One question is how the Prudhoe Bay area was allowed to be developed at all. There was a four year delay by the native claims gambit, but the project eventually went though. We [the general FR population] know the story of ANWR, to a degree, but we don't know the story of North Slope natural gas. We know nothing of the prohibition on nuclear power plants, nor of the limits to timber and fish. As far as getting a massive influx of settlers, well, Alaska isn't that friendly a place to set up camp. It is remote, cold, and it takes an amount of Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett in one to stick it out. Can't live by hunting. There is game and fish, but sufficient for only a few. Farming for subsistence is barely possible. Truck farming is severely limited. Climate again. This is not the Mississippi delta.
Well, I'm a Wisconsin girl, IIRC, they imported us and some Minnesotans up there to settle because the climate was similar. It's not the same, but similar. In winter, the sun rises about 7:30, it gets dark here by 4 pm. Not quite the same, the cold is similar, I know you have more severe climate, but we've had our share of -20° weather without windchill. That's a joke too. Windchill.... LOL! It's fun to watch the weather babes and news readers assigned to Milwaukee, working their way up the corporate ladder, listening to them tell us how bad it is. No ****, like we don't know it already. Anyway, I love hearing what's going on there.