– Alaska is truly the real operational fort for North America.
I know we have forts in other states, but we have Russian bombers that overfly our state, if not twice, maybe three times a month.
(subdued music) – Hello and welcome to GZERO World.
I’m Ian Bremmer, and today on the show we’re going polar.
That’s right.
We’re traveling way, way, way north of the lower 48 to the land of the Iditarod, Northern Lights, and other stuff, polar bears.
Take a close look at America’s 49th State, Alaska.
Alaska’s motto is “North to the Future!”
But that could also be a slogan for our show today, because, for a part of the United States many Americans probably don’t spend much time thinking about, Alaska sits at the heart of some of the country’s most pressing issues.
Alaska’s renewable resources and natural gas reserves make it a critical part of our energy future.
Deposits of rare earth minerals that power computer chips and reserves of fresh water to cool data centers make it a fundamental part of our technology future.
And Alaska’s strategic position, close to Russia and China, makes Alaska a critical part of our geopolitical future.
A person who understands that better than just about anyone is my guest today, Alaska governor, Mike Dunleavy.
We’re drilling down into Alaska’s energy and economic potential to roll in national security and within the Arctic and why he’s so confident that the next 50 years belong to Alaska.
Don’t worry, I’ve also got your Puppet Regime.
– The Russian President has got jokes.
– But first, a word from the folks who help us keep the lights on.
– [Announcer] Funding for “GZERO World” is provided by our lead sponsor, Prologis.
– [Narrator] Every day all over the world, Prologis helps businesses of all sizes lower their carbon footprint and scale their supply chains.
With a portfolio of logistics and real estate and an end-to-end solutions platform, addressing the critical initiatives of global logistics today.
Learn more at prologis.com.
– [Announcer] And by… – [Narrator 2] Cox Enterprises is proud to support GZERO.
We’re working to improve lives in the areas of: communications, automotive, clean tech, sustainable agriculture, and more.
Learn more at Cox.career/news.
– [Announcer] Additional funding provided by: Jerre and Mary Joy Stead, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and… (gentle music) (logo whooshes) (lofty music) – [Old-Timey Narrator] Most people, if they’ve thought of Alaska at all, thought of it as a cold, rugged wasteland.
Now suddenly it seemed to have considerable additional value.
– When you think of Alaska and U.S politics, you know think of this moment.
– I believe that diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign policy.
– And I can see Russia from my house.
(audience laughing) – Tina Fey’s 2008 “SNL” impression of Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, has become an indelible meme in U.S. political history.
But here’s the thing, Palin never actually said it.
– What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of this state give you?
– They’re our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.
(upbeat music) – But of course, foreign policy is about more than proximity.
Still, Palin wasn’t entirely wrong about that either, and 16 years after that infamous line, amid Russia’s growing territorial aggression and a fast-forming Arctic, Alaska’s physical place in the world has become more geopolitically relevant than ever.
Alaska’s northern coastline makes the U.S. one of six countries with exclusive economic zones in the Arctic Circle.
Now, no country owns the North Pole.
It isn’t even land.
It’s constantly-shifting sea ice, which we’re just going to melt anyway.
(ice cracks) But as that happens, the Arctic is opening up and countries are now racing to lay claim to untapped deposits of oil, natural gas, and rare earth minerals, newly-accessible shipping routes, and strategic military positions between North America and Eurasia.
Russia is winning by most metrics.
The Russian government has more than three dozen polar icebreakers in its fleet.
That’s compared to two, not two dozen, two, in the United States giving it strategic and operational advantage.
Russia accounts for nearly half the Arctic population, more than half its coastline and it dominates Arctic industry.
And Moscow has spent years building up military outposts in the region as polar ice melts and its northern waters become exposed.
Russia’s also increasing cooperation in the region with China, which sees the Arctic as an important part of its strategic economic and environmental interests.
And it’s believed to be exploring a military presence there.
Now, historically, critical issues like environmental protection and Indigenous rights, sustainable development have all been managed through the Arctic Council, and that’s an intergovernmental forum of Arctic states and Indigenous peoples.
But ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Council’s work has ground to a stop.
NATO countries suspended political-level meetings with Moscow and all international research projects have been put on hold, and that’s kind of a blow to climate science.
