All Americans would benefit from access to untapped energy resources in Alaska. It would provide more oil and natural gas to fuel our economy, maintain our quality of life and enhance national and economic security. Alaska today offers the U.S. an opportunity to increase our domestic oil and natural gas supply.
Exploiting that opportunity in the 1970s proved an extraordinarily valuable contribution to enhancing U.S. energy security, when two oil crises disrupted world supplies and caused economic havoc.
Today, we can see how valuable these domestic oil resources are when we look at how low gasoline prices are at the pump.
Policymakers need to embrace an “all of the above” energy approach that leverages our offshore and other petroleum resources in Alaska to create an energy plan for America that boosts, rather than inhibits, our economy.
Northern Economics, in association with the University of Alaska-Anchorage, assessed that Alaska’s Offshore Continental Shelf development would add approximately $145 billion in new payroll for U.S. workers and $193 billion or more in new local, state and federal government revenue combined over 50 years.
Increased OCS production in Alaska would also extend the operating life of the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, a critical lifeline of domestic energy for America that provides income for many Alaskans. Petroleum development in Alaska currently accounts for more than 42,000 jobs.
Today oil and gas development constitutes one third of the state of Alaska’s economic activity and provides about 90 percent of the state’s general revenue. Oil and gas production have put $141 billion in the state’s treasury in the past four decades and created the $40 billion Alaska Permanent Fund, which has paid each Alaskan some $38,000 in dividends in today’s dollars since its creation in 1982.
Based on current estimates, the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea offer more energy resources than any other undeveloped U.S. basin. Fortunately, the government’s draft leasing plan for 2017-2022 includes both these regions as targets for exploration and development. More time may be needed, but this is a good start.
In order to make the huge investments needed to ensure the U.S. remains at the forefront of developing new energy technologies, the nation’s, and especially Alaska’s, untapped oil and gas reserves must be accessed and brought to market.
The economic benefits are staggering. This development will yield hundreds of billions of dollars in federal revenues. This money could be used to pay down the federal debt and provide the funds needed to invest in new energy technologies — with no added tax burden on American families.
Starting sometime in August, Shell proposes to drill up to four exploration wells over two years in the Chukchi Sea. Exploration wells could confirm economically recoverable oil in what’s suspected to be one of the last untapped giant reserves on the planet.
Environmental groups, which bitterly oppose drilling, want to leave Arctic offshore resources in the ground. What the protesters may not realize is that oil and gas extraction pays the bill to maintain Alaska’s clean water, healthy fish stocks and healthy communities. Simply put: oil is the economic drivetrain for all of Alaska.
Charles Cicchetti, Ph. D, is the former Jeffrey Miller chair in government, business and the economy at the Price School of the University of Southern California and former professor of economics and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin.Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
