By MICHAEL TAVOLIERO
On June 3, Alaska State Sen. James Kaufman shared an optimistic message on social media:
“One of my top priorities is supporting responsible resource development in Alaska… Alaska has the ability to provide reliable, affordable energy not just to Alaskans, but to America and our allies. I am excited that we are once again taking meaningful steps in that direction.”
On June 5th, Congressman Nick Begich started his opinion piece in MRAK:
“When we talk about Alaska’s energy potential – we are talking about more than molecules in the ground or development projects. We’re talking about a true cornerstone of American prosperity and a valuable tool for national security.”
These are the kinds of sentiments Alaskans have heard for decades. These sound bites are filled with promise, always met with public hope, and too often followed by disappointment. Despite rich natural resources and enduring public support for development, Alaska repeatedly fails to launch major projects that would secure energy independence, create jobs, and restore fiscal sustainability. The culprit isn’t a lack of federal interest or industrial potential. It is Alaska’s own state legislature and its unwillingness to eliminate bureaucratic entrenchment.
To fulfill its promise as a national leader in responsible resource development, Alaska must go beyond words. It must confront its internal inertia with decisive action. A new generation of legislators, united with the executive branch, must systematically dismantle the regulatory and administrative barriers that block progress.
Governor Dunleavy needs to start immediately to exercise constitutional executive control where applicable. A new 2026 legislature must do the rest, because the current state legislature won’t.
Breaking Bureaucratic Entrenchment: A Five-Point Action Plan
1. Audit and Streamline State Regulatory Agencies
Alaska’s Departments of Natural Resources (DNR), Environmental Conservation (DEC), and Fish & Game (ADF&G) have grown into overlapping bureaucracies that too often delay rather than facilitate development.
- Action: Launch a performance audit across these agencies to identify duplication, inefficiencies, and regulatory bottlenecks.
- Objective: Establish a unified, expedited permitting process for energy, mining, and infrastructure projects.
2. Assert State Sovereignty Under ANILCA and the Tenth Amendment
Federal agencies—including the EPA, BLM, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service—have exceeded their jurisdiction, imposing restrictions that undermine Alaska’s development goals.
- Action: Expand the Department of Law’s litigation capacity to challenge unlawful federal actions and to press RS 2477 claims for access and infrastructure.
- Objective: Reclaim state jurisdiction over submerged lands, navigable waterways, and resource-rich public lands guaranteed under the Alaska Statehood Compact.
3. Forge a Legislative-Executive Alliance for Permitting Reform
No governor can reform Alaska’s development framework alone. Legislative collaboration is essential.
- Action: Introduce and pass legislation which clearly establishes Alaska’s state sovereignty to reform permitting laws, protect state authority, and fast-track responsible development.
- Objective: Ensure Alaska’s legal infrastructure promotes rather than obstructs economic opportunity.
4. Incentivize Private Infrastructure Development
Large-scale infrastructure, roads, pipelines, terminals often face crippling delays due to litigation and red tape.
- Action: Create a public-private development model, similar to North Dakota’s, through a State Development Corporation, but avoid the missteps created by Alaska state NGO’s like the Alaska Industrial Export and Development Authority, the Alaska Energy Authority and other failing Alaska NGO’s.
- Objective: Attract private capital to build essential infrastructure quickly and cost-effectively.
5. Rebuild Public Trust Through Transparency and Local Benefits
Years of delays, reversals, and litigation have left many Alaskans skeptical. Public support will require visible returns.
- Action: Increase transparency in permitting and revenue use. Implement revenue-sharing agreements with local communities impacted by development.
- Objective: Ensure Alaskans see and feel the benefits of the resources developed in their backyards.
The Consequences of Inaction
If Alaska fails to confront bureaucratic inertia, the consequences will be immediate and compounding.
1. Permanent Loss of Resource Sovereignty
Without state-level assertion of permitting and land-use authority, federal agencies will dominate development decisions.
- Result: Billions in untapped mineral, energy, and infrastructure potential will remain buried beneath federal red tape.
2. Economic Decline and Outmigration
Without new development, Alaska’s economy will stagnate, and its working-age population will continue to decline.
- Result: High-paying jobs in construction, energy, and resource sectors will vanish or move out of state, further weakening the tax base.
