Alaska needs a future

Dear Santa,

We know this is kind of last-minute, but we just read about Alaska's economic "downshift" in 2009, and we're getting really concerned that Alaska won't get what it wants after the holidays. We're not sure whether you can put an entire state on your gift list, but we're hoping you can. It's not like a state can sit on your lap or anything, but maybe if we believe in you hard enough, you can help. After all, you're able to distribute gifts and/or pieces of coal to all the world's children -- even to households that don't celebrate Christmas -- all in just one night. By the way, we hope you have a safe, uneventful flight this year.

As you may have also read, Alaska's customary avenues of economic development (oil, tourists, Ted Stevens and fishing) seem to be either gone, in decline or extremely uncertain lately, and only the mining industry seems to be pulling its weight. So could you do us a favor and bring Alaska an economic future this Christmas? It'd really help reduce our anxiety. Don't get us wrong. It's not like we're asking you to do all the work yourself. Alaskans (and Alaskans-to-be) are hardworking, creative, innovative people -- plus, most of us show up to work on time and sober. All we need is a little magical help.

You're probably in the best position to boost Alaska's tourism industry by actually relocating your home and workshop to the town of North Pole, just outside of Fairbanks. North Pole has already been doing free advertising on your behalf for generations anyway, and you wouldn't even have to change your letterhead.

What's more, last year, a large number of Alaskan inventors competed for entrepreneurial help from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks in an inaugural innovation contest. Maybe you could help that contest find a product that could be built in Alaska and distributed around the world.

If you're lukewarm on helping create competition for your elves' workshop, how about helping out the fishing industry -- both commercial and subsistence, if possible? Fisheries scientists are still trying figure out how to create a viable king crab hatchery to hopefully rebuild depleted stocks. Growing crab in a lab has proven very difficult, but despite some tough setbacks, some of the project's partners have even managed to nurture larvae into juvenile crab. And scientists are still trying to figure out just how much commercial trawling fleets affect Western Alaska's declining salmon runs. If you could help out with those situations, it'd be great.

As we recall, you're way more interested in sugary snacks than you are in salmon or king crab, though, so maybe you'd rather help out the oil and gas industry. People keep talking about all the jobs oil drilling on Alaska's outer continental shelf will create. And for Alaska, that's about all they'll create; those leases sit on federal land, and as the laws stand now, Alaska won't see a penny from production or severance taxes. But then again, jobs are nothing to sneeze at; people say that every primary oil job off Alaska's shore (even if it's filled by someone who commutes from Pittsburgh, Seattle, or Dallas) creates secondary and tertiary opportunities for Alaskans -- most importantly, pipeline maintenance jobs.