When we do it right, Alaska will have more fishermen working the decks of their own boats, processing catch here in Alaska, and selling high quality, value added product to hungry consumers across the world. To get there, we need better information about our fish stocks and better control over our fish — because knowing our fisheries and controlling our resources means controlling our future.

As a deckhand in Bristol Bay, I learned to see each boat as a small family business and fishing as a way of life that can be passed from generation to generation.  That means Alaskans should be free to fish without worrying about the government privatizing public resources, “rationalizing” boats out of the water, or surrendering Alaska’s fish to Outside interests. It means linking access privileges and vessel owners, reforging owner relations with processors and crew, so more Alaskans have the opportunity to prosper from the bounty of our fisheries. It means appointments to the Board of Fish, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and as Commissioner of Fish and Game who share my vision for a sustainable fishery economy where harvesters, processors, waterfronts and communities thrive.

Insure Sustainable Fisheries

• Protect fish stocks and habitat. Understand and mitigate the impact of climate change, including acidification, and guard against risky development and preventable by-catch. Commitment to research, “No” to Pebble Mine, “Yes” to Better Gear and Better Practices.
• Minimize the downside of pulse fisheries, extend the processing season when feasible and responsible, and enable a longer fishing year.
• Manage fisheries based on principles of sound science, sustained yield and maximum benefit. Better coordination between different gear types.

Promote Free Market Competition

• The market, not the government, should determine who gets to fish and where they sell their catch. The federal government doesn’t know what’s best for Alaska – catch shares are not for every fishery.
• Leave allocation decisions to fisheries boards, not politicians. A crew voice at NPFMC and BoF. A place for subsistence at the decision table.
• Promote wild Alaskan seafood through the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

Protect Fishing Families and Coastal Communities

• Low-cost energy and high speed broadband. Infrastructure to bring down costs and increase opportunities.
• Affordable health care for Alaska’s fishing families.
• Loans and training for the fishermen of today and tomorrow.

I intend to make food production and food security a focus for my administration. Alaska’s ranchers and farmers can put more Alaskan grown and harvested food on our tables. When Alaskans eat Alaska grown it’s good for our health, good for our economy, and good for our independence.

Alaska’s remote location, the high cost of transportation, limited agricultural infrastructure, and shrinking farm acreage all pose major challenges for the agricultural economy and our state’s ability to become food secure. At any given time, Alaska has only a three-day supply of food on our shelves. However, with strong leadership, targeted investments, and community outreach and education, we can protect and strengthen Alaska’s agriculture and food supply and help make farming and ranching an attractive way of life for the next generation.

We grow a fraction of what we are capable of producing here in Alaska. Experts believe we supply less than five percent of food consumed by Alaskans. That leaves us too vulnerable.

We also have to remember that one in ten Alaskans don’t know where their next meal will come from, and the right policies will help make sure our friends and neighbors don’t go hungry when we can do something about it.

In addition, there is a pending development on the national horizon that could create opportunities for Alaska’s food production. The national legislation addressing climate change, particularly the likely adoption of a carbon cost capture mechanism (such as a carbon tax or a cap and trade system) will result in increased costs of imported food, making Alaskan-produced food that much more economically competitive. That potential development underscores the need to develop in-state infrastructure (including cold storage and greenhouses) and personnel (such as state meat inspectors).

I believe the state’s agricultural strategy must make Alaska more food secure. Developing local low cost energy resources, securing available agricultural funding, and expanding agricultural research is at the heart of this vital effort.

Cold food storage facilities here in Alaska

We need to construct regional cold food storage facilities that allows us to relocate Alaska’s emergency food supply to the state. It defies logic that Alaskans could be cut off from our food warehouses during an emergency because they are thousand of miles away out of state. Creating cold storage facilities would also create a non-emergency, year-round, Alaska grown food supply by providing the facilities needed to store the summer’s harvest throughout the year.

Better market our local food sources

My administration will work to create local food marketing and education plans modeled after the seafood and wild salmon marketing plans. Alaskans should be able to purchase foods from local farmers, year-round.

