Success Through Failure! Anti-Jobs Initiative Admits Defeat

June 3, 2021

In April, we wrote about a proposed three-part initiative in Juneau, Alaska, meant to stifle the cruise industry, one of the city’s most successful economic engines.  In a typical (pre-COVID) year, more than one million visitors arrive into Alaska’s capital city between May and September, and inject hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy.

The group pushing the initiative, Juneau Cruise Control, was backed by many of Juneau’s environmental radicals and eco-Left organizations.  The group formed because they were opposed to the influx of people, as well as the (apparent) pollution the cruise lines and passengers (supposedly) inflicted on the area.

Yesterday, the group was due to submit its signatures to Juneau’s city government, in order to force a vote in the upcoming local elections.  Instead of meeting its goal of 3,000 signatures, however, it submitted a letter, acknowledging it came up well short of its goals, but asking the city to impose limits on the industry through regulation, rather than citizen action.

If it wasn’t clear to the eco-zealots in Juneau before yesterday, it should be clear now: Juneau, like other locations throughout Alaska, doesn’t share in their extreme beliefs against jobs, industries and companies that help drive Alaska’s economy.  Alaskans understand that a balance between care for the environment and economic opportunities have been in existence for over a hundred years – since well before statehood.

Whether it is the ill-intended limits on cruising, timber, oil and gas or mining, radical environmentalists and their ilk have been met with resounding defeats in signature gathering and at ballot boxes for nearly every attempt to tilt that balance toward environmental extremism.

While Power The Future wishes this would be the end of the assault on Alaska’s resource-based economy, we know it is only one more battle in an all-out war.  We will continue to advocate for balance, and fight against those whose fanaticism would harm Alaska’s bright future.