Murkowski: Obama to visit Alaska this summer

Sen. Lisa Murkowski told Alaska legislators that President Obama will visit the state in August.

Murkowski said the trip appears to a real visit and not just a quick stop at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, the Alaska Dispatch News reports.

{mosads}”He’s never been off base,” she said. “I have to assume that it will be more than a refueling stop.”

Murkowski said while discussing Arctic issues with Secretary of State John Kerry, he told her Obama would visit Alaska in August. 

Despite news of the coming visit, Murkowski made her disagreements with the president’s energy and environment policies known during her speech to a joint legislative session in Alaska, according to the Alaska Dispatch News. 

In recent weeks, Murkowski has railed against the administration for providing protections to the last section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge producers were hoping to drill in.

She called the president’s actions a “war on Alaska,” when he also protected 9.8 million acres of Arctic waters in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas from oil and gas development. 

Murkowski said she hopes Obama won’t use the visit to only talk about climate change.