A small group of protesters gathered Tuesday outside the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage during the opening day of the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference, holding a large banner that read: “Alaska Is Not for Sale.” A smaller banner said, “Defend the Sacred.”
The 30-some-odd demonstrators were notably absent from previous years, when Gov. Mike Dunleavy hosted the first three iterations of the conference during the Biden Administration. At that time, Alaska’s development potential was hamstrung by Biden policy and misinterpreted federal regulations, and economic momentum remained stagnant except for government growth. Perhaps the protesters didn’t think anything was going to happen to improve Alaska’s future, so they skipped the conferences.
But this year, with a new administration led by President Donald Trump in Washington and what many in Alaska describe as a renewed opportunity to chart their own energy future, the tone inside the conference hall was far different than outside it…