Alaska will benefit from the Ambler Access Project

Since 2013, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) has been working on developing the Ambler Access Project, a 50-year right-of-way heading west from the Dalton Highway to the Ambler Mining District. AIDEA inherited the project and prior state funding from the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. Other than time lost when the previous administration in Juneau halted the project, everything continues on a logical, thoroughly planned schedule.

It is important to note that negotiation of the necessary rights-of-way across private land could not begin until the federal government published the Environmental Impact Statement and selects a route, which is official with publication of the Record of Decision expected at the end of this month. It is also important to note that AIDEA has long been in communication with all landowners and other interested parties associated with this project.

No entity but AIDEA would be likely to see this project through EIS, permitting, and construction. Nor is any other state agency besides AIDEA authorized to own the road and ensure that millions of state dollars invested thus far will produce returns that benefit the state.

AIDEA offers patient capital. The Authority has the kind of staying power required of natural resource development on public land, and resource development on public land is the only answer to a 75% decline in oil production over the past 30 years, and loss of relative value in other key producing industries.

Before his election in 2018, Gov. Mike Dunleavy spoke often about the need for responsible natural resource development as the key to providing high-wage jobs that can support Alaska families.

Now with the EIS done, the AIDEA board moved funds into the Arctic Infrastructure Development Fund in anticipation of conducting front-end field work in 2020 and 2021, with costs matched by the private sector. (The final EIS, but not additional rights of way, was required in order to proceed with this field work.)

The Ambler Access Project design is modeled on AIDEA’s successful DeLong Mountain Transportation System (DMTS), which includes an industrial access road from the Red Dog Mine to the DMTS port. AIDEA worked with private industry to develop the DMTS industrial access road, and the costs of road construction and operation are repaid through tolls and fees. The Red Dog model will work at least as well for Ambler, and Ambler has the potential to surpass Red Dog in employment opportunities and economic benefit to the state.

As we look at today’s economic picture, let’s remember that at the time of the late 1980s’ Alaska recession, oil production was four times current production; that 2 million barrel-per-day rate brought quick results when prices recovered. Also, at that time, there was a forest products industry employing 4,000 people to manufacture industrial lumber and the highest value pulp in the world. Just as importantly, Alaska has twice as many consumers today needing every variety of goods produced worldwide. So far, mineral production has been better insulated from the extant economic downturn than other Alaska industries that bring dollars into the state.

There is concern from residents of the Ambler region specific to this road. National environmental organizations express unconditioned opposition. The concerns were and continue to be sufficiently answered with the Red Dog road, and that will be the case with Ambler through the EIS process.

I have worked 18 years in state government, and 40 years in the private sector. If this COVID-19 recession is teaching me anything, it’s that this new century has not brought immunity from prior perils. Nor is Alaska inoculated against fundamental economic realities, and that too is to be relearned. No one can be sure this pandemic is not just our first glimpse at a mirror that too well manifests the previous century. Access to Ambler resources will help address certitude and circumstance. The Legislature holds hearings on Ambler every session.

Tomas Boutin has been AIDEA CEO and Executive Director for 14 months. He previously served on the AIDEA Board for 13 years.

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