This year, Alaska celebrates 70 years since our state constitution was created. And yet the official state seal that was adopted then fails to acknowledge Alaska’s Indigenous identities and all of our state’s resources.

State seals are official symbols used to visually represent a state by featuring images and text meant to resonate with the history, values and identity of the state.

Every time you cast a ballot, or every time an official law or proclamation is issued, the Alaska state seal is on that document. The lieutenant governor is responsible for the official use of the seal. It is found on the walls of the state capitol and legislative offices, but sometimes it seems to be hidden in plain sight.

After Alaska was purchased from Russia, Alaska’s seal featured Indigenous figures fishing and harvesting marine mammals.

And yet in 1910, the territorial governor redesigned the seal, erasing the Alaska Native representation and shifting focus to Alaska’s mining, timber, seafood and agriculture resources.

This is the same seal that represents Alaska today. Fun fact: The mining resource on the seal is represented by a smoking ore smelter. But the only smelter in Alaska is the symbol on the state seal; all mined ore is shipped to smelters Outside.

Indigenous people were the first people and deserve to be acknowledged on the seal. Native cultural symbols and art make up some of the most recognizable and significant visual imagery in our state.

Additionally, 2027 will mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the trans-Alaska pipeline. Oil production has revolutionized Alaska’s economic and sociocultural landscape, bringing over $300 billion in revenue to the state since the pipeline opened.

The current official seal has elements representing the state’s bounty of resources. But Alaska’s oil, the biggest resource bounty for the past 50 years, is not. It should be represented on the seal.

Benny Benson designed Alaska’s flag as part of a territory-wide competition for students in 1927. His new flag represented hope for the future of our beautiful land. Like the flag, our state seal should represent all the people in the state, and Alaska’s past, present and dreams of its future.

To policymakers, educators and tribal leaders: With the 70th anniversary of statehood coming in 2029, maybe it’s time we have another state competition. This time, it will be for our seal.

Dave Norton is an engineer from Anchorage. He is a board member of the Alaska Oil & Gas Historical Society.

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[Related: Anchorage Assembly reveals options for new city seal with Dena’ina designs]

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Too many residents, business owners and politicians of Southcentral Alaska — we’re talking the state’s population center of Anchorage, the Mat-Su and Kenai Peninsula — are all agog in anticipation that a multibillion-dollar North Slope natural gas pipeline will save them from unaffordable heating and electric bills.

It’s the time of year for holiday dreams — a warm tradition like Hallmark movies, grandma’s cookies and the Budweiser Clydesdales. But the wintry cold truth about this dream is that there will be no pipeline under the tree — just bits of tinsel left over from premature and misleading celebrations.

The megaproject is too costly and too risky in a world that has plenty of easier and cheaper gas to sell. It has uncertain construction costs, with public estimates ranging from roughly $40 to $44 billion; no binding long-term customer contracts to provide collateral for loans; no binding financial commitments from investors; and actually no gas under firm contract to sell. Other than that, it’s a great holiday package, with the lead promoter publicly talking of delivering a construction decision before the holiday season is over.

Yet many still want to believe it’s possible, preferring to perpetuate the warm holiday glow of bountiful gas, plentiful jobs and wishful thinking of billions of dollars flowing into the state treasury.

But while the notion of a pipeline delivering North Slope gas to Southcentral boilers, furnaces and power plants is consuming much of the air in the convention hall of big ideas, Southcentral utilities face the real prospect of running short of gas before the end of the decade, as Cook Inlet production declines.

Which means those utilities would need to import gas — supercooled into a liquid and delivered by tanker from Canada or elsewhere. Which means spending money to build an import facility. Which means charging ratepayers for the investment.

That’s the immediate problem, not waiting for a pipeline to come to the rescue.

Southcentral’s largest electric utility, Chugach Electric Association, is negotiating with Harvest Midstream, an affiliate of Cook Inlet oil and gas producer Hilcorp, which plans to restore operations at the unused gas export terminal in Nikiski and turn it into an import hub. It’s a low-cost, low-risk plan — with federal authorization in hand — to use the existing dock and storage tanks to help keep the state’s population center warm and well-lit.

However, the same project developer that wants to build the North Slope project, a company named Glenfarne, thinks it has a better backup answer before its pipeline arrives. It proposes to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build a gas import terminal from scratch. Southcentral gas utility ENSTAR is in on the plan.

The Glenfarne/ENSTAR project not only lacks approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, it hasn’t even applied for authorization. Glenfarne has talked of spending tens of millions of dollars just getting to a construction decision. Then more spending, and years, before it could start importing gas.

All of the Southcentral utilities need to get their collective acts together and use the lowest-cost, fastest-to-develop, most certain option to ensure their customers have the gas they need. That is repurposing the existing export plant into an import terminal.

Building an entirely new facility for a small customer base is as wasteful as spending more public money on an unaffordable gas pipeline.

Any bad spending decisions by the utilities could fall on ratepayers to cover, or the state to bail out. Alaska has made a lot of poor decisions about energy over the years. We don’t need one more.

Larry Persily is a longtime Alaska journalist, with breaks for federal, state and municipal public policy work in Alaska and Washington, D.C. He lives in Anchorage and is the publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper.

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The Anchorage Daily News welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.

Virgin Voyages has launched a new month-long season pass giving cruise passengers access to perks such as a professional camera, laundry and bar credits during its Alaska sailings next year.

The 2026 Alaska Summer Season Pass provides a full month aboard the adult-only cruise line’s new Brilliant Lady.

It includes a Central Sea Terrace cabin for two passengers, daily drink credits and up to £188 worth of complimentary excursions each.

Passengers can also get upgraded wifi, laundry, spa passes and priority boarding.

You will even be able to photograph the beautiful scenery and wildlife of Alaska on a Canon G7X camera that is included in the price, as well as binoculars, a portable power bank, water bottle, backpack and a limited-edition Season Pass jacket and a collectible band.

Prices start at £19,575 to sail between 28 May and 23 June 2026, rising to £28,572 for between 23 June and 23 July, £26,317 for 30 July to 27 August and £27,069 for between 27 August and 26 September.

Read more: The best adult-only cruises

The price covers Virgin Voyages’ premium fare, which includes tips and lets passengers book onboard shows and restaurants 60 days in advance.

Each sailing is for a week but passengers with a pass will stay on board for a full 30 days.

This will give passengers a chance to get immersed in scenic destinations such as Ketchikan and Skagway where activities include sledding wit huskies and gold panning. There will also be chances to see glaciers and icebergs while sailing through Alaska’s Inside Passage.

Onboard, passengers can enjoy comedy shows, cabaret and high-end restaurants such as Korean barbecue venue Gunbae.

Nirmal Saverimuttu, chief executive of Virgin Voyages, “Alaska is one of the most awe-inspiring places on Earth.

“Experiencing it aboard Brilliant Lady means you get the adventure without sacrificing comfort, style or that Virgin sense of discovery — and without a single child on board. This is what a vacation is supposed to feel like.”

Virgin Voyages also offers a year-long pass for unlimited sailings, starting from £149,629.

Read more: Virgin Voyages changes cruise fares