DEC plans to cut 20% of its discretionary rules by year's end under Dunleavy order

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation plans to cut its discretionary rules by 20%, from about 13,000 to roughly 10,400, by the end of 2026, according to its regulatory reform plan.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy's Administrative Order 360 requires state agencies to cut regulatory requirements 15% by the end of this year and 25% by the end of 2027.

The biggest cuts would come in two areas. Site cleanup rules would lose about 1,350 requirements and underground storage tank rules about 900. The plan also lists as completed the repeal of energy efficiency and weatherization rules for real estate sales in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, which DEC estimates will save about $1,000 per transaction. Those rules were adopted only to address a partial federal disapproval of the state's air quality plan, and the EPA said in September 2025 that they are no longer required, according to the plan.

Smaller changes would repeal the state's litter receptacle rules and pare back the rules for a school recycling awards program that hasn't been active since at least 2001. State law requires DEC to keep some rules for the program. Approval time for financial responsibility changes for spot-charter vessels would shrink from 30 days to 10 working days.

DEC also proposed repealing its laser protection standards, which require eye shields for workers who could be exposed to hazardous laser reflections and protective coverings against skin exposure. DEC says it has no laser program and that the standards appear to have landed in its rules because laser light was treated as radiation. It first sought comment Aug. 5, and an Oct. 10 notice set a Nov. 8 deadline.

In public comments summarized in the plan, conservation groups, tribal governments and community organizations opposed broad cuts and warned against weakening public health protections or allowing automatic permit approvals. DEC says the changes will not weaken protections and that it will not adopt blanket automatic approvals, which it says apply only to minor and general permits.