E&E NEWS • September 21, 2021
As the Senate ended its monthlong summer break last week, Sen. Angus King returned to Capitol Hill fully recovered from COVID-19 and with big ideas in mind for the National Park Service. “I plan to be an activist chairman,” declared King, the independent senator from Maine who heads the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks. That activism will be on full display as King continues to explore ideas on how to alleviate recent crowding in national parks. One of those ideas will come in a hearing this fall on expanding the number of parks in the 63-park system. He also intends to examine how money is being spent on upgrades to the park service.