Northern highlights: Alaska’s energy, security policies are the guide feds need amid transition, group says

EXCLUSIVE: Private citizens — right up to the governor himself — are primed to be part of a new Alaskan initiative aimed at promoting policies that have been effective in Juneau at a national level as a new administration signals a willingness to listen and adapt to new strategies.

Just as Florida’s education policy under Gov. Jeb Bush served as a blueprint for national education reform, the nonprofit Future 49 aims to position Alaska as today’s model, focusing primarily on national security and energy.

Its top funders are a group of Alaskans of all stripes as well as a few Washington, D.C.-based advocates. It is nonpartisan and simply pro-Alaskan, according to one of its proponents.

It also seeks to dispatch with what one source familiar with its founding called the “out of sight, out of mind” feeling of some in the Lower 48 when it comes to how far-flung Alaska can translate its own successes in the cold north to a federal government that could benefit from its advice.

One of Future 49’s founders is a commercial airline pilot whose family has lived in Alaska for more than 125 years. He said he wanted to show Washington issues Alaska deals with every day.

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Bob Griffin’s family has lived in Alaska since 1899, he said, remarking he is an example of grassroots support behind showcasing Alaska’s potential to be the driving force in key sectors for the rest of the country.

Griffin said while there has not been any direct contact yet with the new administration, Gov. Mike Dunleavy is an ally of Trump’s and, in turn, primed to have a role in the group.

“We’re focused on not only the Trump administration, but other decision makers, to just highlight and advertise that the successes we’ve had in Alaska in energy, natural resources and other policy priorities are a good fit and benefit to all Americans.”

He noted the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge region spans the size of West Virginia, but the part of it federally budgeted for exploration in a recent fiscal year was only an area half the size of Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, illustrating how Juneau must guide Washington.

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A source familiar with the founding of Future 49 told Fox News Digital how the group’s launch comes at a key juncture as one advice-averse administration transitions into one that has signaled its openness to undertake recommendations from states and local groups.

“The resources our nation needs to be energy-dominant are in Alaska, not in unfriendly nations like Russia and Iran who despise what we stand for and commit egregious environmental offenses on a daily basis,” the source said.

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While the group is primed to express a pro-development approach to energy, it will remain nonpartisan and offer Washington successful strategies to develop both green and traditional energy based on work done in Alaska.

Dunleavy has offered a similarly two-fold approach, saying in a recent interview that opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to responsible development may yield just as much economic growth for the nation as emerging green technology, such as a proposal to harness the second-strongest tides in the world churning in Cook Inlet outside Anchorage.

Those parallels show why Future 49’s advent is coming at the right time, a source told Fox News Digital.

Future 49’s plan to use Alaska’s long-term goal to utilize its energy resources as a roadmap was a sentiment also voiced in another confirmation hearing Thursday. Interior nominee Doug Burgum highlighted the need for domestic “energy dominance” for both economic and security reasons.

With Russia having invaded Ukraine, Dunleavy said most sensitive national defense assets are housed in Alaska, so the state has a deep background in what is needed to deter malign actors.

“We’re very close to the bear,” he said.

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Lessons learned from managing a National Guard force so closely tied to top-level national security concerns is another avenue Future 49 will likely seek to aid Washington in.

The group plans to commission a survey of Lower 48 Americans on their view of the Last Frontier and how they perceive Alaska from thousands of miles away, said Alaska pollster Matt Larkin.