Together we have to let the nation in on a valuable secret: When it comes to our natural resources, Alaskans know what we're doing.

The more traditional fuel sources we have relied on as a nation - coal, oil, and natural gas - I'm hoping they can allow us the financial springboard to move to the next generation of energy sources: renewables and alternatives.

We need to face it, as a nation we have a reliance on petroleum.

There are many outsiders that actively try to halt every natural resource development project in Alaska. Many of these same people have never even been to Alaska, yet they claim to know what's best for us.

I look at what we have - our traditional natural resource base - as helping move us to that cleaner, more diverse energy supply.

We can sit between active drilling operations in neighboring countries, complaining that it's too risky to develop our own resources while the world around us does exactly that.