As you consider solutions to the financial and economic mess Congress and the previous administration left you, I would like to offer another type of solution.

What made this country wealthy in the first place?  The land. 

It was the bounty the land offered both renewable and non-renewable that was a significant contributor in making this country one of the wealthiest in the world.  In the past thirty years’ we have regulated ourselves out of business and become dependent on the rest of the world to delivering to us.  T. Boone Pickens likes to point out how much we spend in the Middle East for energy while we have ample resources here.  Imagine all the wage and royalty income earned by local workers and local resource owners, most likely the U.S. Government.  It is about time we started utilizing the wealth and bounty of this land and work our way out of this financial difficulty rather than continuing the borrowing from our children.  Living here in Southeast Alaska the closing and denying  access to our wealth and job generators is a daily fight against the well meaning but myopic non-governmental-entities such as Southeast Alaska Conservation Coalition or SEACC. 

The FDA does not learn what the long-term affects of a particular drug is until you have subjects take it for a long time.  We did not know how bad the long-term affects SEACC would have on our communities, but we can see the impact now.  What kind of FDA would we be if we let the drug company continue to sell its poison or are we going to make it pull the poison off the shelf? 

President-elect Obama please do not burden our children any further and put this generation of American people to work in wealth creating, national independence leading industries.  For too long the environmental protection industry’s position is no, it must become about how and we need to get the court system out of the management of our national resources.  Take these steps, and keep your promises to the indigenous people and this nation will prosper again.