He brought this up in an interview with Bob Schieffer. Schieffer asked if Miller, who wants to cut federal spending, was campaigning on the promise that he will bring fewer dollars to Alaska.
Miller didn’t answer directly. But he said the nation is in a time of “transition” to lower spending.
He said that as the federal government reduces spending in Alaska, “discretion over the use of the resource base” in Alaska, meaning federal land holdings in Alaska, will be transferred to Alaskans.
“In this state, two-thirds of it is owned by the federal government. There really isn’t good constitutional basis for that,” he said. “It’s our position that as the money is restricted, the lands are transferred. So that’s the plan that we want to implement.”
Some people in Alaska will like to hear that, but the rest of the country is never going to buy this “plan.” If the Republicans get control of Congress, they won’t buy it either. Just saying it in a campaign doesn’t make it a reality and doesn’t make it a responsible “plan” for the future economy of our state.
What Miller has done is give the groups who are always trying to raise money to gain more federal control of Alaska a good argument to use when they make their false claims about how irresponsible the people in Alaska are.
On the CBS show, he continued by saying Alaska can create its own jobs if only we could get more resources open for development.
“The resource base is extraordinary in this state. We have a hydrocarbon resource base, a mineral base, which is extraordinary, beyond that of any other state. The resources in this state, if only a fraction of them were tapped, would create more than enough jobs for the residents of this state and could be the economic engine, frankly, of the United States. We are an incredible state, with incredible, incredible resources,” he said.
The claim by Miller that somehow Alaska could be “incredibly independent and incredibly economically powerful” with more land under its control ignores the incredible economic obstacles that have to be overcome on any natural resource project in Alaska.
The state has been economically successful during the past three decades because the largest oil field ever found in North America was discovered on the North Slope more than
40 years ago.
There might be more economic bonanzas waiting to be found and developed, but it’s not as if there are mineral deposits and rich oil fields that can be turned into jobs with no opposition, unwanted consequences or without the risky business of discovering exactly where they are and getting the products to market.
Are some valuable resources locked up that could be developed and turned into instant cash?
The oil prospects in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off the northwest coast of Alaska might be the closest candidates for that category. But developing those won’t be quick and Miller has not offered a plausible legal strategy to get them opened by suggesting that it is illegal for the federal government to own the land.
This notion that all that has to be done to unleash the Alaska economy is to get free of the federal oppressors is an argument that has been heard over and over in Alaska since 1867.
Our history and an examination of the many challenges that have delayed the Alaska natural gas pipeline for decades would show you that this simplistic approach of cutting federal spending in Alaska and making up for it with a boom in mining and oil, ignores economic and political reality.
Not everyone in Alaska is of the same mind about what should be developed and when. Look at the proposed Pebble Mine and the enormous controversy it has created. That mineral deposit is not on federal land and the intense argument about the value of conflicting resources has created opposing camps that are digging in for a long and bitter fight.
Alaska was granted
103 million acres of land at statehood. The transfer has taken far longer than expected for a host of reasons, such as delays associated with the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act of 1971 and the Alaska Lands Act of 1980.
But 103 million acres is larger than the state of California. A lot of that land is valuable, but the experience of recent decades shows that turning resources into an economic base is not like flipping a switch and never will be.
In District 5, where Murkowski alienated a lot of her voters by supporting S 881 there are about 436 absentees and 106 questioned that are waiting to be tallied.
Murkowski cannot break even with 55% of the vote even if all of these 15730 are Republican in which case she would get 1572.
So it is critical Murkowski can have her highly paid lawyers that worked on the Franken campaign disqualify a large number of the 9000 questioned ballots.
So the election is coming down to who has the better people watching the Division of Elections and challenging votes