Protect Alaska farmland

We must work to protect prime Alaska farmland by participating in existing federal farm and ranch lands protection programs. Alaska must work to maximize the state match, to ensure we get as much federal funding as possible, and make it easier for land trust groups like the Alaska Farmland Trust to access the resources necessary to carry out their goals.

Farmers and the University working together

We need to better promote and expand the relationship between the University of Alaska and Alaskan farmers to research and adopt innovative techniques to increase yield and achieve maximum food processing potential.

Make state government responsive to the needs of the agriculture community

My administration will ensure that state agricultural policy and governing boards respond to the needs of farmers and ranchers all across the state, including community supported agriculture.

We can do better.

As the parents of two public school students, Mara and I know how important it is that all Alaskan children get a good education in a safe, healthy learning environment. Like you, we also know that as a state, we can do better in making sure that Alaska’s students have access to the quality education that is a key to success in today’s world. Alaska ranks 42nd in graduation rates – 40 percent of our children don’t graduate high school and it’s 60 percent in our rural communities. There are real people behind that sobering statistic, and real consequences to educational failure. It’s time to do something about it.

We need to reach beyond “standardization” as a public policy.

A good education means teaching our children how to think critically, to solve problems and develop the skills they need to get a good job. I have never met a standardized kid, or been to a standardized school or a standardized district. We are a state that prizes individuality — accepting an educational system based on standardization and conformity just does not reflect our values. When my own children are in the classroom, I want their teachers to know them for who they are and teach them for what they can be.

We have a bright future if we do things right.

These next years can be a turning point for Alaska education. We can have accountability without sacrificing education – schools exist to teach, not to test. Accountability is important if it leads to better teaching, but it is dangerous when the focus and funding shifts primarily from teaching to testing. By setting high standards and delivering an education that our students want and the state needs, we can make sure the next generation has the skills and education it needs to succeed. When our school system is working the way it should, we prove the wisdom in the words that “Education is about lighting a fire, not filling a bucket.”

Here are priorities that can make a difference:

Early Childhood Education

The path to success starts early, in pre-school. If we catch our kids young, when brain development is at its most receptive, we can break the cycle of low test scores, of students being left behind, and of unacceptably high dropout rates. When children enter elementary school better prepared, they are able to learn from the very first day – which translates to greater achievement and greater satisfaction.

Alaska is one of 10 states that do not support pre-Kindergarten education. Only 19 percent of Alaskan 3-4 year olds attend public pre-schools. Pre-school education can be an effective tool in reducing the gaps in educational achievement among Alaska’s students. In addition, studies show that high quality pre-Kindergarten education can have many positive social results, including reduced rates of teen pregnancy, better health, lower drug use rates, reduced criminal activity and increasing lifetime earnings.

That’s why as your Governor, it will be a priority to expand access to and quality of early childhood education programs.

K – 12 Education:
Value Quality Education and Decrease High Drop-Out Rates

The impacts of Alaska’s low graduation rates ripple through our economy: Alaskans who don’t graduate from high school earn one-third less than those who do.

Adopting commonsense policies and practices make a difference from kindergarten through high school. First, class size matters. Too many kids in a room compromise the quality of education. Second, qualified teachers make a difference. That’s why recruiting and retaining the most qualified teachers is a cornerstone for quality education. Third, safe schools are an absolute requirement. It isn’t fair to expect kids to learn and teachers to teach when their physical safety is jeopardized, whether because of crime or because the buildings themselves are run down and unsafe.

Innovation and commitment to education abound in Alaska. Charter schools, immersion programs, and a variety of choice for study provide opportunities for students to match their talents to their educational choices. We must make sure this innovation extends to extracurricular and in-school activities. Extracurricular activities – from arts to sports and clubs of all kinds – provide educational enrichment and foster social skills. They provide an outlet for student energy and help develop positive character traits like perseverance, discipline and teamwork. Studies also show that expanding career and technical educational opportunities for high school students keep more Alaska students in school and prepare them for jobs after graduation. And let’s be receptive and responsive to studies that show performance drops off when high school starts too early in the morning.

