Out of Touch in Snowy Alaska

December 5, 2019

This post is being written with 15” or so of snow in Anchorage, thanks to a typical Alaskan December squall.  The temperature is a ‘balmy’ 15 degrees, and more snow is in the forecast for the next couple of days.  Just pointing this out to set the stage for what is – up until now – the most ridiculous email sent from the eco-extremist movement in Alaska this year.

On Monday (after the first 6” or so of snow had fallen), the Alaska Center (For the Environment) sent out an email, written by its Executive Director, Polly Carr. It opened with the following: “I drove my daughter to school one November morning, in the dark and pouring rain. My heart sank while holiday music played on the radio, and my windshield wipers squeaked back and forth.”

Noting that Alaskan children “pine for the snow they grew up in”, it emotionally dredged through the “dread” Alaskans feel about our state’s weather patterns, the climate ‘crisis’ and the changes in various animals, fish and the like.  Paragraph after paragraph was spent glowingly on the work the organization had done in 2019, and how they hoped to engage in 2020, before asking for a donation (of course!) to help them with their work.

The Alaska Center (For the Environment) has long been out of touch with the majority of Alaskans’ values and principles. They conveniently forget that most Alaskans understand there is a continued need for responsible resource development, as the vast majority of our state’s economy is driven by extractive industries. The organization – along with other radicalized organizations across the state – refuses to accept that fact, and fights against our economic drivers daily.

One exceptionally short-sighted and dismissive paragraph noted that the Alaska Center (For the Environment) “…will partner with neighbors, business owners, and other organizations in making clean energy more accessible to all Alaskans…”

The Center missed one exceptionally important point in that statement, and that is their radicalized viewpoints on the need for “Green Energy” require a tremendous amount of fossil fuel and mining infrastructure to create the tools necessary for renewable energy solutions.  Wind turbines can’t be forged and battery storage can’t be improved without fossil fuel and mining resources.

While The Alaska Center (For the Environment) and other anti-development organizations vilify them, Power The Future is proud of the men and women in the energy community in Alaska, whether they work in a modern building in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau or elsewhere, or whether they put their hard hats on and work in remote camps across this great state.

Alaskans should be disappointed and reject the message of organizations like the Alaska Center (for the Environment) and Cook Inletkeeper, just to name a few, who pound the drum for job-killing measures.  Alaska’s future – with energy workers leading the way – is bright.