A Citizen’s Guide

JUNEAU–Senate President Ben Stevens, R-Anchorage, proposed Friday to let the public vote on the gas pipeline contract in place of the Legislature, which he suggested was unlikely to approve the contract this year.

“It’s my position,” he told the Senate committee studying the proposal, “that we’re at a logjam here.”

Stevens’ plan calls for a quick legislative ratification of the contract before the Aug. 10 close of the special session and an Aug. 18 deadline to get the measure on the ballot this fall.

Stevens said lawmakers had become mired in the complexities of the contract and so far have been unwilling to make a decision on the contract despite a public will to move forward.

Notwithstanding the uncertainties remaining in the contract, it would be better to act now than risk delaying the project for years, he said.

“It’s my personal belief that a decision is good,” he said.

Sen. Ralph Seekins, R-Fairbanks, who chairs the committee, voiced his support for the concept but put off consideration of the proposed amendment until Monday.

Other lawmakers questioned whether the amendment did what Stevens said it did. By passing the amendment, which would change the law used to negotiate the contract with BP, ConocoPhillips, and Exxon Mobil to develop North Slope natural gas, lawmakers could in fact be approving the contract, according to Sen. Gene Therriault, R-North Pole.

At Friday’s meeting of the Senate Special Committee on Natural Gas Development, Stevens expressed frustration that lawmakers have not acted faster on the proposed contract and related legislation.

“All we hear about is issues and problems and reasons why not to act,” he said.

Stevens acknowledged the “immense complexity” of the contract and the uncertainties it put on the state, along with the certainties it provided. If lawmakers spent another two years working on the contract, they might come up with something better, he said.

But problems can be worked out later, he said, and the state should not give up the best opportunity it’s ever had to develop North Slope gas reserves.

“The point is there’s a contract and there’s a project,” he said. If lawmakers want the contract to move this year, they should consider the amendment, which he said would allow voters to approve it in the Nov. 7 general election.

At a press conference later, Stevens claimed that lawmakers had split into groups–some supporting an all-Alaska pipeline, some swayed by election politics, and some favoring a pipeline built by an independent company–and might never be able to come together on the pipeline contract.

“It’s time for Alaskans to have the opportunity to say move forward or start over,” he said. Any lawmakers voting against the amendment would be denying voters that right.

Seekins also expressed his views at the press conference.

“I think there’s great wisdom in this approach,” he said.

Seekins noted the trust his constituents have placed in him and described the work he and other lawmakers have put into studying the contract and determining what lies in the state’s best interest.

But the public has opinions about the issue, he said, and there is merit in allowing Alaskans to decide about the contract.

Seekins said he still had concerns about the contract and was eager to see the administration’s changes to it. He said Stevens’ proposal would still allow lawmakers to shape the contract through amendments to the Alaska Stranded Gas Development Act.

He also said he would not let voters vote on the contract as it was proposed in early May.

Seekins and Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, who voiced his support for the amendment at the press conference, were asked how they could support a public vote on the contract but effectively block the public’s vote on a ballot initiative to tax undeveloped gas reserves. (The contract would exempt the companies from the reserves tax.)

Seekins responded that exemption from the reserves tax was necessary to attract investors to the project.

During the committee meeting, Lyda Green, R-Wasilla, raised the concern that if the vote went to the public, massive amounts of money would be spent trying to sway public opinion, which she said could be dangerous.

Therriault, who is not on the committee, questioned the logic of the proposal and whether the amendment as written would do what Stevens said.

“(The proposal) asks the public to evaluate this very complicated contract and just say yes or no,” he said. “I’m not sure how that would go.”

He said it was clear that Alaskans wanted changes to the contract and less clear they wanted a bundled package dumped in their lap.

But Therriault also said the amendment seemed to approve the contract without the public’s vote. One section, which would take effect immediately and is not contingent on a public vote, says the provisions of the proposed contract “are approved and ratified.”

When asked about it, Stevens said the provisions of the contract were not the same as the contract itself.

“It’s the provisions. It doesn’t say the whole thing,” he said. “There’s no way that I would intend to slip something like that in.”

Therriault said he would need to know the difference.

The amendment would also authorize any “inconsistency” between the contract and the Stranded Gas Act if the public voted to approve the contract.

Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, also questioned whether the public’s vote was required and said he suspected the administration had played a role in the amendment.

“I see this as a recognition that the Legislature will vote no,” Ramras said.

Jim Clark, the governor’s chief of staff and chief pipeline negotiator, said he saw the amendment for the first time at the committee meeting Friday. He said the administration would consider anything that moves the project forward and that Stevens’ argument had “merit.”

“We do trust the public,” he said.

BP spokesman Daren Beaudo called the proposal an “interesting concept.” He said BP has found wide support from Alaskans for the project during outreach across the state.

“We’re getting a resounding message from them that they want the contract to move forward,” he said. “Everyone is jazzed about a pipeline.”

In urging action, Stevens echoed calls made by Gov. Frank Murkowski and his administration.

“There’s absolutely no excuse to put off this decision,” said the governor at his own press conference Friday in Juneau.

Stevens also proposed shortening the period the state would freeze its gas taxes from 45 years to 35 years. That proposal was quickly accepted by the committee.

Stefan Milkowski can be reached at smilkowski@newsminer.com or 459-7577.