Finally, it bears repeating that the standardization inherent in “No Child Left Behind” offends the basic notion that we develop individual potential by teaching students as individuals. It insults the principle of local control – that communities and parents know better than Washington how to educate our own kids. And it is yet another unfunded federal mandate. I have always stood for reforms that focus on teaching, not testing, and that respect local control over education policy.

Post-Secondary Education: Strengthen Opportunities for Vocational Education and Skills Training

Vocational training opportunities are integral to Alaska’s economic future and to the opportunities we afford our people. Workforce development has a major impact on the economy and on the ability of Alaskans to get good jobs. Where will the replacements come from to fill jobs being vacated by Alaska’s aging oil field workers? We can answer that question – and similar questions for every skill and industry – if we train today’s students for tomorrow’s jobs. It is enough that we export our resources — we should not have to import our work force. Expanded training programs and expanded training opportunities will lead to more and better jobs for Alaskans.

Post-Secondary Education: A Vital and Vibrant University

Alaska’s university system should deliver answers for Alaska’s issues, cutting-edge research for the world’s questions, and a quality education for students. We are America’s only Arctic state and the University of Alaska should be a premier institution for Arctic research and policy – from climate change to geopolitics to energy to fisheries to marine transportation. We have a unique way of life and Alaska’s university should lead the way in studies of our peoples and our cultures and traditions. The University of Alaska has an important role to play in answering questions about our distinct and unmet needs, from food security to teaching to medical training. If we do not seek these answers ourselves, if we do not provide this education ourselves, we put our fate in the hands of others and risk a “brain drain” as young Alaskans seek their education elsewhere. The road to a self-reliant Alaskan future requires a strong state commitment to our university system.

It is also important to acknowledge that tuition hikes puts college out of reach for many Alaskans. I will work with the State Legislature and the University of Alaska system to expand the UA scholars program and need based scholarships.

It doesn’t have to be this way. With vision, and political will and strategic thinking, we can ease the financial burden on Alaska’s families. As a state legislator, I led the call for a statewide energy plan and advocated for developing local energy resources. I fought hard to develop Alaska’s gas on Alaska’s terms, and to make sure we got full value for our oil resources. In the private sector, I worked to develop renewable energy resources across the state.

As governor, I will continue my fight to bring Alaska gas to Alaskan homes and businesses. I’ll continue working to build the infrastructure we need to harness renewable resources like wind, geothermal and tidal.

We can do all of this in a way that creates jobs and puts people to work in Alaska and makes us more energy self-reliant.

Traditional oil and gas reserves have been, and will continue to be, critical to the state’s economy. Together, as Alaskans, we must reach out to the rest of America to convince them that we can develop those reserves in a safe, responsible way.

My goal is to make the state and the country more energy secure and energy independent – certain about where our fuel is coming from, and positive that it’s being produced at prices we can afford. Fixing the underlying problem means developing sustainable and lasting solutions, as well as providing short-term relief from the crushing cost of energy bills.

Priorities: Lower Energy Costs – Alaskan Energy for Alaskans

Too many villages have long strained under the burden of energy at fifty cents and more per kilowatt hour, and seven dollars a gallon for fuel. Now, all Alaskans know that the high cost of energy is more than just a rural problem. Juneau’s energy prices go up five-fold after avalanches knock down transmission lines. Fairbanks is suffocating under the effects of energy price increases that have effectively drained the same amount from the local economy that a military base closure would have inflicted. Agrium closes on the Kenai, shuttering a big employer and critical Peninsula business. There has been serious depletion of Southcentral gas supplies, and the cost of home heating is on a steep rise.

Develop Local Renewable Energy Resources

Developing local sources of energy makes us more self-reliant and more independent. Wind power can make a difference in at least 80 communities thanks to improved technology. Biomass can produce energy in 160 towns and villages by turning fish waste to diesel or converting wood chips to energy or capturing methane gas from the dump. We’ve already started using geothermal energy on a small scale, and every volcano and hot spring is a potential power source. We’ve got more coastline than the rest of the country put together, and wave and tidal sources offer great potential – Alaska has ninety percent of the country’s tidal potential. At the same time, hydro projects can make a real difference in the communities where that resource exists. Instead of importing diesel and exporting dollars, we can keep money inside communities and create local jobs.

