The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority’s plans to develop industrial facilities on land that currently belongs to Alaskan citizens has generated extensive criticism for many reasons. As a group of teens working to preserve our environment to the best of our abilities, we feel that it is our responsibility to inform Alaskans about how our land is at risk.
The Department of Natural Resources has proposed transferring nearly 20,000 acres of land near Houston, Alaska to AIDEA. That state agency finances and promotes development projects, and the new land transfer could give them control of public lands to be sacrificed for another “industrial park.”
AIDEA is a corporation with a history of bad investments that have resulted in nearly $233.3 million in losses over the last 35 years, according to an analysis by economists Milt Barker and Gregg Erickson in 2022. These investments included an Anchorage fish processing plant (now ChangePoint Church), the proposed Ambler Road and Mustang Oil. These projects, and more, misused Alaskans’ money and received major community backlash or failed on their own…