Until Arctic states can find a way to work together, rising tensions and a zero-sum game of territorial ambition is going to give the most remote part of the planet a lot more of our attention.
That the United States even has a stake in the future of the Arctic and a voice in how all these critical issues get resolved is all because of Alaska.
And here to help us unpack his state’s strategic place in the world, its economic potential, and the vital role it’s going to play in America’s energy and environmental future is Alaska governor, Mike Dunleavy.
Governor Mike Dunleavy, so good to have you on “GZERO World.”
– It’s great to be here, Ian.
– So I mean, most Americans are from the lower 48.
They don’t spend a lot of time in Alaska.
They think of, like, beautiful territory, they think of a lot of resources and polar bears.
What is the single thing that you think most Americans need to better understand about your state?
– That we are an energy and economic giant and we are the Arctic and Western Pacific sovereign for the United States of America.
– And what are the biggest opportunities right now given that?
– Boy, across the board.
Unbelievable amounts of resources.
We have 49 of the world’s 50 rare earths elements.
We have some of the largest lead-zinc mines in the world up there.
Largest gold mine on the planet is up there.
Largest graphite mine in North America is up there.
The list goes on and on.
Three times the fresh water of any other state.
Our proximity on the globe is second to none.
We are an oil giant, so we were producing a million barrels a day back in the late ’80s, early ’90s.
We still have billions of barrels of oil.
We have over a hundred trillion cubic feet of gas that we’re trying to market.
So, energy for our Western Asian allies, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and others, but also our renewable resources are tremendous.
Our wind resources.
We have 150 volcanoes, 50 are active, so our geothermal resources are off the charts.
Second largest tides in the world for tidal energy, right by Anchorage, Alaska.
Between the federal lands and the state lands, over 140 million acres of forests for all kinds of uses, the biofuels to woods resources to wood chips, you name it, wood pellets.
I mean the list just keeps going on and on and Alaska is poised, I think, as I tell people, the next 50 years, I think it’ll belong to Alaska because of our energy resources and our proximity on the globe.
– Now, the United States today is the largest fossil fuel energy producer in the world, the United States for gas, for oil, and also is a country that is thinking a lot about transition and renewables and what climate change is going to mean for the economy.
Given all of that, the last few years, would you say Alaska’s been a beneficiary of those trends or has it been more of a challenge for Alaska to navigate those trends?
– Both.
I see us being a beneficiary.
Certainly the problem that Alaska deals with is our relationship with our own federal government.
A lot of folks in the federal government and associated with our federal government view Alaska as a large national park, so as a result of that, oftentimes we are not supported in our efforts to develop lands in Alaska that could produce minerals, that could produce more oil and gas, that could harvest our timber, so we have our challenges there.
But at the same time, the new economy, as they call it, provides Alaska with tremendous opportunities.
We’re an all-in state.
You mentioned transition, Ian.
We really don’t see it as a transition.
We see it as an additionality, given what the server farms are asking in terms of electrical output, the supercomputers, the electrification of the world.
In order to do that, you’re not going to be able to do that currently, at least in the foreseeable future, just on wind or solar without some type of exponential leap in technology on batteries and storage.
So we see Alaska, again with all of its resources, being able to be a net provider to the country and to the world in terms of energy.
And so we believe that we got to work in some permitting processes with the federal government, but we also have to change some attitudes with the federal government.
Some folks associated with the federal government, including NGOs, believe it’s better to ship the need for minerals and the need for oil and gas overseas to the detriment of Alaska, but also for those folks that believe in the environment, you really want to do it all here in America, because we keep an eye on it, we do it better than anywhere else in the planet.
So we have our challenges, but I think the next 50 years is going to belong to Alaska.
– So when I think about the last five years, we’ve got the USMCA, which is an important trade deal that’s facilitated great integration, Alaska with Canada, the United States with Mexico and Canada, also seeing the Inflation Reduction Act, a lot of money being spent on creating jobs for transition energy for infrastructure.
Lord knows way overdue in the United States.
How’s Alaska fit into those processes?
– We have billions of dollars earmarked to Alaska as a result of some of the acts that you just mentioned, also.
We are undergoing a huge broadband expansion across Alaska.
