Alaska was built in the 70s so our towns and cities have very low density "non clustered" making public transit difficult. Consider your example contrasting sub

Alaska was built in the 70s so our towns and cities have very low density "non clustered" making public transit difficult. Consider your example contrasting suburban US and Europe. Alaska is to lower 48 burbs what US burbs are to Europe. We have big lots and we have spread out. So public transit is expensive and it poorly serves us. To compound this difficulty, the majority of villages aren't even connected to the road system. The locals get around with snowmobiles and 4wheelers. Those tend to be more clustered but public transit in a town that has no jobs and 100 people living in 2 sq miles is pointless. I lived in the 4th biggest city in Alaska and it was 8 miles to the nearest gas station and 20 miles to my highschool. You can't export wind power. The current hope is to build a liquid natural gas line and export that. Unfortunately Gas prices trend with oil prices so getting that built in this market is going to be difficult and potentially unprofitable in the long run. Figuring out how to have an self contained perpetually sustainable economy is an interesting problem I don't think any nation has figured out. If you have a trade deficit your country/state will become poorer over time a surplus will enrich it. So it's best to try and export and stay ahead of the game or you will bleed out. Alaska needs to export goods because we import most of our food and necessities. Not everyone is willing to live on moose and salmon. (although I sure could)