A Future Eco-Extremists Want – A Future We Can’t Afford

January 18, 2020

Alaska is blessed with abundance in many ways. 

Sunlight in the summer. 

Lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. 

Mountains – including North America’s highest peak in Denali.

And extractable resources that drive the state’s economy and power over one-third of Alaska’s private sector jobs.

The balance between environmental stewardship and responsible development has led to Alaska’s emergence over the past fifty years as a major energy supplier for the US.  It has allowed Alaska to modernize, grow and prosper. 

But the radicalized environmentalists – funded mostly by non-Alaskans who consider our state their snow globe, their private utopia, and who want to make Alaska their Garden of Eden – would set Alaska back with their “leave it in the ground” mentality.

If you don’t believe me, look at two Eastern US states, and see how one is growing and one is suffering, due to decisions made by rational versus irrational politicians.  Fueled by anti-development vitriol from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Governor Andrew Cuomo, New Yorkers are feeling energy pain, while Pennsylvanians are feeling the exact opposite.

Released on Friday, January 17th was a Power The Future study that compares and contrasts Pennsylvania and New York, as a result of decisions made around development in the Marcellus Shale fields.  While Pennsylvania has embraced fracking, New York has used political and legal maneuvering to ban fracking, as well as ban pipelines carrying the fracked oil to New York.

As a result, the study shows, jobs are flourishing in Pennsylvania and floundering in New York.  Prices for electricity are significantly lower in Pennsylvania.  New home construction in areas of New York cannot be built with natural gas hookups, because there isn’t enough supply to meet the demand.

Should the eco-Left get its way, Alaska’s still-abundant resource base will stay in the ground.  Jobs will disappear.  Families will suffer.  Poverty will increase.  Hope will be lost.

Power The Future will continue to fight – more aggressively than ever – to ensure Alaska doesn’t suffer the same plights New York is facing now.  They could have seen the success of Pennsylvania in the Empire State, but they let the lies and feelings-over-facts hypocrisy of the environmentalists “win”.  Alaska can’t afford that mistake.