Alaska needs a shake-up like a tabletop snow globe. We need a global paradigm shift to see ourselves as a nation-state member of the Pacific Rim marketplace, not necessarily an extension of Seattle's freight supply chain. We need to take advantage of our "old friend" trading status with Japan and double down while the world is in recession. Let's reinvigorate trade missions to Asia, while we develop new trade routes out of Alaska to Singapore, Vietnam and India.
While the world is contracting, we should be building an in-state gas pipeline and share the wealth first with Alaskans at the wellhead to create cheap home heat, then self-propel toward Mount Spurr's geothermal potential, Fire Island's wind and Susitna's hydro. We need to become a mini-Iceland, minus their banking system, and explode with cheap energy.
Alaska's World Trade Center will tell you countries and states rich with natural resources often fail to create dynamic economies. They export raw materials, use their own unwisely and import value-added goods, often leading to their own cyclical demise and stunted growth.
Members of the State House and Senate Energy and Resources committees -- with their boots on the ground in urban and rural Alaska -- have reinvented Alaska's weatherization effort and promoted conservation and renewable energy innovation. We have vigorous debate about construction of the bullet line; from where the gas is located (North Slope) to where industry can use it (Agrium, Kenai), but we need debate about what else we can do with our resources.
How about a smelting plant in Adak for the Red Dog Mine zinc? Consider a Mat-Su port and industrial center exporting cement and construction materials. What natural resources can we change to products for use in Alaska or export? Why shouldn't we make Alaska a value-added economic zone with cheap energy as the catalyst?
Oil generates revenue, but energy creates jobs. New mines in Donlin Creek and Livengood need in-state Alaska gas. Donlin alone needs the equivalent of 100 million gallons of diesel annually.
How about synthetic gasoline for the U.S. Air Force made from natural gas? Fairbanks thought of doing it with coal, but Anchorage should do it with gas.
Our refineries and airports manufacture and sell twice as much jet aviation fuel as Washington, a state 10 times our size in population. This is a perfect value-added example.
Alaska should be the economic equivalent of a magnet school -- attracting industry by creating abundant cheap energy and marrying it with our key geographic location to produce value-added exports.
Some talk and some do. Boldness and vision are in order now. As oil income declines, cheap energy should become our new currency. We hear about exporting our energy to hungry markets -- but the national market is awash in surplus liquefied natural gas. Instead we need to create inexpensive energy for Alaskans while taking advantage of our unique geography to export value-added products. If we pair our geography with cheap energy, industry will find us in the global marketplace.
State Rep. Jay Ramras is a Republican from Fairbanks.
By REP. JAY RAMRAS