OPINION:
Mike Dunleavy, a true son of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and one of the last American pioneers, has one of the more challenging and great jobs in American governance: He is the governor of our largest and wildest state, Alaska.
After college, he headed for Alaska. In his words: “Always wanted to go to Alaska, always loved the outdoors, and when I got there, I thought I died and went to heaven, and still feel that way today.”
Team Biden doesn’t seem to share his affinity for Alaska.
“Unfortunately, the federal government under this administration has declared war on Alaska. … We have at least 42 actions against us by the Biden administration. … I think if you really take an objective look at how we’re treated by our federal government, one could quickly surmise that we are actually treated worse than some foreign nations such as Venezuela and Iran,” he says.
Mr. Dunleavy is concise in his assessment of that approach. “If you care about the environment, we need to produce resources in Alaska. If you care about social justice, we need to produce resources here in Alaska. If you care about enriching people and not dictators, we need to produce resources here in Alaska.
“Here in the United States, we don’t do child labor like they do in some other places. We don’t prop up dictators like they do in some other places. We care more about the environment than other places. Instead of offshoring our wealth, our jobs, our national security, why don’t we just do it here and do it right?”
The Alaska pipeline used to move about 2 million barrels of oil a day. Now it moves just 500,000. Has Alaska run out of oil?
“We have billions of barrels of oil left. … Just between Willow [a project being considered by the Biden administration] and Pikka, you’re looking at the potential of an extra 250,000 barrels of oil,” Mr. Dunleavy says.
These are not obscure or academic policy considerations for the governor.
“These decisions are really impacting the poorest of the poor in Alaska, who are mostly native people. ANWR is in the ancestral homelands of the Inupiat Eskimos. These closed-off areas now regarding water and land because of the seals, this is homelands of the Eskimos. My wife is [an Eskimo], and her mother was born in a fish camp way up river, very poor.
“These resource plays … have transformed those societies tremendously and for the better, health care-wise, education-wise, job-wise, and so when these things happen … it impacts the lives of Americans here at home,” he says.
Mr. Dunleavy has three daughters who are also in this fight. They are all miners in the Red Dog Mine, the largest lead zinc mine in the world. Like their mother, obviously, they’re Native Americans. Mr. Dunleavy says simply: “My wife’s people in many respects have been lifted out of poverty as a result of this mine.”
What does Team Biden think of all of this? “I think they get it and they don’t care,” Mr. Dunleavy says. “I think right now, worshiping at the altar of extreme environmentalism is all that matters. People don’t. … We’re being artificially put out of business.”
It is not well known in the lower 48, but Alaska was admitted into the union with the explicit understanding that it would develop its resources to pay for itself and not become a ward of the federal government.
“The irony is they’re not letting us develop those resources. If we were allowed to develop the resources … we would be creating new wealth, new jobs and new opportunities, not just for Alaska, but this country.”
Apart from the wealth of resources, Alaska has other things going for it.
“We have our own private rocket launch that launches satellites into space. We have that on Kodiak Island. Folks don’t realize that the Ted Stevens International Airport is the second busiest in the U.S. for cargo and fourth busiest in the entire world, because we are nine hours from every industrialized place in the Northern Hemisphere.
“We have probably more farmland than any other state. … We’re starting up some big agricultural projects. … [T]he resource potential and reality in Alaska is unlike any other.”
Like many governors, Mr. Dunleavy is his state’s biggest booster.
“This is a great state. It’s a young state. In some ways it’s like an emerging economy — not a lot of infrastructure, but at the same time, it’s America, with our jurisprudence and its American culture. I love the job. It’s a great job, and I’m going to enjoy the next four years and do everything I can to create and realize every opportunity there is for our kids, our grandkids, and do our part in making this country remain strong.”
• Michael McKenna, a columnist for The Washington Times, co-hosts “The Unregulated Podcast,” where you can hear the entire interview with Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
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