Word: alaska
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...lameduck session ending on Dec. 5 was expected to pass no major new programs, although it did push through a bill long wanted by Carter to protect 104.3 million acres of land in Alaska from development. Said Laxalt of the session: "We'd like to hold it in tight and get the hell out of here...
...Alaska land battle ends in a compromise
...with new tax revenue, improving their competetive standing over less fortunate states. Conservative estimates by the Congressional Budget Office forecast that between 1980 and 1990 eight states will collect $112 billion in new revenue as a result of increased severance, corporate, and property taxes due to raised oil prices. Alaska's average yearly revenue increase will equal three times its relatively small 1978 budget. The six other states will enjoy similar, if less substantial profits...
...Prudoe Bay) was just a lot of machinery hauled up and plopped down on the permafrost to make as much money as possible as quickly as it could. And the men were there only to make sure the machinery did its job. Alaska was not part of their dream. It had never been, for them, a goal, a destination, a frontier for them to explore as they explored new levels of themselves. It was just like Saudi Arabia Indonesia, East Texas, the North Sea--a place under which oil happened to be. They were an occupying army, bloodless mercenaries...
McGinnis' book, like its subject, is unfinished. He packs it with the energy, diversity, and extremity of our last frontier, but he leaves it too raw. It becomes construction noise and restless people passing through. Alaska has not made any sense of itself yet, and neither has McGinnis. There is too little attempt to understand what he has recorded. Nevertheless, he presents the real scene, the graceless complete one. It has the robust glow and toughness of the Alaska that is one huge ragged edge of America...