobbying from the plastics industry. It’s time to leave foam foodware in the past and I look forward to building greater public support to deliver a victory in 2027,” she said.