Power The Future Energy Hour Recap: US Senator Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young (Week 2 of 4)

September 17, 2020

Every Tuesday night from 5:00-6:00 PM local time, Alaska State Director Rick Whitbeck hosts the “Power The Future Energy Hour” on KNVT (92.5 FM, 1020 AM and online at 1020KVNT.com).  The show (also replayed during the same hour on Saturday night) is heard throughout Southcentral Alaska communities, and acts as a recap of Power The Future activities in Alaska, as well as an opportunity to hear from various members of Alaska’s energy community.

Since the show’s inception in January 2018, its guests have included members of Congress, Alaska’s Governor, Lt. Governor, State Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners, members of the Governor’s leadership team, members of the press and blog/website hosts, executives from organizations throughout Alaska who fight for jobs, opportunities and progress alongside us (The Alaska Support Industry Alliance, Resource Development Council, Alaska Oil & Gas Association, Alaska Miners Association and others), state legislators from both parties who have a role in energy policy as part of their legislative duties and executives from many of Alaska’s leading resource development projects (both current and potential).

This week, we caught up with Power The Future’s founder and Executive Director, Daniel Turner in segment two.  As always, the focus was on national and international energy topics, including the Biden campaign’s habit of changing their positions on energy (and other topics) depending on who and where they are speaking.  Daniel noted that a few weeks ago, while in Pennsylvania, Biden had walked back his campaign’s position on fracking bans, but while in Delaware on Monday, had reiterated his position that fracking – along with additional leasing of federal lands and waters for oil and gas development – was a deal-breaker should he win the election in November.  We also discussed the influence the campaign was receiving from eco-Left organizations, and the overall influence of extremist dollars in races that will decide who heads up the US Senate for the next two years.

The month of September will be spent hearing from US Senator Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young, on a variety of issues and topics related to energy and resource development. 

Congressman Young was our segment three interview this week, and he discussed hydro power, and its importance to meeting today’s energy needs throughout Southeast Alaska, as well as how hydro is being brought to villages across Western Alaska.  We also discussed “green” energy in general, with emphasis on advancing US supply and activity to provide critical minerals (copper, nickel) and rare earths that are needed for “green” energy and other technologies.

Senator Sullivan spent his segment on the Energy Hour talking about his leadership on removing plastic debris and cleaning up the oceans with his Save Our Seas initiative.  The Senator has been a leading voice in the Senate on the importance of water to Alaskans, as we have more coastline than the entire Continental US.  We also discussed the topic of American jobs, and how the President and Congress are working to bring mining and manufacturing of mined materials back to America, which removes Chinese influence and control of so many of the minerals and elements needed for Americans’ everyday lives.

The Energy Hour will have two more weeks to hear from Senator Sullivan and Congressman Young.  Next week will be a discussion with both men on ANWR and oil/gas development.  The 29^th will focus on mining.  Then, on October 6^th, we’ll hear from Alaska’s Governor, Michael J. Dunleavy for at least one segment.  October 13^th will feature Alaska’s Lt. Governor, Kevin Meyer.  From there, we’ll visit with political leaders, industry executives and senior-level government officials, as well as experts on Alaska’s resource economy and our budget. You can click here for this week’s show, as well as nearly every media appearance by our team, hosted on PTF’s SoundCloud page.

Feel free to reach out to Rick Whitbeck at Rick@PowerTheFuture.com if you have ideas for future shows!