After 30 years, it's time: with LNG import and export facilities springing up (or threats to do so) on every coast from China to the Bahamas, it is time to flex our muscles.

• Author: Easley, Paula
• Position: Brief Article

Many Alaskans remember when the precursor to today's Resource Development Council launched a huge national effort to win its preferred route for a natural gas pipeline. Under the wing of OMAR (Organization for Management of Alaska's Resources), supporters of an all-Alaska LNG project comprised the largest citizen lobbying force since the battle for statehood. Thousands of rural and urban residents became volunteer soldiers to advance the state's critical interests in the multibillion-dollar resource. Despite years of effort, a presidential decision made it all for naught.

It was the potential for long-term employment from retaining the abundant gas liquids for instate industry that captured people's support and enthusiasm--not just building a pipeline to export the resource. We wanted to produce things people every where needed, plus use some of the gas to heat Alaska homes. That commitment remains today, as evidenced by the initiative for a development authority to pursue such a project, assuming...