A Citizen’s Guide

Leaders of the state House on Tuesday restated to Gov. Frank Murkowski their opposition to holding another special session on the proposed gas pipeline contract.

“We have personally spoken to a majority of the members on both sides of the aisle and the response was clear; the House does not support reconvening for a third special session,” wrote Speaker John Harris, R-Valdez, and Majority Leader John Coghill, R-North Pole, in a letter to the governor.

The deadline for calling lawmakers back to Juneau on Sept. 19, as Murkowski had proposed, came and went on Monday without a request from the governor. Fifteen days notice is required. Jim Clark, the governor’s chief of staff and chief pipeline negotiator, said the governor held off because of the response from lawmakers.

“We’re not looking to do this over the objections of the members of the House and Senate,” he said.

But according to Clark, the missed deadline doesn’t mean there won’t be a call sometime before Murkowski’s term ends in early December. The administration is meeting with leaders in the Senate today in Anchorage to discuss moving forward.

In their letter to the governor, Coghill and Harris outlined the reasons expressed by House members for opposing the session.

First, they wrote, the primary election showed there was a “strong sentiment for change.” Lawmakers facing their own election battles didn’t want to challenge the will of their constituents by pushing forward with the defeated governor’s plan.

Murkowski placed third in the Republican primary behind two challengers, winning only 19 percent of the vote.

Second, the FBI investigation involving lawmakers and the oil field services company VECO Corp. could create a “perception of influence” on the session’s proceedings.

“Members believe a cooling off period is essential in order to distance the Legislature from this perception of corruption and gives us time to learn what the FBI is truly attempting to accomplish,” they wrote.

Finally, members believe there is not adequate time to make the necessary changes to the proposed contract between the state and the three major oil companies in Alaska.

“After meeting with ConocoPhillips, Exxon and BP last week, it was clear the oil companies want further concessions to offset the results of the production tax passed during the last special session,” they wrote. “It was also clear that the Legislature’s position and the oil companies’ positions are still very far apart and further concessions on both sides will be necessary.”

The two leaders then commended and thanked the governor for his work on the contract and requested that he consider not calling another session.

BP spokesman Daren Beaudo would not confirm or deny whether his company was seeking concessions in the gas contract in response to the passage of an oil tax with higher rates than those BP agreed to. He did say it was necessary to take into account how the new oil tax has changed the overall agreement.

“It was a finely balanced agreement,” he said.

ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil did not comment on the issue Tuesday afternoon.

In an interview Tuesday, Harris said the decision to hold a special session was ultimately up to Murkowski, despite the governor’s saying that it depended on lawmakers’ support. Harris said if Murkowski did call them back, he would sit down with the governor and discuss it.

Coghill said he would be surprised if Murkowski went forward with it after saying he would follow the will of the Legislature. A call would lead to a standoff of wills, he said.

“It could get very ugly at that point,” he said.

Sen. Ralph Seekins, R-Fairbanks, said he was planning to call in or go to Anchorage today to meet with other senators and discuss issues including the gas pipeline. He said the point was to see how Senate members felt about the special session and to get an update on progress with the gas contract. Unless there have been revisions to the contract, there’s no point in holding another special session, he said.

Murkowski has proposed bringing in several lawmakers as “observers” to advise the administration during its negotiations with the oil companies. Clark described their role as telling the administration what lawmakers needed in terms of changes to the proposed contract.

Harris said a working group had not yet been formed and would not be initiated by House leadership.

Seekins, who chairs the Senate Special Committee on Natural Gas Development, said he was not aware of any working group, but said he would be happy to talk with the administration about one. He suggested his 12-member committee would be a good working group.

In the meantime, lawmakers and the governor alike are taking advantage of some time away from Juneau.

Over the weekend, Seekins showed off his riding skills shooting at balloons from atop a horse during a rodeo in Fairbanks; Sen. Gene Therriault, R-North Pole, tried to get some haying done; and Murkowski went duck hunting.

“The governor has gone duck hunting every September 1st since I can remember,” Clark said.

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