Alaska’s Future Doesn’t Depend on the Fossil Fuel Industry
We can see the future of Alaska, many of us continue striving to live in it. A future in which people are prioritized over corporations, water is clean and resources beyond those extracted are healthy. A future where state representatives speak for people of all socioeconomic classes instead of the elite profiteers of the resource extraction sector. A future where our politicians take seriously our social, economic, and ecological vulnerability to a changing climate, and where those places and cultures that make Alaska precious are protected at all costs. This future doesn’t depend on the fossil fuel industry currently destroying our shared natural communities. The steps required to advance this just transition from an unsustainable economy to one that is regenerative are numerous, but they begin with a reevaluation of the state’s relationship to fossil fuel extraction and a reclamation of Alaska’s resources for Alaskans.
Today, the state of Alaska faces unprecedented financial failure and climate catastrophe. For the last forty years, fossil fuel companies have claimed that to bring economic prosperity to Alaska, they need an exorbitant amount of government support in the form of subsidies and tax breaks that make them the largest recipient of welfare in the state. With a constantly revolving door between industry, lobbyists, and government, these companies have groomed a generation of compliant regulators who give them special treatment. Fossil fuel companies have posted record-breaking profits year after year, while Alaskans are faced with historically high prices for fuel. These companies are bankrupting current generations and robbing future generations of a livable climate. With no social, economic, or environmental responsibility, these companies openly threaten not only Alaska’s future but that of the world’s.
As we begin to invest in economies beyond fossil-fuel extraction, we have the opportunity to build a new economy for Alaska--a thriving community that affirms the rights and dignity of all living things. Shifting assets from an extractive to regenerative economy prioritizes ecological and social well being, rather than concentrated wealth and power. It protects the health of the lands and waters that sustain all communities using a decentralized approach to development where the values of people and communities determine where and how we invest.
In order to continue this monumental task, we must once again take stock of the realities of oil and gas subsidies in our state. Alaska actively reinforces our dependence on and obedience to the oil industry, heightening our vulnerability to each successive economic and climatic crisis. The Keep It iN the Ground (KING!) Working Group and the petition signatories are calling on our legislators to change our state policies to stop handing money to the wealthiest corporations on the planet via an arcane system of credits and subsidies. We demand that the state review a proactive tax and investment policy that levies taxes on the concentrated wealth of Hilcorp (and its affiliate Harvest), ConocoPhillips, Exxon and other oil and gas companies. We call for the end of subsidies to this industry and that resources fund the transition of our labor force from extractive industries to the labor of regeneration, including the shift of our electric grids towards renewable energy. Stand with us as we take this needed step towards a Just Transition in Alaska.
We are calling for:
A minimum decrease of the sliding scale per barrel tax credit to $5 from $8 as recommended by the Department of Revenue during a presentation to the Alaska Legislature’s joint Comprehensive Fiscal Plan Working Group. This would “generate between approximately $165 million and $330 million annually over the next five full fiscal years”
The implementation of a 25% windfall profit tax that would cap the amount of record profit fossil fuel companies are making at a time when Alaskans are paying record energy bills. This is the height of profit for many oil and gas companies
The expansion of corporate income tax to include all oil or gas business entities–specifically to capture limited liability companies like Hilcorp and Harvest that do not pay corporate income tax whatsoever.
These revenues fund to reinvigorate our education system, support unhoused people, transition our labor force, to relocate Indigenous communities impacted by climate change, shift our grid to renewable energy and fund the Alaska Marine Highway System.
If you would like to join us in this fight then please reach out to our KING! Organizer Arleigh Hitchcock at arleigh@fbxclimateaction.org
Click below to sign and share the petition.
Signed: Nicholas Parlato, Nels Christensen, Rebecca Siegel, Arleigh Hitchcock, and the rest of the Keep It iN the Ground Working Group