We have 200 communities that are off a road system, and so a lot of those communities don’t have the access to broadband like our municipalities, our major cities, and urban areas.
And so we’re a huge beneficiary of that.
What we have to keep an eye on as well as others is again, the permitting process.
So that money just doesn’t lay on the table for years and years.
The ability to make sure our supply chains are there.
I mean we’re hearing that anything related to electrical transmission, including your transformers, are two, three, four years out in back order in many cases.
And so we just have to make sure that the money is deployed quickly and permitting is going to be huge in that.
And also, again, the supply chains have got to keep up with this demand.
The exponential use and demand for electrical energy is through the roof, and so we’ve got to keep working on that diligently.
– You and I have both heard about the fact that energy doesn’t move very well, data does.
And as an energy power for the Western Hemisphere, not just for the United States, how far is Alaska down the road of saying, “We want to bring data centers at scale to our state.”?
– We’re there now.
We’re there now.
We have the land capable of supporting data centers.
We have three times the fresh water of any other state in the country for cooling purposes.
We have a cooler climate.
You’re not going to have to design your buildings or work hard to expel heat in Alaska as much as you do in other places.
And we have tremendous energy capability that we’re starting to capitalize on now.
As we mentioned, everything from geothermal, to wind, to solar in Alaska, but also our fossil fuels.
And we passed a nuke siting bill, nuclear siting bill, two years ago, which will enable us to also site small nuclear reactors in the state of Alaska.
So Alaska is an all-in approach to energy.
We are open for business, and I think our tax regimes would also be something that those that are involved in the data farming, the data factories, would also want to look at Alaska for, because I think we have a lot going for us in Alaska.
– Some of those conversations with the tech companies already really happening.
– Yeah, we’re having conversations.
We went to the NVIDIA conference here in the spring, got to meet a number of those folks, great people.
We’ve been in contact with them and some of the folks that they do business with and that build data factories and data farms, and they see Alaska, once again, whether it’s water, it’s land, its tax regime, its cold climate, and its potential energy as a real opportunity.
Because as you said, there was a time we thought that the data centers had to be located where there’s absolutely the best connectivity.
That’s not necessarily the case anymore.
In Alaska’s situation, this bodes well for us and it bodes well also because this is an opportunity for some of these data factories, supercomputer entities, to be able to look at a locale in the world that is American, has all of this energy, has all this fresh water, but also we don’t necessarily have to compete, if we set this up the right way, with residential utility costs.
For example, you’re seeing this happen in some places on the East Coast where there’s supercomputers, the demand for energy is so great that it’s competing with residential needs for energy.
I think in Alaska we could do both really well.
– So I want to pivot to national security, if you don’t mind.
I mean, Alaska as a Pacific power is of course- – And an Arctic power.
– And an Antarctic power.
Is critical to American national security.
The relations with Russia are now worse than at any point since the Cold War.
Alaska’s on the front lines of, you know, surveillance and response capabilities.
How have you seen behaviors from the Russians, from the Chinese in the Pacific, affecting what you’re doing?
– So most people don’t realize this, but we are further west than even Hawaii.
We’re a thousand miles closer to Australia, for example, than even California.
We have Chinese warships come up through the Bering Strait.
We have had Russian ships forever plying the Bering Strait as well.
We are within the reach of the North Korean missiles in Alaska.
So Alaska’s truly the real operational fort for North America.
I know we have forts in other states, but we have Russian bombers that overfly our state, if not twice, maybe three times a month.
And our Air Force capability up there obviously moves them out.
So we’re seeing more activity.
We know that there are issues in Asia, including Taiwan and China, and if there is conflict there, Alaska’s going to be unfortunately part of that because the military presence that we have in Alaska will probably end up supplying a number of troops and the equipment and personnel to deal with that conflict at whatever level that’s going to be.
And so Alaska is a true operating fort.
We’re on the front lines.
We’re two and a half miles from Russia, literally between the island of Little Diomede and Big Diomede, Little Diomede, being American, Big Diomede, being Russian.
As mentioned, we see Chinese warships and we have interceptors to help deal with Korean missile threats.
So heightened activity, and I would anticipate we’re probably going to see more focus on our military in the future, and that probably should happen.