3. Fiscal Crisis Under Low Oil Scenarios
If oil drops near $40 per barrel and production lags, state revenues will collapse.
- Result: Alaska will face increasing pressure to impose a state income tax, further cut the Permanent Fund Dividend, or deplete the Permanent Fund itself.
4. Loss of National Influence
Inaction diminishes Alaska’s credibility as a serious development partner in national energy strategy.
- Result: The federal government will bypass Alaska for states with stronger infrastructure and clearer permitting processes.
5. Entrenchment of Anti-Development Narratives
When Alaska fails to act, environmental and anti-development lobbies fill the vacuum, entrenching policies that make future reforms even harder.
- Result: Alaska may permanently lose the legal and institutional tools needed to reclaim its economic destiny.
Conclusion: The Choice Is Now
Alaska can choose another decade of drift, rhetoric without reform, federal control over state destiny, or it can choose decisive action. With the right leadership and aligned will between the legislative and executive branches, Alaska can become what it has always had the potential to be: a global model of responsible resource development, prosperity, and self-determination.
But that future will not be handed to us. It must be claimed. A claim that can only be secured by clearing bureaucratic barriers, confronting inertia, and affirming that Alaska’s land and future belong to its people.
Michael Tavoliero writes for Must Read Alaska.
Some good ideas, but I’m thinking Marvin Heemeyer had a better plan….
Point 6 (which should really be Point 1): Stop electing spineless Republicans-in-name-only, like Stutes and Merrick (among so many others) who unethically and consistently side with the pro-globalist, pro-big-government Democrats in the state legislature.
What part of this happens with Alaska’s election and grand-jury systems in their present corrupted form?
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What persuades the Ruling Class to make these things happen if they don’t have to care about voters or state law enforcement?
.
Figure out the answers, your ideas might work. Otherwise you’re right, SSDD.
You are indeed funny!
I disagree with Tavoliero. I believe the facts also disagree with him. Alaska is not at a crossroads; it is far beyond that. The permitting process for any meaningful initiative or project now includes litigation with Marxist plaintiffs as a prescribed step. Such litigation is managed by Marxist politicians who we deceptively label as judges. Impartial judges are a relic of history; today’s judges now wear their Marxist ideology on their sleeves unashamedly. Alaska is no longer a frontier populated by bold and tenacious people of pioneer spirit. Rather, it is now a leftist blue Marxist territory populated by parasites living off government hand-outs while chanting slogans to shut our economy down.
Consider, at $18,051 per person, federal funding to Alaska is the third highest out of all fifty states; only behind Virginia at $19,406/person (near DC) and Kentucky at $18,407/person. Connecticut seems to be lowest at $4,152/person. Refer to ‘https://balancingeverything.com/most-federally-dependent-states/
I’m sorry Mr. Tavoliero, Alaska is not at a crossroad; rather, it is far beyond it. The only way to rectify our situation is to do some serious backtracking. Without cleaning house in the judiciary every action you suggest will be thwarted at their bench.
No need to be sorry. I agree we are down. The last 10 years have killed most of our state’s potential, but do we give up? Remember Article IV, Section 1, gives the state legislature the authority to limit the court’s jurisdiction.
What is said is good, but the Marxist in our State legislature need to be voted out first. They are the ones that are holding back the state from development. Many of those are bought with out of state money. Until that happens there will not be development if they can help it. Example is the finishing of the rail line to McKinsey Point so cheap transit cost can be taken advantage of. They just deep sixed it again this year.
The current Governor has the executive authority to begin all of these steps. I don’t disagree with you but here is the Governor’s opportunity handed to him on a plate to start the reform of the state as well as develop a bully pulpit in concert with the ARP and conservative leadership to get the Marxists out of the legislature and expand the development of the state resources for the benefit of its people. I would think that the governor has the political acumen start start this campaign and be relentless. After all, was the Left absolutely relentless with him in the beginning of his 1st term?
Larry, guess who those Marxists are that are orchestrating our decline and fall? They are the voters that elect the NEA-dominated legislature. Where are those voters? Look across our dinner tables. Many of us conservatives have Marxist spouses or relatives. They constitute over half our population now. Pathetic.