A Citizen’s Guide

In the midst of a discussion Monday on payments to communities impacted by pipeline development, Sen. Ralph Seekins, R-Fairbanks, delved into a colorful discussion on the legality of negotiating the proposed contract under the Alaska Stranded Gas Development Act.

He brought it up because the administration is asking—in proposed amendments to the act—that even a section relating to impact payments be made retroactive to 2004, before the contract provisions were negotiated.

Is that really necessary, Seekins asked Jim Baldwin, outside counsel for the Department of Law.

Baldwin said he’d wondered that himself.

Then he made a noun into a verb and tacked on a prefix.

“People have overlawyered this,” he said. Baldwin himself was guilty of it.

It’s sort of like chicken soup, he said. It might not help much, but it certainly won’t hurt.

Isn’t it true that the Legislature has the power to override existing statutes with the passage of a new statute, Seekins asked.

Well, yes.

A question to readers, then: Is the Murkowski administration in legal hot water for having negotiated a contract outside the bounds of the law?