– And coordination between the Chinese and the Russians.
Again, Siberia, huge amount of territory, not a lot of people.
Most of that investment to the extent that it’s happened has been Chinese of late.
How do you think about that?
– I think the future, once again, I think we went from the belief, the concept, the hope in globalism, I think post-COVID again, and because of these conflicts, I think you’re starting to see the world reorganize itself.
And I think you’re going to see it reorganize itself into, for lack of a better term, regionalism.
We talked about Canada, we talked about the United States.
Again, our neighbors to the south, Mexico, our allies in Western Europe and our allies in Eastern Asia, the Japanese, the Koreans, Philippines, et cetera.
I think you’re going to see more coordination between those countries as you will between China and Russia.
Some have, you know, laid out a future in which China is going to really invest in Siberia for the purpose of their resources, whether it’s power, whether it’s dams, whether it’s roads, et cetera.
It makes sense from that perspective that they’re on the same continent or close proximity.
So I think you’re going to see regionalism.
I think you’re going to see more and more cooperation between the Chinese and the Russians, and I think you’ll see more cooperation between North American sovereigns and our allies in the Pacific as well as our allies in Europe.
– And you mentioned the Arctic, it’s one of the few places that we see the Canadians actually doing a lot more than the United States on balance.
Talk about how Alaska is playing a greater role in the Arctic, given the geopolitical challenges right now.
– Well, we’ve always had a great military presence up in Alaska.
We have a robust air force with some of the best technology, F35 fighters, large army presence, largest Coast Guard presence in the United States is there.
We are lacking on things though, for example, and surprisingly like icebreakers.
We only have two in the United States.
Because of Alaska’s position and what is happening now geopolitically and with a warming Arctic, Alaska should have a minimum of five, in my opinion, five icebreakers.
We’ve always had close cooperation with Canada.
We have a joint Canadian post at Fort Elmendorf Air Force Base.
We work jointly and closely with the Canadians on Arctic sovereignty, Arctic security.
Probably going to see that increase given what’s happening with, as mentioned earlier, with the North Korean threats, Chinese plying the waters in the Bering Strait and as well as robust, but probably increasing Russian presence.
And so again, I think what’s going to happen is you’re probably going to see more discussions on increased Navy activity in Alaska as well as, again, the need for more icebreakers to do joint patrols with our Canadian friends to the east.
– I hear this from the Canadians all the time.
It’s a little surprising the Americans don’t have icebreakers.
– Surprises them.
– I mean, we’ve known about this for a long time now.
So I mean, is there no plan to put those together?
– No, there’s some in the hopper.
We just need to increase, I think we need to speed that process up and increase the numbers.
I think what happened, Ian, was over the decades, we did have a robust military presence in Alaska.
And I think that and the fact that for many months in the year, parts of Alaska are frozen, right?
The Chukchi Sea, the Arctic Ocean, the Bering Sea.
That’s changing.
The geopolitical equation is changing.
The post-COVID issues, as we mentioned with realignment of alliances and countries, is changing.
And again, China’s flexing its muscles in the Bering Strait and in the Arctic, that’s changing as well.
So I think as a result of that, you’re going to see, I hope to see a different approach by Washington involving our armed forces in Alaska.
– And I haven’t asked you, but I mean obviously, economic opportunities because suddenly, you know, the Arctic’s passable, the shipping lanes.
Also, life is changing in terms of, you know, climate on the ground.
I see that, you know, a lot of your ice roads are no longer passable, things like that.
What’s the biggest impact that you are feeling that needs to be addressed from the fact that climate for our frontier state is changing pretty dramatically?
– Again, I think you’re going to see more opportunities, to be honest with you in the Arctic in terms of shipping.
I think you’re going to see some sea routes open up over the next several decades, and Alaska is going to, I think, poise to benefit from that because you have to come down through a pinch point, if you look at the map, called the Bering Strait and Alaska is part of that, and Russia is part of that.
And so I think there’s opportunity for opportunities for Alaskans, especially in the Northern Western coast, to make sure that we’re there to be able to supply and help ships in distress.
I think you’re going to see a larger Coast Guard presence over time there to help with the same issues.
I think, like the Panama Canal, I think the North is going to have its own version of the Panama Canal.
