News-Miner fails to penetrate political blather on firing of Fairbanks climate committee

The Daily News-Miner weekend coverage of Aaron Lojewski’s decision to dump the Climate Change Action Committee swallows his claim—without any scrutiny—that this was a reasonable action.

Lojewski’s action was not at all reasonable, though he is trying to pass off his sneaky behavior as the work of an enlightened leader.

The newspaper failed to even attempt to penetrate his smokescreen of political blather—praising the climate committee for doing a great job, though he fired all of its members before they approved a report to the assembly because he believes they did a terrible job.

Reporting requires more than simply writing down what people say and stringing sentences together. Lojewksi is not telling the truth about all this.

Lojewski claims the draft recommendations were unacceptable, but he never mentioned this to the committee, never sought any changes or identified any specifics that should have been deleted.

This is not really about details in a draft report that may or may not have ever been approved by the committee.

It’s about Lojewski having opposed this effort from the start in 2019.

Had he acted in a public manner without deception, I wouldn't be making such an issue of this.

Lojewski privately chose six friends and right-wing allies who think the way he does—that the borough should never have spent $79,000 on this project—and appointed them with no public notice right after he was named presiding officer.

He did this, he claims, because he wants the committee to produce a document that he approves of.

“There was a chance that if the current list went to the assembly, it would either be heavily amended or voted down,” he told the News-Miner. “I’m expecting a climate action plan that will have a reasonable chance of being adopted in the next year that matches the priorities of the community.”

This is expert-level doubletalk. Assembly amendments are part of the process. The committee could have completed its work and Lojewski could have amended every page.

The News-Miner needs to try again, as does KUAC, to present a clear picture to the public about what really happened.

On July 25, 2019, Lojewski was the only assembly member to oppose a resolution setting up a climate action task force.

That night more than 50 people spoke in favor of the task force, while four people opposed it, during three hours of testimony. (One of the opponents was Mike Prax, now a legislator. State employee Barbara Haney, an assembly member, works for Prax and was named to the “new” Lojewski committee.)

Lojewski, who works as a tour guide, rejects the scientific consensus on climate change. This was consistent with his claims in 2016 as a candidate for the Legislature.

“I almost feel like I’m hearing Chicken Little scream a little bit, ‘the sky is falling,’” Lojewski said at the 2019 meeting.

On April 8, 2021, as the assembly prepared to replace the task force with a committee, Lojewski mentioned that not only was the single “no” vote on the creation of a climate change task force in 2019, every other assembly member co-sponsored the measure.

“I’m happy that it looks like there will be at least a few other assembly members here to join me” in voting against the creation of the committee, he said.

Tammie Wilson, Frank Tomaszewski and Jimi Cash joined Lojewski in opposing the creation of the committee. Committee opponents Wilson and Cash are still on the assembly.

Wilson, Lojewski and Cash objected to the borough making any kind of plan about climate change and adapting to it, claiming that $79,000 should be used to lower the tax burden. This would be a tax cut measured in pennies.