After several years and billions of dollars in infrastructure investments by current Alaska producers like ExxonMobil, BP and Anadarko Petroleum, ANWR could produce 1 million barrels of oil a day for 40 years.

FORBES: Open the Spigots

Hence decades worth of hand-wringing over the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and the (current) closing of large areas of the North Slope to oil drilling.

FORBES: The Environmental Protection Agency Comes-a-Copper

And while other states are floundering in the current economy, Alaska is sitting on a surplus, a surplus which is largely related to the increase in oil company revenue.

FORBES: Sarah Palin Emails Show Discord Over Oil Tax

But it seems that voters - for now at least - are far more concerned about who will extract them from the current economic crisis, than any questions about political infighting in far-off Alaska.

BBC: Economy could deflect probe sting