As with subsistence resources, let’s be good stewards of our economy

One of the amazing things about my home region, Northwest Alaska, is the abundance and variety of subsistence resources we are blessed with. As we still do today, our ancestors here harvested a wide range of wildlife, including salmon, whitefish, caribou, sheep, seal, beluga, wildfowl, fur-bearing predators and many varieties of plants. When one resource had a poor harvest, many options were usually available to make up the deficit and sustain our communities.

Stories from beloved elders taught us to respect others and to be good stewards of the things that sustain our life. Some stories included hard lessons learned from difficult years when multiple resources were unavailable and people suffered.

These stories were intense to hear as children, but they served their purpose of teaching us how to survive in the Arctic. We learned things like the risk of relying too heavily on one resource, the danger of over-harvesting game, and that for times of famine, organs are more nutritionally dense than meat.

These lessons have been on my mind this year in the face of historic low oil prices and a global pandemic that decimated large portions of our private sector. Our collective resilience and perseverance as Alaskans are on full display as we grapple with these challenges, yet there is no doubt our state, our country and our world are enduring a major blow to our economic and human health.

It is tempting in difficult times to lean even harder on the things that provide us sustenance, but as with subsistence resources, we must be wise stewards of our economic resources and not over-harvest any aspect of our economy in unsustainable ways.

Ballot Measure 1, which would more than double the state’s production taxes on North Slope oil, is exactly the type of unsustainable and ill-advised action we cannot afford right now. This ballot initiative comes at the worst possible time, when oil prices and investment are low, and while the industry struggles to maintain operations during a global pandemic. Worse, it tries to solve the state’s fiscal challenges with one deep scoop into a single industry, completely abandoning the goal of a balanced fiscal plan.

As co-chair of the legislature’s House Resources Committee, I have spent a lot of time studying oil taxes and talking with Alaskans on both sides of the issue. I worry about the long-term damage Ballot Measure 1 would inflict on our state economy and future funding for state services.

Alaska has plenty of oil left to produce, but so do a lot of other places in the country and around the world. At its peak, North Slope oil provided more than 25% of the U.S. crude supply. Now, states like Texas and North Dakota have grown their oil production significantly, while we have slid backward. At the start of 2020, Alaska provided close to just 4% of the nation’s total oil output.

The world landscape has changed, and quickly. Our state no longer holds the commanding position it once did, and we must now compete for limited investment dollars.

Like grocery prices here in rural Alaska, the costs of oil exploration, development, production and transportation are among the highest in the world. With these high costs, and with exploration generally limited to the wintertime only, Alaska is already at a major competitive disadvantage for investment.

Costs matter even more as the global oil industry tries to recover from these unprecedented times. Alaska cannot afford to risk long-term damage to our oil and gas industry, especially of our own making, and that’s exactly what will happen if we dramatically raise taxes while our competitors work harder than ever to keep jobs and investment dollars in their own fields.

Instead, if we are going to adjust our oil tax structure, let’s do it with the long-term life of the resource in mind. For example, instead of the ballot measure’s intent to double or triple production taxes at low prices — when, in some cases, companies are actively losing money — the state should encourage investment and look at how Alaska can share more in the abundance when prices rise.

Let’s work together on a fiscal plan for Alaska that takes a balanced, long-term approach — like our ancestors did — and that doesn’t threaten the long-term health and viability of our state.

I urge my fellow Alaskans to join me in voting no on Ballot Measure 1.

Rep. John Lincoln has served in the Alaska State Legislature since 2018 and represents District 40, encompassing the Northwest Arctic and North Slope Boroughs and several Interior communities. He was born and raised in Kotzebue, where he still resides with his family.

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