It’s going to be Alaska’s, like I mentioned, Alaska’s decade the next 50 years.
I think it’ll be Alaska’s half century.
– So before we close, I have to ask you at least a question or two about the election in the United States.
And look, Alaska’s not exactly, you know, sort of up for grabs, it’s not a swing state, but of course it’s relevant.
Tell me a little bit more about what you think this election means for the country where you think we are as a democracy right now.
– Well, under President Trump, every opportunity that we had a discussion with his administration and the president himself on, was, in my opinion, taken advantage of.
I mean, we would’ve conversations with the administration, the president himself, he would fly to Alaska on his trips over to Asia, we would meet.
It was always a conversation, “What can we do for Alaska?
How can we help Alaska capitalize on its opportunities?”
It was consistent.
Unfortunately- – They were commercial conversations.
– Correct.
– The business conversations.
– They’re business conversations, correct.
Whether it’s our mining, whether it’s our oil, our timber, you name it, correct.
This administration, unfortunately, it’s been the opposite.
And I think that’s been driven by, to be perfectly honest with you, NGOs related to the environmental world.
A lot of folks view Alaska, not as a state, but as this jewel, that should be a national park.
The fact of the matter is, it is a state.
49, it’s the 49th state.
Millions of acres, were already taken off the table and put in the federal parks and monuments, but there are still people that want to continue that process.
Alaska’s constitution and Alaska’s Statehood Act is unique amongst all the states.
We were not going to be allowed to become a sovereign, a state, in 1959, unless we agreed to collectivize all of our resources under the sovereign.
So unlike Texas, which is really the largest state in terms of private land ownership, Alaska is the opposite.
We had to collectivize our resources.
And the reason for that is the federal government did not believe we could pay for our way with a broad-based tax, like a sales tax or income tax.
So they compelled us to do that, to compel us to develop our resources.
That promise on their side has fallen short, especially on this administration.
I just wish under the last four years that the federal government in Washington would realize that Alaska is a solution to a lot of the problems that we are looking at in terms of mining, in terms of timber oil and gas.
– Governor Mike Dunleavy, thanks for joining us.
– Thank you.
(transition whooshes) (subdued music) – And now we move from the land of snow and ice to the land of felt and folly.
It might be cold in Alaska, but I’ve got your Puppet Regime coming in hot.
– Welcome to Puppet News Network Exclusives, where in my recent interview with Vladimir Putin, I asked him about the cost of the war in Ukraine for Russia’s own future.
And as it turned out, the Russian president has got jokes.
President Putin, your war in Ukraine has left Russia an isolated military economy.
Hundreds of thousands of talented young people have left Russia, and your country is now basically an appendage of China.
I have to ask you, was it worth it?
– (scoffs) My sweet summer child.
Let me tell you old Russian joke.
Genie comes to peasant and says, “I will grant you one wish.
Whatever you like.”
Peasant says, “Anything I like?”
Genie says, “Da, anything you like, on one condition.
Whatever I give to you, I will give twice as much of it to your neighbor.”
Peasant looks over at his freaking neighbor and says to genie, “Okay, pluck out my eye.”
(Putin laughs) Pluck out my- – Um… – You get it?
Because if he plucks the one eye, then the neighbor gets both of the… (laughs) Sounds better in Russian.
♪ Puppet Regime ♪ – That’s our show this week.
Come back next week, and if you like what you see, or even if you don’t, I’ve got a state I can send you to.
Not to mention, you should check us out at gzeromedia.com.
(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (bright music) – [Announcer] Funding for “GZERO World” is provided by our lead sponsor, Prologis.
– [Narrator] Every day all over the world, Prologis helps businesses of all sizes lower their carbon footprint and scale their supply chains.
With a portfolio of logistics and real estate and an end-to-end solutions platform, addressing the critical initiatives of global logistics today.
Learn more at prologis.com.
– [Announcer] And by… – [Narrator 2] Cox Enterprises is proud to support GZERO.
We’re working to improve lives in the areas of: communications, automotive, clean tech, sustainable agriculture, and more.
Learn more at Cox.career/news.
– [Announcer] Additional funding provided by: Jerre and Mary Joy Stead, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and… (soft bright music) (playful music)
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