A rose by any other name... The oil tax credits and yes, actual cash payments, to the oil industry costs the state seven hundred plus million dollars. This at a time of budget crisis where we are asking sacrifices for everyone but the oil companies. Parents seeing their children's education being short changed, elders on fixed incomes being asked to bear the cost, university students paying higher tuition to a rapidly diminishing university, have good reason to take umbrage at the largess shown to the oil industry. Whether that largess is deserved or not is the subject of the debate. The good news is that Alaska has diversified its economy, not enough to make up for the loss of oil revenues, but it is on the right track. But Wohlforth's  point is spot on; oil revenue is never going to be the golden goose it was.