A Citizen’s Guide

This apparently important development today, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., regarding the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline, which the Murkowski administration hopes will be built before the Alaska gas line:

The federal government has offered the Dehcho First Nations in the Northwest Territories a surprise land claims and self-government deal, which if accepted would remove a major stumbling block to the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline project.

The full story is available from the CBC here.

Senate President Ben Stevens, R-Anchorage, on Wednesday introduced a resolution creating a special committee on gas development in the Senate. The new committee would include members of the Senate Finance and Resources committees and would be responsible for reviewing the contract.

The committee would include Sens. Lyda Green, R-Wasilla; Gary Wilken, R-Fairbanks; Con Bunde, R-Anchorage; Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River; Bert Stedman, R-Sitka; Tom Wagoner, R-Kenai; Ralph Seekins, R-Fairbanks; and Stevens.

Democrats include Sens. Lyman Hoffman of Bethel, Albert Kookesh of Angoon, Donny Olson of Nome, and Kim Elton of Juneau.

Seekins has been named chairman. Green and Wagoner were named co-chairs. Read the rest of this entry »

JUNEAU—Gov. Frank Murkowski on Wednesday introduced three bills meant to smooth the way for ratification of his contract proposal with three oil companies to develop the North Slope’s natural gas.

One of the bills would amend the state’s Stranded Gas Development Act, the law under which Murkowski has negotiated a deal with ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC for recovering the North Slope’s 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves.

That contract must be approved by the Legislature to become effective. But the deal Murkowski and the companies negotiated goes beyond the scope of the Stranded Gas Development Act, so the governor must first ask lawmakers to change the act to make the contract legal.

The bill would allow the governor to negotiate existing oil and gas tax agreements with the companies as part of a gas deal. Current law now prohibits “significantly altering tax and royalty methodologies and rates on existing oil and gas infrastructure and production.”

Murkowski intends to ask the Legislature to ratify a contract proposal that would freeze the three companies’ tax and royalty rates 30 years for oil and 45 years for gas. Read the rest of this entry »

House Speaker John Harris, R-Valdez, said he expects a House vote on the oil and gas tax bill by June 4.

Lawmakers return to work in the Capitol today after a week off for the Memorial Day period.

The Senate has already passed an oil tax bill with a 22.5 percent tax rate, 20 percent tax credit for some expenses, and a provision that would increase the tax rate 0.1 percent for every dollar per barrel when the price of oil goes above $35 a barrel.

The House will convene today at 11 a.m. If it passes the bill, the Senate must approve any changes made by the House.

To the editor:

I recently had the opportunity to read the stranded gas deal that the governor has just released. I’m not surprised that the governor didn’t want people to read the agreement. Read the rest of this entry »

The Reuters news service reports this evening that former Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles, who has announced his campaign for a return to the job of Alaska governor, wants to “undo” the natural gas line agreement put forward by the current governor.

From Reuters:

“We just need to start from scratch,” said Knowles, a Democrat who served as governor for two four-year terms, from 1994 to 2002.

“(The state needs) to open it up to all parties who express an interest, to lay out conditions under which we want to see it developed and take the best proposal.”

The full story is available here via The New York Times Web site