The Ketchikan Daily News on Sunday ran an editorial on an effort by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to educate the denizens of Capitol Hill and beyond on the challenges Alaskans face in developing a healthy economy in a state that only joined the Union 56 years ago and that is still largely controlled by the decisions of distant federal land managers. The Obama administration continues to burden Alaska with land withdrawals, including 23 million acres placed off limits in January alone. Sen. Murkowski’s video and the editorial are below.
Our land video
Ketchikan Daily News opinion
Sen. Lisa Murkowski has taken Alaska’s economic situation to YouTube; it might be the perfect venue.
With all of the young people in tune with YouTube, the next generation might listen to a highly credible United States senator from Alaska and be sufficiently informed to correct the situation — at least not exacerbate it as they become the next generation of U.S. leaders.
The strength of Alaska’s economy runs in tandem with development of its natural resources. Oil, gas, timber, minerals, fish — it’s what Alaskans produce, harvest, mine or catch to make a living and fill the state coffers.
State and Native officials understand that. On the land and water they control, economic development is king. But that’s only 39 percent of Alaska, the largest state, which is twice the size of the second largest and about a fifth of the United States territory.
The challenge for Alaskans is that the federal government controls nearly 61 percent of the state. Federal officials make it next to impossible to develop the resources, and the concern among Alaskans is that that isn’t about to change for the better, and might get worse.
Murkowski labeled the YouTube video “ThisIsOurLand,” which explains the Alaska situation to the nation — or anybody who has Internet access.
The senator uses a color-coded map in the two-minute video to illustrate the breakdown of land ownership in Alaska.
Only one-quarter of 1 percent of Alaska is private land. If it weren’t for the state’s 27 percent and Alaska Natives’ 12 percent, economic development would be nearly non-existent.
Much of the federal land is off limits to development, some is only lightly developed and restrictions impede development on other federally controlled land in Alaska. The tune coming out of Washington, D.C. is further restrictions and limitations.
The Obama administration has created an additional 12.2 million acres of wilderness in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, withdrawn 9.8 million additional acres from development in the Arctic’s offshore, and removed half the National Petroleum Reserve from leasing for production, according to Murkowski.
The administration plans to set additional land off limits to development before the end of its second term, she says.
Alaskans aren’t a threat to the land on which we live. But Obama’s administration is very much one to Alaskans; to our economy and livelihoods.
The video briefly explains Alaska’s land ownership and the economic limitations that come with not being allowed to develop the majority of the land, which is federally owned. It also should create an understanding of how low the probability of Alaska being exploited is and the lack of necessity to further limit land development in Alaska. A graphic, like a picture, can be worth 1,000 words.
Hopefully, the YouTube audience will be open-minded to the message.