Begich bullish on Alaska

PALMER — Oil and gas, tourism, mining — Alaska’s potential is huge, Sen. Mark Begich told a meeting of Rotary Club members Thursday.

“It’s a question of if we can harness it,” Begich said.

One of the things he’s been working on, Begich said, is trying to make Alaska a hub for the development of unmanned aerial drones.

“The military is buying more unmanned aircraft than manned aircraft,” he said.

The industry needs room to test fly the planes, and Alaska has that. The state also has a large military presence, a university system, a rocket launching pad in Kodiak and a large contingent from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Indeed, just after his Rotary speech at the Palmer Moose Lodge, Begich visited a Valley business working on the vehicles.

“We have all the assets,” Begich said. Alaska could be a place to build, test and certify the vehicles, which have uses beyond their most famous implementations spying on and killing terrorists abroad.”

They have scientific and firefighting uses that could bear fruit in a place like Alaska, which has animals to survey and forest fires to put out. Begich pointed out that some of that is already happening. A drone guided a Russian tanker delivering fuel to Nome and surveyed animals in the Aleutian chain.

As for oil and gas — Begich said it’s not quite as gloomy as some say, pointing to work moving forward in the Chukchi Sea.

“I’m gonna tell you something — the Chukchi is happening,” Begich said. “Just that project alone is 600 new employees.”

There are things happening regarding oil and gas exploration in the Beaufort Sea as well, he said. Those two were — along with the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska, the four places he directed his staff to start working on opening up when he was elected.

“Our strategy when we got into office was work on all four, because for so long we were focused on just one, ANWR,” Begich said.

Mining is another place he sees good things for Alaska. Pointing to Usibelli Coal Mine Vice President for External Affairs Lorali Simon in the audience, Begich pointed out that Usibelli is expanding.

“It’s just incredible,” he said.

And elsewhere, the industry is booming. He pointed to 3,000 jobs to build the mine at Donlin Creek in Western Alaska and a billion-dollar natural gas pipeline to feed it.

“We now have a very robust, growing mining industry,” Begich said.

That wasn’t always the case.

Begich said he also sees potential in the Arctic, be it for resource extraction or even tourism. Yes, tourism. Begich pointed out that 40,000 people visited Antarctica last year. The polar regions are places people want to go.

Mike Chmielewski, who introduced Begich and ran the meeting, asked the last question of the day. He asked the senator if it appeared to him that U.S. Congress had gradually ceded war-making powers to the president.

Begich drew a comparison to his time as mayor of Anchorage. When the city council was tied up in knots, arguing and unable to act, the streets still needed plowing. As the executive, he had to act.

He said Congress is dysfunctional, due mainly to “members who campaign very strident on both sides and then think they’re going to govern that way.”

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.