The Pitfalls of Perpetual “No”
So you voted no, or said no, or signed a petition to say no.... what's your plan?
I’ve voted “no” in Juneau plenty of times when Alaska needed protection from bad policy, federal overreach, or unfunded mandates disguised as progress. A principled “no” can be a powerful shield for our state; but a “no” without a plan, without a better path forward, isn’t leadership, it’s a full stop. It’s one thing to oppose a flawed bill that needs fixing. It’s another to dismiss every proposal out of fear or rumor, whether carbon storage, energy diversification, or transportation infrastructure, because someone online or on the radio calls it a “globalist plot” or “Green New Deal scam.” Too many people mistake reflexive opposition for courage, and Alaska can’t afford that kind of paralysis.
Those folks are CAVE people: Citizens Against Virtually Everything. Driven by distrust more than facts, they reject every project, suspecting hidden schemes behind every proposal. And with the government we have had in the last decade or more who can blame them. They claim to defend liberty, but are they unknowingly just defending inaction? In a state struggling with crumbling roads, high energy costs, and scarce housing, Alaska doesn’t need more suspicion and inaction; it needs solutions.
When the CAVE say “no” to everything without offering better ideas, they don’t preserve Alaska’s independence, they surrender our future to those willing to build parks, trails, and bunny kissing stations in lieu of resource or energy development with an actual Return On Investment. Other states then seize great opportunities while Alaska stands still, trapped in a cycle of mistrust and missed potential.
Take House Bill 50, enacted as Chapter 23 of the 2024 Session Laws of Alaska. This bill gave our state, not Washington, D.C., the authority to regulate carbon sequestration wells through the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. It restored control to Alaska, will create new energy-sector jobs, and allowed the state the ability to generate revenue through leasing and storage fees for depleted oil and gas reservoirs.
Legitimate concerns with HB50, such as groundwater protection, monitoring, or long-term site management were addressed through hearings and amendments. Removal of the ESG section was handled through several committee substitutes. But instead of recognizing that, many online voices continue to call the bill “net zero communism” or a “UN plot.” They continue to urge rejection of 45Q federal tax credits, funds that every other energy-producing state is using to attract investment, without offering any alternative for Alaska. I am not a big fan of tax credits because someone always pays, but rejecting them outright, while others benefit from our tax dollars, only leaves Alaska behind in financing energy development.
That’s not defending liberty; it’s abandoning the debate. Rejecting progress without a plan leaves Alaskans with high utility bills, limited job growth, and housing out of reach for families in Palmer, Kenai, and Fairbanks.
Real leadership takes more than waving a red flag. It means rolling up your sleeves, finding the flaws, and fixing them. It means coming to the table with hard data and answers, demanding accountability, and making sure state projects have a measureable ROI and truly serve the people.
I’ve fought federal overreach for years, from fisheries, to FED primacy on lakes and rivers, to energy and transportation. But there’s a difference between vigilance and obstruction. When every project, whether a port expansion or coal plant is automatically labeled a foreign conspiracy, we waste energy fighting shadows instead of real threats. The CAVE mentality thrives on outrage, not outcomes. It’s easier to tear down a project and the people that support it than to build; but tearing down doesn’t pave roads, power homes, or keep rural Alaska’s lights on.
Our challenges are serious. Rural roads are deteriorating. Heating oil can cost eight dollars a gallon in the Bush. Housing shortages are forcing young families out of the very communities they want to grow. Projects that could lower costs, strengthen our grid, and diversify our economy are stalled, not just by climate or environmental activists on the left, but by the negativity and opposition on the right, driven by fear or misinformation.
This isn’t a partisan issue; it’s a leadership issue. Whether conservative, liberal, or independent, Alaskans deserve lawmakers who bring solutions, not slogans. Every time we kill a viable project without a credible alternative, it’s not politicians who suffer, it’s regular Alaskans.
Saying “no” without a plan doesn’t protect freedom; it protects a failing status quo.
Distrust in government is real. I’ve lived it, fought it, and often agreed with it. But distrust cannot become an excuse for inaction. We can and should scrutinize federal programs and special-interest influence, but we must also innovate on our terms, under our laws, with Alaska’s benefit at the center.
Dismissing carbon management or energy diversification as “carbon grift” or “globalist control” might earn attention online, but it doesn’t lower energy costs or create jobs. The responsible path is to do the hard work: research for understanding, not confirmation of conspiracy; sit down with engineers, scientists, and economists; and craft policies that balance growth with stewardship.
If you’re going to oppose something, bring a better plan. If you don’t have one, you’re not leading or engaged, you’re just complaining. That’s not conservatism. That’s complacency.
The next time someone says “vote no,” ask, “What’s your plan instead?” If they don’t have one, they’re not helping Alaska move forward, they’re holding us back.
Our future depends on courage, creativity, and collaboration. We need affordable energy, resilient communities, reliable infrastructure, and a strong Permanent Fund Dividend. We won’t get there by shouting “no” from the cave of suspicion. We’ll get there by rolling up our sleeves, engaging in the details, and supporting leaders who bring real solutions to the table. That’s how we build an Alaska that works for everyone.
illegitimi non carborundum
From a member of WTPA thats not named Ken -
In Defense of No — Alaska Doesn’t Need Permission to Prosper
A representative writes in his Substack “no without a plan isn’t leadership.” But when the plan is a federal tax funnel for carbon capture and climate control, saying no is the only leadership left. Alaska can’t build a future on some globalist net zero experiment.
