Don’t let Alaska become the next coal country

Picture a small town. It clings to the edge of a new-ish highway, but that artery pumps no life into the place. The town itself is worn. Weeds grow in the unkempt yards, windows are broken or boarded-up. On distant hills, jagged mouths gape at the sky, exposing pale stone.
Welcome to coal country.

I am not a born-and-raised Alaskan. Most of my life I spent in the Midwest, then the postindustrial Northeast, then — lately — in rural Appalachia. Driving through those varied landscapes, one sees again and again the town I described above — a dilapidated remnant of a once-thriving community.

In recent weeks, dueling op-eds in this newspaper — one by columnist Charles Wohlforth and one by North Slope Borough Mayor Harry K. Brower, Jr. — awoke my memories of such places. Towns like those should sound as warning bells for Alaska. They are the future that awaits this state if oil remains the only prop of our state economy.

The mention of fossil fuels is instantly divisive; for the moment, let's check that baggage at the door. This isn't an argument about climate change or culture. It's about the well-being of our state: a concern we all share whether we're leave-it-in-the-grounders or drill-baby-drillers.

It is no secret that the oil industry has contributed to the revitalization Alaska in general and North Slope communities in particular. Everything from public education to our PFDs are wedded to the rise and fall of dollars per barrel. The recent drop in that number has precipitated our current budget crisis … and that is only a taste of what's to come if we keep all our eggs in that basket.

Oil got us a long way, but it won't sustain us forever. Renewable energy fuels 81 percent of new American power generation facilities built in the first half of 2018. The market in electric cars, solar panels and other green technologies has exploded. Wind and solar technicians are by far the nation's fastest-growing jobs. An energy revolution is happening before our eyes, and with it, an economic one.

We've seen this before. Appalachia suffered brutally as the nation swerved from coal to natural gas. Coal-rich states are still fighting tooth and nail to bolster that moribund industry. But the economics simply don't pan out. In their refusal to change with the times, those regions have suffered the consequences: urban blight and rural catastrophe, poverty and depopulation, methamphetamines and opioids.

The fossil fuel economy giveth, and the fossil fuel economy taketh away.
Alaska needs to read the writing on the wall. As renewable technologies improve and public enthusiasm for them grows, our economic bedrock is shifting beneath our feet. So why not get out in front of this revolution? Why should fossil fuels be the only natural resources we care to develop? With our thousands of miles of shoreline, vast interior, steep mountainous terrain and tectonic activity, we enjoy a bounty of natural energy resources: wind, water, sun and tide — even geothermal. Harvesting this abundance will require investment, development, and new infrastructure. That means thousands of jobs, billions of dollars for our state. It means affordable, local energy for our rural communities and new businesses attracted to our urban centers. And it means the prestige of leadership and security of future awarded to those who act.

The time to act is now. Our compatriots in oil development — Texas, California and North Dakota — have noted the change in the wind. Each state is now pouring millions — if not billions — of dollars into the renewable revolution.

Will Alaska, with our far greater natural resources, leave them untapped? Will we keep our heads in the sand in hopes that the oil down there will sustain us? Will we resign ourselves to becoming the next coal country?
Or will we take our rightful spot at the forefront of this movement — and thereby secure a vibrant future for our state, our communities, and our children?

Laura Marcus is the executive director of the Arete Project, which runs educational programs in Southeast Alaska and western North Carolina. She lives in Gustavus.

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