What challenges do we face because the Alaska economy is dominated by a depleting natural resource–oil?
Alaska’s significant petroleum resources have been both a blessing and a challenge. Exploitation of Cook Inlet and North Slope fields has provided most of the wealth to support Alaska’s entry into statehood and as well as most of its economic growth through the last decades of the twentieth century. With oil production now down to half the peak rate, Alaska faces the challenge of a transition to a post-Prudhoe bay economy without stumbling. Because of this unique economic structure, development lessons from other places often don’t fit in Alaska. We must look to other resource-rich countries, to our own past, and to a better understanding of the unique features of our own NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCE ECONOMY. Available products are listed below each project.
