Alaska seeks ways to boost industry activity in state

This paper reports that as U.S. oil companies look abroad for new investment opportunities, Alaska is looking at ways to keep industry active in the state. Fully 85% of the money that funds state government today is derived from royalties and taxes on oil. Virtually no sector of the state's economy can claim that it does not somehow benefit from the contribution of the oil industry, either directly or through the expenditures of state government. But like everyone else's in the oil patch, Alaska's fortunes fell precipitously after world oil prices collapsed in the mid-19880s. While revenues this year have fallen to $2.1 billion, things might have been worse