A Citizen’s Guide

Interior lawmakers are hosting a public question and answer session today at the Carlson Center. The event will begin at 3 p.m. and run until 7 p.m. or later if necessary.

Sen. Ralph Seekins, R-Fairbanks, said the meeting will be less formal than the public hearings held in May and earlier this month and will offer a chance for residents to ask questions about the contract and state their concerns. “Our intent is to gather public input,” he said.

Seekins said he attended the administration’s public hearing on the proposed contract in Fairbanks but left without a clear sense of which provisions were concerning people and why. This meeting aims to give people an opportunity to clarify concerns and enter into a dialogue with lawmakers.

Comments will not be part of any formal record but will help lawmakers understand residents’ concerns, which legislators can then pass along to the administration, he said. Read the rest of this entry »

JUNEAU—Gov. Frank Murkowski may not need legislative approval to execute a contract to build a natural gas pipeline, according to lawyers for the Legislature.

Attorneys say the courts could strike down a provision in the Stranded Gas Development Act that requires legislative approval of the executive branch contract.

The counsel’s opinion was sought by Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, a critic of the proposed fiscal contract between Murkowski and the three oil companies — ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and BP PLC.

Gara has asked the governor to pledge that he will not move forward on his own if the Legislature rejects the terms of the contract.

“I’m trying to put pressure on the governor to get an answer out of him,” Gara said. Read the rest of this entry »

Sen. Ralph Seekins made the natural gas pipeline a personal issue Tuesday during a Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

“We have to get into the gas economy,” said Seekins, who is chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Natural Gas Development. “If we don’t, we’re going to go broke.”

If the state doesn’t find a way to come up with some cash, residents would have to say good-bye to permanent fund dividends and pull out their checkbooks, he said. The deficit for state employee pensions means every man, woman, and child—including Seekins’ new grandchild—will owe the state $11,000. (Seekins estimated the deficit at $7 billion, and about 664,000 people live in Alaska.) Read the rest of this entry »

To the editor:

I would like to speak in support of Walter Hickel’s article in your June 15 issue and in regard to the current state gas line issue that is more and more prominent in the news these days. Read the rest of this entry »

To the editor:

I would like to encourage the citizens of our area to ask the legislators who are back from the special session to go to the next one and vote to cancel any more discussions until after the November election. We will have a new governor at that time, one who will put Alaska’s best interest first. Read the rest of this entry »

To the editor:

Thursday evening June 8, my wife, Diana, and I attended former Gov. Steve Cowper’s interesting and informative lecture on the proposed Alaska gas pipeline. Afterward, we spoke briefly with him. The conversation went like this.

Me: “Under the proposed contract Alaska will pay 20 percent of the construction costs, so our share will be $4 billion to $8 billion or more, apparently, depending on the cost overruns. But I don’t hear anyone talking about where this money will come from. What is your understanding of where this money will come from?” Read the rest of this entry »