“No” is a perfectly acceptable answer when the severity of the outcome falls squarely on the citizen — higher costs, lost control, and UN-engineered dependence disguised as progress. According to the esteemed representative however, these are all conspiracy theories.
Carbon control is the corporate and political framework built on the false premise that “net zero” is achievable or necessary — a system that taxes production, regulates consumption, and rewards compliance under the guise of saving the planet.
The 45Q program is an unconstitutional carbon tax.
Washington takes money from every taxpayer and hands it to corporations to inject carbon underground — all in service of “net zero.” Congress has no authority to tax Americans to bankroll private ventures or manipulate markets around ideological goals. The public pays, while UN-driven goals and foreign companies profit. McCabe says we don’t have carbon control or carbon taxes. He’s wrong. This is carbon control — and Alaskans are already paying for it.
While the Trump administration moves to repeal the EPA’s Endangerment Finding and dismantle the net-zero regime at its root, it’s so-called conservatives like McCabe who work overtime to keep it alive — running cover for those who’ve exploited Alaska into passing laws that quietly normalize net-zero policy until it becomes the default operating and control system of our economy.
And spare us the line that we wouldn’t have a gasline without 45Q tax credits. As the same is true with wind and solar subsidies - energy independence doesn’t come with an IRS form attached.
Representative Kevin McCabe’s latest article is a masterclass in political theater a polished performance built on selective truths and strategic omissions. It reads like leadership, but it’s pure gaslighting. He talks about defending Alaska’s sovereignty and lowering costs for working families, yet the policies he champions do the opposite.
Let’s be clear: Class II and Class VI well primacy aren’t tools of state empowerment they’re the mechanisms by which Alaska cedes true authority to bureaucrats and corporate partners. These wells, used for injecting CO₂ underground, are the backbone of the carbon sequestration scheme McCabe promotes through House Bill 50 (HB 50). And make no mistake HB 50 isn’t about energy independence; it’s the regulatory framework for a carbon market.
McCabe claims this will somehow reduce costs. That’s false. Carbon sequestration doesn’t make energy cheaper; it makes it more expensive. Someone must pay for the capture, transport, and injection of CO₂ a complex, high-risk, and high-cost process. That “someone” will be the citizen, the consumer, and the taxpayer. The very people McCabe claims to defend will shoulder the cost of a policy built to benefit carbon traders and corporations seeking tax credits.
And those tax credits are the heart of the game. Without massive federal subsidies, carbon storage is not profitable. That fact isn’t speculation it was clearly testified to in Resource Committee hearings, where McCabe sat and listened as experts confirmed that sequestration cannot survive without government financing. If this were a truly viable free-market enterprise, it wouldn’t need taxpayer life support.
Yet McCabe calls it conservative policy. But the government has no sovereign right to take taxes at the point of a gun, funnel that money into artificial markets, and then pretend it’s capitalism. That’s not free enterprise it’s government picking winners, distorting markets, and selling it as “innovation.”
And while McCabe writes about bold energy futures, he quietly ties Alaska’s resource development to federal green subsidies and global carbon-credit schemes. The gas line, long promised as Alaska’s lifeline to prosperity, was never contingent on HB 50 or any carbon portfolio. In truth, there isn’t enough CO₂ to store to make sequestration profitable in the first place. This entire construct is economic theater a policy that sounds visionary but serves as little more than a compliance system dressed in state colors.
Meanwhile, We The People Alaska (WTPA) has always stood for real growth: tangible production, not political production. We believe in GDP built with American hands, American steel, and American tools, with wealth deposited in American banks, not siphoned off by multinational firms or NGO partnerships. Yet for too long, Alaska has been treated like the Africa of America rich in resources, poor in control, and exploited by outsiders with the blessing of insiders.
Representative McCabe fits neatly into that pattern. In my free-speech opinion, he has perfected the art of plausible denial. When challenged, he shrugs off responsibility, claiming to be “just one man in a body of sixty,” powerless to act. But when cornered by facts, he deflects with a politician’s favorite shield “run for office yourself.” That’s not humility; that’s evasion.
This isn’t conservatism it’s corporatism draped in red fabric. It’s the appearance of principle without the substance of accountability. McCabe’s brand of “leadership” values optics over outcomes, loyalty to faction over duty to people. It’s a glossy form of false philanthropy, where the talking points are patriotic but the votes align with bureaucracy.
And that’s the real fear here exposure. The one thing the apex gaslighter cannot endure is sunlight. Alaska’s midnight sun has a way of revealing truth in full, and McCabe’s record shines plainly: he votes for government-managed markets, for taxpayer-funded corporate welfare, and for policies that sell Alaska’s independence for short-term political capital.
Wearing a red tie and an “R” doesn’t make a man conservative any more than standing in a garage makes him a truck. It’s time Alaskans stopped mistaking rhetoric for representation. McCabe has mastered the art of misdirection smiling while handing away the keys to Alaska’s future.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. No AI-written article, no clever spin, no talking point can hide what’s in plain sight: a politician who sold sovereignty as progress, and called it leadership.