Alaska’s economy has been in a hole since oil prices collapsed in 2014. Now, with Alaska North Slope crude selling at about $25 per barrel, that hole has become a crater.
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, has been pushing oil since he took office, following Donald Trump’s “energy dominance” doctrine. Now that oil’s price has yet again collapsed beneath his feet — through events we Alaskans cannot control — he’s begging the Saudis to cut production, threatening military withdrawal if they don’t.
Is this what “energy dominance” looks like to you, Senator Sullivan? When our state budget depends on the goodwill of the Saudis? Is this your long-term plan for Alaska’s economy: keep threatening foreign powers to stabilize oil prices?
Even if the Saudis and Russians play ball this time, we’ll still be deep in the crater, vulnerable to the next price shock. And as the world innovates and acts on climate change, there are good reasons to believe oil prices will stay low.
Sullivan, who was elected with the help of the oil billionaire Koch Brothers, cannot face the reality that the oil economy has failed Alaska. It’s time for a Senator who’s not pushing a false narrative of “energy dominance,” but leading us to a future of true energy independence, based on diverse, renewable energy. Dr. Al Gross knows we’ll never have to bow and scrape to Middle East autocrats or go to war over solar panels and wind turbines.
• Zachary Brown, PhD, of Gustavus is a lifelong Alaskan, a climate scientist and educator, who works as founding director of Inian Islands Institute.
