Sure, cheap energy and all that sounds good, but what most people in town don't realize is that if rural Alaska is connected to the rest of Alaska, it will ruin it.  That is the best thing about living out here.  To an extent, you're cut-off from all the towns and the people in it.  We don't want McDonalds.  We don't want a coffee shop on every corner.  It kills me that people come here because it's perfect, then immediately want to change it.  This is the last frontier....Leave it that way.  
      There are many things that could benefit rural Alaska without trying to hook it up to mainstream America and all the pollution and self-serving idiocy that comes with it.