Alaska’s Resources, Energy Independence for America

America’s 20-million-barrel-a-day oil habit costs our economy $1.4 billion a day. Every single hour, this country spends $41 million on foreign oil. Alaska’s oil and gas can free America from the dangerous, destabilizing dependence on foreign oil. Alaska’s contributions include opening ANWR, developing our proven heavy oil reserves, expanding NPRA production, and exploring offshore potential.

Develop Alaska’s Natural Gas

The natural gas pipeline will be the signature achievement of this generation of Alaskans. It is a mega-project for a mega-resource. Whoever Alaska chooses as partners to help build the line, those partners must respect this state as both sovereign and the owner of the gas – and we need leadership that stands up for Alaska’s fair share of the profit, the gas, and the jobs.

Even though my sentimental favorite is and has been the All-Alaska route, I am committed to working with any project that develops Alaska’s gas on Alaska’s terms. In spite of evidence to the contrary, I remain hopeful that the AGIA process succeeds, and am also following developments that would allow for use of gas in place, whether by creating a giant server farm on the North Slope and sending electrons across the world, or creating gas-to-liquids (GTLs) and batching that product down TAPS, or using small scale LNG (liquefied natural gas) and trucking it south.

Alaska receives oil revenue from two main sources – royalty (generally, the state’s 12.5% share from an oil field) and severance (the selling price for the oil “severed” from the state). Historically, debate has focused only on severance.

When the old severance method, ELF (Economic Limit Factor), faltered, Frank Murkowski replaced it with PPT (Production Profit Tax), followed quickly by Sarah Palin’s ACES (Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share). Both PPT and ACES are essentially corporate income taxes, built around “net profits,” and both captured revenue for the state during this recent time of high oil prices. But long-term, revenue depends on production as well as price, and we need a system that does a better job encouraging production.

That’s why it’s worth examining a “no severance, royalty-only” solution: Eliminate ACES entirely and replace it with a field-by-field royalty structure.

Every broadly written tax code, including ACES, shoehorns all taxpayers and all ventures into a “one size fits all” tax system. A customized system recognizes the unique costs and challenges of developing individual leases. It provides the flexibility needed to accommodate the range of economics confronting various Alaskan oil and gas projects, spanning from heavy oil to natural gas, and from Cook Inlet to the North Slope. That flexibility will spur investment and development.

A 100% royalty solution more closely aligns the state’s interest in revenue and industry’s interest in production, and also features several significant attributes:

• Fiscal certainty for industry — royalty rates are contractual, negotiated between the state and the leaseholder, which insulates rates from legislative changes. A good contract protects both parties by containing “reopener clauses” to address changed circumstances in the future. In addition, by reflecting field specific incentives, ramp-ups, and individual field economics, a contract minimizes risk, increasing potential for development.
• Fiscal stability for the state – declining oil production seriously threatens the revenue stream needed to sustain state budgets, and the jobs and businesses that depend on development. And moving away from severance-based revenue gets state government away from boom-and-bust budgeting, and institutionalizes fiscal discipline.
• Grows and protects the Permanent Fund – the Constitution requires that 25% of all royalty (by statute, 50% for new fields) be deposited into the principal of the Permanent Fund. Under an all-royalty system, a portion of the money that now goes into the general fund would go to the Permanent Fund.

It is also important to depoliticize implementation and management of the oil revenue system. That’s why a specifically designated, independent commission, one beyond the control of the governor and the legislature, should have responsibility for negotiating new leases, renegotiating existing leases and handling operations of the 100% Solution. As Alaskans know through our experience with entities like the Permanent Fund or the Board of Fisheries, elected officials should set policy, but in matters involving complex issues, the people of the state are better served when experts and professionals, not politicians, implement those policies.

Oil is so central to the state’s economy that basic responsibility compels on-going review of our revenue sources. Standing still in a changing world is a recipe for falling behind. Doing what we have been doing – relying on a net profit tax — is, at best, standing still and does not adequately advance Alaska’s competitiveness. In a post-recession economy, facing a rising global tide of demand for energy, it is not “more of the same”, but bold innovation that will lead to a secure, independent future for Alaska.