Climate Change Town Hall Leads to Questions about Alaska’s Future

September 6, 2019

Yes, I admit it.  I watched all 450 minutes of the CNN Climate Town Halls on Tuesday.  Ten Democratic Presidential hopefuls – each with their own plans for ending climate change – spoke to America, took questions from audience members, and engaged in true one-upmanship for 45 minutes each.

I watched not because I thought it was going to be engaging TV, but because I was curious whether any of the ten candidates would mention how Alaska’s economic reliability on responsible resource extraction would save it from the Green New Deal-esque plans many had already rolled out.

While not naïve, I held out against hope.

I finished the town hall marathon uninspired.

You see, all ten candidates – Julian Castro, Andrew Yang, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke and Cory Booker – spoke glowingly about their plans to eliminate offshore drilling.  To exclude opportunities to further develop any public lands.  To abolish fracking.

By doing so, here’s what I heard them say of their visions for Alaska’s future:  Your economy isn’t relevant to the national discussion.  The “climate crisis” is more important than having families lose jobs, of having communities built around responsible resource development gutted, and that Alaskans don’t matter.

Power The Future has reached out to each of the campaigns, hoping that one or more of them will come to Alaska and have a discussion on how their energy plans would benefit our state.  We’ve heard from two that may have an interest.  Here’s hoping that more realize that their plans and prospective policies would set Alaska – and America – back, not move it forward.