Letters to the Editor

Letter: Who’s the extremist?

I wonder if op-ed writer Rick Whitbeck appreciates the irony of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s gloom-and-doom scenario about the effects of the Green New Deal on the Alaska economy. The governor reportedly commented “Alaska’s population would plummet,” after his proposed budget would have cost hundreds of state worker and teaching jobs. After labeling people who agree with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “extremists,” Whitbeck quotes the governor predicting, “Oil would disappear. Gas would disappear. Coal would disappear.” Talk about extremist.

Whitbeck and the governor employ the familiar “set foot” card and invite Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to Alaska. I wonder if he and the governor have ever set foot in her congressional district and looked into the eyes of the restaurant workers forced to subsidize oil companies with their taxes? Members of Congress legislate issues affecting the whole country, including Alaska. Get over it.

I wonder if Whitbeck and the governor would live a couple of years in Arctic Village, Chalkytsik or Venetie before supporting drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or living in Newtok, Kivalina or Shishmaref before concluding there’s no global warming.

Whitbeck claims Rep. Ocasio-Cortez will cost me $170,000 in two years. If true, that could pay for one Dunleavy crony job.

— Geoff Kennedy

Anchorage

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