Opinion: Is this what ‘Energy Dominance’ looks like?

Opinion: Is this what ‘Energy Dominance’ looks like?

  • By Zachary Brown
  • Tuesday, April 7, 2020 8:00am
  • Opinion

Alaska’s economy has been in a hole since oil prices collapsed in 2014. Now, with Alaska North Slope crude selling at about $25 per barrel, that hole has become a crater.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, has been pushing oil since he took office, following Donald Trump’s “energy dominance” doctrine. Now that oil’s price has yet again collapsed beneath his feet — through events we Alaskans cannot control — he’s begging the Saudis to cut production, threatening military withdrawal if they don’t.

Is this what “energy dominance” looks like to you, Senator Sullivan? When our state budget depends on the goodwill of the Saudis? Is this your long-term plan for Alaska’s economy: keep threatening foreign powers to stabilize oil prices?

Even if the Saudis and Russians play ball this time, we’ll still be deep in the crater, vulnerable to the next price shock. And as the world innovates and acts on climate change, there are good reasons to believe oil prices will stay low.

Sullivan, who was elected with the help of the oil billionaire Koch Brothers, cannot face the reality that the oil economy has failed Alaska. It’s time for a Senator who’s not pushing a false narrative of “energy dominance,” but leading us to a future of true energy independence, based on diverse, renewable energy. Dr. Al Gross knows we’ll never have to bow and scrape to Middle East autocrats or go to war over solar panels and wind turbines.

• Zachary Brown, PhD, of Gustavus is a lifelong Alaskan, a climate scientist and educator, who works as founding director of Inian Islands Institute.

More in Opinion

Web
Have something to say?

Here’s how to add your voice to the conversation.

As a protester waves a sign in the background, Daniel Penny, center, accused of criminally negligent homicide in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, arrives at State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. A New York jury acquitted Daniel Penny in the death of Jordan Neely and as Republican politicians hailed the verdict, some New Yorkers found it deeply disturbing.(Jefferson Siegel/The New York Times)
Opinion: Stress testing the justice system

On Monday, a New York City jury found Daniel Penny not guilty… Continue reading

Members of the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé hockey team help Mendenhall Valley residents affected by the record Aug. 6 flood fill more than 3,000 sandbags in October. (JHDS Hockey photo)
Opinion: What does it mean to be part of a community?

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate… Continue reading

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, at the Capitol in Washington on Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. Accusations of past misconduct have threatened his nomination from the start and Trump is weighing his options, even as Pete Hegseth meets with senators to muster support. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)
Opinion: Sullivan plays make believe with America’s future

Two weeks ago, Sen. Dan Sullivan said Pete Hegseth was a “strong”… Continue reading

Dan Allard (right), a flood fighting expert for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, explains how Hesco barriers function at a table where miniature replicas of the three-foot square and four-foot high barriers are displayed during an open house Nov. 14 at Thunder Mountain Middle School to discuss flood prevention options in Juneau. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Opinion: Our comfort with spectacle became a crisis

If I owned a home in the valley that was damaged by… Continue reading

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Letter: Voter fact left out of news

With all the post-election analysis, one fact has escaped much publicity. When… Continue reading

The site of the now-closed Tulsequah Chief mine. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
My Turn: Maybe the news is ‘No new news’ on Canada’s plans for Tulsequah Chief mine cleanup

In 2015, the British Columbia government committed to ending Tulsequah Chief’s pollution… Continue reading

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. (Alaska Department of Family and Community Services photo)
My Turn: Rights for psychiatric patients must have state enforcement

Kim Kovol, commissioner of the state Department of Family and Community Services,… Continue reading

People living in areas affected by flooding from Suicide Basin pick up free sandbags on Oct. 20 at Thunder Mountain Middle School. (City and Borough of Juneau photo)
Opinion: Mired in bureaucracy, CBJ long-term flood fix advances at glacial pace

During meetings in Juneau last week, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)… Continue reading

Rosa Parks, whose civil rights legacy has recent been subject to revision in class curriculums. (Public domain photo from the National Archives and Records Administration Records)
My Turn: Proud to be ‘woke’

Wokeness: the quality of being alert to and concerned about social injustice… Continue reading

The settlement of Sermiligaaq in Greenland (Ray Swi-hymn / CC BY-SA 2.0)
My Turn: Making the Arctic great again

It was just over five years ago, in the summer of 2019,… Continue reading