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.

DOI announced Thursday that DOI Secretary Doug Burgum is “taking immediate steps to unleash Alaska’s untapped natural resource potential and support President Donald Trump’s vision of American Energy Dominance,” through reopening oil drilling in areas that the Biden administration had previously moved to shut down. Native community leaders in Alaska told the DCNF that the DOI under the Trump administration has taken a step in a “favorable” direction.

“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. “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.”

That latter is a fair concern, as these tribes have maintained their unique culture in the Arctic for thousands of years, but they aren't resistant to the benefits of modern technology, and they certainly are looking forward to the economic boost that a great number of new oil-field jobs will bring them.

Drilling activity is again open for development on the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) and the Arctic Wildlife National Refuge’s (ANWR) Coastal Plain, after the Biden administration moved to forward a 2023 proposed rule to shut down development in 2024. VOICE and its members announced that they “applaud the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Actions on the North Slope,” in a March 20 press release shared with the DCNF.

The opening of the North Slope to development is a win for the United States, as it will be part of the Trump administration's larger program of increased energy development. Everything in the economy is dependent on energy; everything, every good, every service, included energy costs in its retail-level price, from raw materials through the manufacturing (or import) process, to movement to the retail location, to the end user. The cost of energy is folded into everything we do, every economic decision we make, and cheaper energy means lower prices.

See Also: Drill, Baby, Drill! Alaska Wins Lawsuit With Huge Implications for American Energy

Biden Admin Hid Inconvenient Natural Gas Study in Favor of Climate Change Agenda

But we should also understand the impact energy development can have in local communities. The Alaskan North Slope communities, the remote villages and settlements scattered across the Arctic regions of the Great Land, stand to gain greatly from this development - and lose greatly if it is again yanked away.

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.”

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.

For now, the "Slope" will be moving ahead again, with new development, with more jobs, and with the economic benefits that an increased energy supply will bring to Alaska and all of the United States. Almost everyone here in the Great Land knows someone who works on the "Slope," and those folks, in and out of the Native communities, are looking forward to a rebirth in the Alaskan Arctic.

President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.

Help us continue reporting on President Trump's success. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.