By MICHAEL TAVOLIERO

Let’s start with a simple but uncomfortable truth: If you believe that carbon dioxide (CO₂) is an existential threat to the planet, Alaska isn’t the problem — Alaska is the solution. And yet, in a breathtaking act of self-sabotage, some members of our Legislature are trying to make us the scapegoat anyway.

Let’s break it down in numbers that even a Washington, D.C. bureaucrat could understand:

• The average mature tree absorbs about 48 pounds of CO₂ every year.
• Alaska has roughly 31.75 billion trees.
• That means our forests soak up about 691 million metric tonnes (MT) of carbon annually.
• Alaska’s total carbon emissions? About 42 million MT per year.
• That’s right — we clean 16 times more carbon than we create.

Globally, Alaska contributes just 0.1% of total CO₂ emissions while removing 1.65% of global emissions — and our people make up a mere 0.009% of the planet’s population.

By any honest metric, Alaska isn’t the climate criminal the environmental left makes it out to be. We are the unsung heroes of carbon capture. Yet rather than celebrate that, radical activists and their political enablers want to strap Alaska’s economy to the wrecking ball of Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) and a suicidal obsession with wind and solar projects that don’t work, don’t pay, and don’t serve the people they’re supposed to help.

Where Is the Logic?

The premise is straightforward: we are told that human CO₂ emissions are heating the planet to catastrophic levels, and that every ton emitted must be urgently offset. Fine — let’s assume that’s true. By that logic, Alaska should be heralded as a global champion. We should be receiving billions in carbon credits annually — not fines, not penalties, and certainly not regulations designed to cripple our industries and impoverish our people.

But that’s not what’s happening. Instead, we’re being punished, bullied, and coerced into adopting unreliable, expensive, and destructive energy policies. All while the real carbon mega-emitters — China, India, and even the industrial giants of the Lower 48 — churn out pollution at staggering rates with zero accountability.

This isn’t science.
This is religion.
And it’s a false religion, complete with its own commandments, high priests, indulgences, and heretics.

At its heart, this obsession with Alaska’s “carbon footprint” isn’t about saving the planet. It’s about control — political, economic, and social control — over what was once the freest and most resource-rich frontier in America.

The Government Is the Problem, Not the Solution

Consider what’s happening right now:

• The Legislature is pushing two RPS bills that would force Alaska utilities to buy unreliable non-firm energy like wind and solar — despite decades of evidence that these sources raise costs and weaken grid reliability.
• Fire Island Wind, hailed as Southcentral Alaska’s green miracle, is now the most expensive regularly used power source in the region — and that’s based on a decade-old contract. New wind generation would likely cost 140% more.
• Hydroelectric expansion projects like the Dixon Diversion and Watana Dam — proven, stable, and cost-effective — are being sidelined in favor of ideologically driven, federally subsidized solar and wind experiments.
• Coal resources west of Skwentna, once eyed for strategic development, are left buried while activists demand more expensive imports from out of state.

Meanwhile, the federal government, under the banner of “carbon reduction,” continues to lock up Alaska’s lands, kill projects, and deny permits — all while depending on Alaska’s trees to quietly scrub their carbon emissions for free.

This is not environmental stewardship.
This is economic sabotage under the false flag of climate virtue.

The Logical Fallacy: Sacrificing Alaska to Save the World?

Let’s expose the fallacy clearly:

If Alaska already removes vastly more CO₂ than it emits, then further “reducing” our emissions would have no meaningful impact on global carbon levels. None. Zero. Zilch.

Yet we are being told — over and over — that we must “do our part” by sabotaging our own economy, raising energy prices, and turning our communities into powerless eco-serfs.

It’s like asking the janitor who already mops the entire building to also pay for the building’s cleaning supplies out of his own pocket — while the actual polluters and litterbugs get tax breaks.

It’s insane.
It’s immoral.
And it’s deliberate.

Alaska Should Be Paid, Not Punished

If carbon capture is worth anything, then Alaska’s forests represent about $33 billion annually in global carbon offsets at the going market rate of $51 per metric tonne. That’s $33 billion that could fund our schools, our roads, our energy infrastructure — and yes, even meaningful, targeted environmental stewardship.

Instead, we get lectured by environmental lobbyists who think Anchorage should look more like Portland, and Fairbanks more like Berkeley.

They want Alaska to be a theme park — a pristine, undeveloped playground for the green elite — while our people live under economic bondage, high energy costs, and a suffocating regulatory regime that kills jobs and hope in equal measure.

If the green left wants to turn Alaska into their personal carbon sink, then it’s time we asked: What’s the price of admission?

A Rallying Cry for Alaska’s Future

Alaskans, it’s time to wake up.

We cannot allow our state to be sacrificed on the altar of a false environmental gospel. We must reject the green colonialism that seeks to chain our future to someone else’s guilt.

We must:

• Reject any Renewable Portfolio Standard that sacrifices reliability and affordability for ideology.
• Defend our right to develop our natural resources — responsibly, sustainably, and in service of our own people.
• Demand payment for our carbon capture instead of accepting federal dictates that punish prosperity.
• Hold politicians accountable — every lawmaker who votes to raise your energy bills in the name of “carbon reduction” needs to be exposed, challenged, and removed from office.

Alaska is not a problem.
Alaska is a gift — to America, to the world, and to the future.

But if we don’t fight for it, they’ll bury us under lies, regulations, and false promises until there’s nothing left but a hollowed-out memory of the Last Frontier.

The time to act is now.
Defend Alaska.
Defend the truth.
And defend the right of Alaskans to build a future rooted in freedom, not fear.

Michael Tavoliero writes for Must Read Alaska.