A Citizen’s Guide

Three proposals currently before lawmakers appear to do something significantly different from what they were described as doing.

A bill of changes to the Stranded Gas Development Act that the administration described as incomplete could in fact grant blanket authority to the administration to include anything it wants in the proposed contract.

An amendment to the Senate version of that bill is described as granting an oil tax freeze for 14 years and a discretionary freeze after that if the companies haven’t been able to recover enough of their investment. But that “discretionary” phase could apparently be locked in now. Read the rest of this entry »

Something Friday made Sen. Gary Wilken of Fairbanks reach for his calculator.

Sen. President Ben Stevens was saying how disappointed he was at how slow things were moving in Juneau on the pipeline contract. Someone noted the session had been going on for 167 days—120 for the regular session, 30 for the first special session, and another 17 in the second special session—which Sen. Con Bunde said was the longest ever.

“But this is a two-generation project,” thought Wilken, who’s earned a bit of a reputation for making the numbers make sense. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

JUNEAU—The proposed gas pipeline contract fails to sufficiently protect the interests of smaller oil companies, argued representatives from the oil company Anadarko Petroleum Corp. at a Senate meeting Thursday.

Smaller oil and gas producers such as Anadarko could have a hard time getting their gas into the proposed pipeline if the oil companies negotiating the deal decide to build a smaller pipeline than planned or refuse to accommodate inexpensive expansions to the line, they claimed.

Mark Hanley, the company’s public affairs manager for Alaska, said the oil companies’ failure to specify in the contract the size and expandability of the pipeline put up a “red flag” for his company.

“How that pipe is designed is critical,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »

OK, we’ve heard your concerns, the administration says about the pipeline contract’s tax lock-ins.

While the administration hasn’t yet come up with anything that will address those concerns, it is working on it, said Jim Clark, the governor’s chief of staff, on Wednesday.

One proposal it has suggested could help came from Sen. President Ben Stevens, R-Anchorage, during the previous special session. Read the rest of this entry »

JUNEAU–State lawmakers Wednesday took up one of the most controversial parts of the proposed pipeline deal, the agreement to keep oil and gas taxes the same for decades.

In a meeting of the lead committee on natural gas development, administration officials claimed that offering fiscal certainty was common around the world and a critical component of the proposed contract.

“This project has an immensely unusual risk profile,” said Pedro van Meurs, Gov. Frank Murkowski’s lead adviser on oil and gas.

Lawmakers voiced concerns about locking in the taxes, demanded to know what the state got in return, and questioned whether the current provisions were necessary.

“It appears to me that the public is rejecting the original notion of certainty,” said Sen. Con Bunde, R-Anchorage. Read the rest of this entry »