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The Resource Development Council: A voice for progress and growth With pipeline roots and grassroots advocacy, the RDC has promoted Alaska’s resource industries for nearly 25 years Dawnell Smith PNA Contributing Writer
In a quarter of a century, the Resource Development Council for Alaska has grown from a single-issue advocate for an all-Alaska gas pipeline to an organization that promotes an assortment of industries like oil, mining, fishing, forestry and tourism. A non-profit group with 78 board members and a small staff, RDC constantly strives to build cohesion and consensus between all members.
"We try to focus on issues that do all our members good,” explained Executive Director Kenneth Freeman in an interview with PNA. “We spend 50 percent of our time on specific issues like Alpine, Cook Inlet and timber sales … and 50 percent on more general things like water quality, air quality and the state fiscal plan.”
Since its inception, RDC has grown from a handful of individuals to an entity comprised of about 1,100 businesses, individuals, labor unions, Native corporations, business associations and local governments.
Pipeline roots that grew In the beginning, the RDC founders had one simple mission -- to fight for an all-Alaska gas pipeline. Anchorage businessman Robert Penney adamantly supported an all-Alaska route to tidewater near Valdez and expressed this view when he met broadcaster Robert Fleming on an airport shuttle in San Francisco in 1975.
Shortly after, the two men started meeting on a regular basis in Anchorage, slowly bringing others into the fold. Known at the time as the Organization for the Management of Alaska’s Resources, they chose Bev Isenson as executive director, elected Fleming and Penney as co-chairs and ushered in supporters like Elaine Atwood and Tom Fink. Spirits were high and convictions deep.
“I really believed that all we had to do was take our story to the right people, get the political community behind us and the game was won,” recounted Fleming in an article in Resource Review, February 1995.
In the end, President Carter opted for a pipeline route that went near Fairbanks and into Canada, a decision that took the wind out of OMAR’s sails. For the founding members, the future looked grim.
Broadening the scope Despite the setback, OMAR’s leaders felt the need for a voice in an environment increasingly populated by non-development interests. As a result, they reorganized in 1978 as the RDC and gave Executive Director Paula Easley full support as she broadened the organization’s scope.
Easley guided the RDC for 11 years as it tackled issues like the d-2 land settlement, coal policy, tax relief, regulatory reform and land management plans. Perhaps her greatest influence was in building its membership.
At the time, Becky Gay served as Easley’s deputy director and did a lot of community outreach. She credits Easley for having the vision to embrace small communities and villages. “It wasn’t about money, it was about making a difference,” Gay told PNA. “It helped communities that might not otherwise have a voice in the world of industry.”
When Gay took over as director in 1987, people still viewed it as an oil and gas group, but “by the time Paula and I were done, we even had government officials as members,” Gay said.
Education and advocacy go hand in hand Under Gay’s leadership, the RDC pushed for land access such as the opening of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Getting their message out demanded a coordinated education campaign, so the RDC helped form the Alaska Coalition for American Energy Security. The coalition sent teams across the country to explain the issues and get support in key congressional districts, but ANWR legislation lost steam following the oil spill in Prince William Sound.
Gay took a year off from the RDC to head the state’s ANWR advocacy efforts, then returned to the RDC in 1992 as it spearheaded the Alaska Wetlands Coalition and oversaw the Alaska Mineral and Energy Resource Education Fund, a K-12 education program.
Debbie Reinwand joined RDC in 1987 to handle issues and lobbying work in Juneau and Washington and worked on bringing up Congressmen and staffs trying to get exemptions to the Clean Water Act so that Alaska could develop its wetlands. Only 1/10th of 1 percent of Alaska's wetlands have been developed, Reinwand told PNA.
Reinwand was acting director of RDC while Gay was in Juneau, and said she was particularly proud the work RDC did with Ameref, bringing it under the RDC umbrella at a time when Ameref was struggling. Ever since, she said, Ameref has operated out of RDC. Working at RDC “provided an opportunity to work statewide with political leaders, business leaders and elected officials on just about every issue imaginable,” Reinwand said.
Now a vice president at Bradley-Reid Communications, she said: “I am really proud now to be able to serve on the RDC board and to work with the staff and the board and to bring the resources of our company to help RDC as they work on behalf of all Alaska businesses and communities.”
Resource access key The primary goal was to “educate people on the need and validity of resource development,” Gay said. The RDC spent a lot of time on land and access issues, always trying to explain and show the complexities of working in Alaska. Basically, she said, “if you don’t have access to the resource, you’re dead in the water.”
The RDC’s non-profit status and eclectic membership gave it an edge. “It doesn’t go well when an industry is pitted against a non-profit,” Gay said, so the group filled a niche as a grassroots advocacy group.
When she left in 1997, the RDC was more integrated than when she started. “There was more mutual respect and an ability to communicate, and it had developed into a really strong network of people,” said Gay, who left RDC to work for former Mayor Ben Nageak of the North Slope Borough and now heads her own consulting firm, the BLG Group in Anchorage.
Success and frustration as NPR-A leasing moves forward When Gay passed the torch to Freeman, the RDC was already entrenched in the battle to open the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska for oil and gas exploration. Freeman now considers NPR-A one of organization’s greatest successes and biggest frustrations. Though pleased that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt decided to open NPR-A to oil and gas leasing, “we would have liked to see more of NPR-A opened up,” he said.
As the RDC launches into the next century, other hurdles await.
Finding common ground Though they find common ground 90 percent of the time, even on issues like subsistence, some conflicts never get resolved between members, admitted Freeman.
“We can’t advocate one industry over another,” he said. “We have to balance the interests of all members.” That balance is both a challenge and an achievement.
Easley put it this way: “The RDC continues to bring diverse communities, organizations and industries together to support particular economic segments facing ‘lockup’ challenges.” In doing so, she wrote, “it cares far less about getting credit than about getting the job done. I’ve always been proud of this aspect of RDC’s philosophy.”
In a way, added Gay, “it’s a hard-earned miracle that the organization has survived this long on a volunteer basis.” That so many divergent groups and individuals pay to join and then actively contribute is a testament to its necessity and success, she said.
Fittingly enough, the group’s founding members had the same core belief: That the RDC fills a need and provides a voice.
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