The oil dependent state government has balanced the budget only twice in the past decade. Alaskans are deeply conscious of their resource economy. Any big development project wins instant political support and public enthusiasm, said Stephen Haycox, a history professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage. A natural gas development promises a cash infusion and plentiful jobs, something Alaska has seen before in the 1970s and 1980s oil booms, salmon in the World War II era, copper around World War I and gold in the late 19th century. We've been here before.
Gas is the same as oil, as copper and salmon.
The reality of development may be less than the daydreams of another boom. Also, Alaska's economy is far larger than during the pipeline days, which would dampen the economic impact. And money to the state would be far less than from oil. Gas is much more expensive to move. During the late 1970s, just after Prudhoe Bay oil production began, a similar frenzy over the Slope's gas trove occurred.