A
simple governing political philosophy for the state of Alaska ought
to be easy to make. Barking at the half-empty pipeline isn't good
enough. Bark until it refills and government is funded fully again.
The
state should not develop any fossil fuel pipelines- let free
enterprise do that as it did for TAPS if and when the market looks
that way. Alaska's natural resources shouldn't be just given away to
global corporations and/or mismanaged at rock bottom prices.
The
state needs to keep a stable tax rate for oil royalties from state
reserves so any global corporations knows a priori what the cost of
development would be from year to year. Global oil prices, supply and
demand, fluctuating reserves etc make cost calculations a special
game for the major players. Legislative cargo cult adjusting tax
rates down are inefficient. The Gov. Sarah Von Palin tax plan should
return and be the normal condition.
If
the state government decides to invest in energy it should be in
commercial fuel cell power plant incentives and wind farms. Reducing
the size of government and making it more efficient along with a
state income tax would pay for government as needed. The state
shouldn't destroy natural resources selling them cheap to Japanese
pulp, British Petroleum or Exxon-Mobil. Neither should it ruin
fisheries with too much commercial harvest (half should be for sports
and subsistence) and no fish free zones to let fish recover from the
attack.
Alaska
has lots of natural resources and conservative, fairly taxed
commercial use if necessary will keep them intact and valuable for
centuries. As it is presently unwise use at giveaway prices by the
state legislators intent on kickbacks to themselves and special
interests are bad government. Good government is very simple.
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