On Thursday, Red State posted an article about the Trump administration’s resumption of drilling in Alaska.

The article reports:

Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory over Kamala Harris is one of the better things that has happened in our nation for some time, and all of the various benefits of that win are still making themselves known. One of the areas in which Americans will benefit from this is in energy, and in Alaska, that benefit will be felt not only in reduced energy prices, but in jobs.

Alaska’s economy depends in large part on mining and energy development, and on the North Slope, where many of Alaska’s Native communities are found, as much as 95 percent of the local economies are dependent on oil and gas development. Those communities are about to get a big economic boost, and they are on record applauding the Trump administration’s resumption of drilling.

The article notes the reaction of someone representing the Alaskan Native Americans:

“It’s cautious optimism,”Nagruk Harcharek, president of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, (VOICE) a nonprofit organization that represents 21 different Native American corporations and communities in Alaska, told the DCNF (Daily Caller News Foundation). “We feel like we’re going to be able to get some things done with a more favorable administration, but we’re also being careful about it because we don’t want to threaten that cultural base and lifestyle that we rely on every day.”

…Harcharek noted that 95% of the North Slope budget comes from oil and gas infrastructure taxes. “The economy in the North Slope is oil and gas activity,” he said. Schools, healthcare, roads and running water all came from the “economic base our early leaders ensured that we had access to,” Harcharek said, expressing concerns that without access to oil and gas resource development, their community is forced “to rely on the state and the federal government.”

The article notes a very important aspect of the debate over drilling in Alaska:

So, jobs, or dependency. Nothing could more starkly illustrate the difference in the two major political parties; one is in favor of development, of abundant, inexpensive energy and the economic benefits that come with it, and jobs, good-paying jobs, for communities in one of the most isolated places on the planet. The other is the party of dependency, who would yank the North Slope jobs and place the Native communities on government handouts and the loss of pride that goes with it.

Let’s let the Native Americans in Alaska thrive!