Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy said he is mulling legal action against the US administration for the prolonged suspension of cruise operations in the state.
He made the threat in a Fox news interview.
Asked if Alaska would follow Florida in suing the CDC, Gov. Dunleavy did not rule it out.
"If we don’t get a positive dialogue here this week, that’s a real possibility because the decision will be crushing to Alaska," Dunleavy said.
The suspension of cruise operations since last year could lead to lost revenues of $3.3 billion.
"That’s in a state with about a 56 billion-dollar GDP, so it’s going to be significant."
"We’re going to lose millions of dollars in local revenue for our communities, especially along the coast. Unemployment rates will remain stubbornly high," he added.
Florida’s lawsuit calls for a fast resumption of cruising in the Sunshine State and a scrapping of the CDC’s Framework for Conditional Sail Order.
Alaska has arguably even less legal merit if it went ahead with a lawsuit.
Even when cruising is permitted, Alaska’s route to resuming cruises is stymied by Canada’s ban on large cruise ships.
In February, Alaska representatives asked Canada to reconsider their ban on cruise ships which remains in force until 2022.
