WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Monday will officially restore Denali as the name of North America’s tallest mountain, siding with the state of Alaska in ending a 40-year battle over what to call a peak that has been known as Mount McKinley.
The historic change, coming at the beginning of a three-day presidential trip to Alaska, is a sign of how hard the White House will push during Obama’s remaining 16 months as president to ensure his fight to address climate change is part of his legacy.
Obama on Saturday defended his decision to allow Royal Dutch Shell to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean under what he said were rigorous standards, fending off criticism by environmental groups.
His message came on the eve of the tour of Alaska aimed at drawing attention to powerful images of melting glaciers and eroding coastlines as a “wakeup call” to Americans in the Lower 48 states about the urgent need to address climate change.
Renaming the mountain, which has an elevation of more than 20,000 feet, makes headlines for his climate quest while also creating goodwill in a state that has not been broadly supportive to the Democratic president.
Obama is slated to tour a receding glacier and meet with people in remote Arctic communities whose way of life is affected by rising ocean levels, creating images designed to build support for regulations to curb carbon emissions.
The peak was named Mount McKinley in 1896 after a gold prospector exploring the region heard that Ohioan William McKinley, a champion of the gold standard, had won the Republican nomination for president.
But Alaska natives had long before called the mountain Denali, meaning “the High One.” In 1975, the state of Alaska officially designated the mountain as Denali, and has since been pressing the federal government to do the same.
Alaskans had been blocked in Congress by Ohio politicians, who wanted to stick with McKinley as a lasting tribute to the 25th president, who served from 1897 until his assassination in 1901.
Under Obama’s action, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell will use her legal authority to end the long debate and rename the mountain.
The move elicited praise from Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, a Republican turned independent, and Republican elected officials, who more typically are critical of an administration they see as hostile to the oil and gas interests of their state.
“I’d like to thank the president for working with us to achieve this significant change to show honor, respect and gratitude to the Athabascan people of Alaska,” said Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who led the fight for the Denali name in Congress.
Obama will meet with a group of Alaska native leaders Monday in Anchorage, as well as with Walker and Murkowski.
Craig Fleener, a Gwich’in Athabascan who is an adviser to Walker, called Denali “a hallmark of Alaskan identity” and said the name change was rich in significance.
The first person to reach the summit of the mountain in 1913 was Koyukon Athabascan Walter Harper, and a member of his expedition, Gwich’in Athabascan John Fredson, went on to become a leader in the fight for native rights in the state, Fleener said.
Obama’s trip also highlights inherent contradictions in his climate and energy policies. While he pushes the world to wean itself from fossil fuels, his administration gave Shell the green light earlier this month to drill in the oil-rich Chukchi Sea.
Environmental groups argue Arctic drilling will expose whales, walruses and polar bears to risks of spills and will expand the kind of energy production blamed for climate change.
“I share people’s concerns about offshore drilling,” Obama said in his weekly address.
“I remember the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico all too well,” he said, referring to the 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig that killed 11 people and spewed millions of barrels of oil into the ocean.
Obama pointed out that Shell bought its exploration leases before he took office and said his administration set “the highest standards possible” for the drilling.
The U.S. economy needs oil and gas until it makes the “transition” to renewable energy and should count on domestic fossil fuels instead of imports, he said.
On Tuesday, he will hike on a receding glacier near the town of Seward. The next day, he will travel to the salmon-fishing town of Dillingham on Bristol Bay before flying into the small town of Kotzebue north of the Arctic Circle — the first time a sitting U.S. president will travel that far north.
Obama will announce new policies to help communities adapt to climate change and deploy renewable energy, Brian Deese, Obama’s top adviser on climate issues, said during a conference call with reporters.
The climate focus of Obama’s tour has rattled some people in Alaska, which depends on oil and gas for 90 percent of its revenues and a third of its jobs.
“People are worried that folks with apparently good intentions will shut down our area,” said Richard Savik Glenn, executive vice president at the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., a resource company owned by 12,000 Inupiat native peoples.