A Citizen’s Guide

JUNEAU–A bill introduced by Gov. Frank Murkowski relating to the proposed natural gas pipeline is puzzling lawmakers and has led to a questioning of the administration’s motives.

“It just seems really weird,” said Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, during a hearing Tuesday of the House Judiciary Committee.

The bill, which would amend the law used to negotiate the contract with BP, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil, differs significantly from a version introduced during the last special legislative session.

A consultant hired by the Legislature suggested earlier this month in a memo that the bill could be an attempt to bring the law into compliance with the proposed contract in one fell swoop rather than piece by piece, as the previous version would have done.

The administration denied Tuesday that that was its intent. Read the rest of this entry »

The Alaska Gasline Port Authority will present its plan for a North Slope natural gas project to a special Senate committee next week.

News of the presentations, scheduled for Aug. 3 and 4 in Juneau, comes one month after an invitation to the port authority from the committee’s chairman to present its plan.

Port authority chairman Jim Whitaker said Interior senators and his group agreed Wednesday morning to basic terms for the meetings–that the port authority be involved in preparing economic models and that the meetings follow a round-table format used by the committee earlier this month for a gas pipeline project proposed by Gov. Frank Murkowski.

“We want a fair assessment,” Whitaker said. “That was the only basis on which we were prepared to proceed.”

Members of the Senate Special Committee on Natural Gas Development are getting started on a special legislative session in Juneau. Read the rest of this entry »

JUNEAU–Sen. Gene Therriault met the deadline to comment on the gas pipeline deal by a minute. He couldn’t get the flight he wanted, ended up e-mailing himself from an airport manager’s computer and edited his remarks to the commissioner of the Department of Revenue on a plane to Juneau.

At 4:59 p.m. Monday, Therriault, R-North Pole, submitted 51 pages of concerns about the gas pipeline contract–the deal the state has negotiated with BP, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil to develop North Slope gas reserves.

Therriault is worried about the proposed contract’s lack of firm work commitments, its process for resolving disputes among parties and its requirement to take taxes and royalties as gas and not cash. He also said oil taxes should be left out of the gas contract.

And, he noted Wednesday, “This contract doesn’t guarantee a pipeline.”

Other Interior lawmakers have concerns, too, but chose to make them known in other ways. Sen. Gary Wilken, a Republican from Fairbanks, was working on written comments Wednesday. Read the rest of this entry »

JUNEAU–Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker brought about the ire of lawmakers Tuesday with a column criticizing the conduct of three state representatives.

In the column, Whitaker, who is also chair of the Alaska Gasline Port Authority, named three lawmakers whom he argued “played fast and loose” with rules relating to conflict of interest and thereby showed they could not be trusted to “place the public good above their private interests.”

The column appeared Friday in the Anchorage Daily News and Tuesday in the Juneau Empire. It is printed today in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Read the rest of this entry »

It would take more than this editorial page to chronicle the achievements on behalf of Alaska by Jack Coghill and Vic Fisher. Both were delegates to the Alaska Constitutional Convention and deserve great respect for what they have done for Alaska.

Now my friends are questioning the Alaska Highway natural gas pipeline contract we have been negotiating for more than two years and have before the Alaska Legislature for consideration. Read the rest of this entry »

Legislators who play fast and loose with their rules are likely to do the same with your rights and resources. Reps. Mike Hawker, Kevin Meyer and Mike Chenault have played fast and loose with the governing rules of the Legislature.

Mason’s manual of legislative procedure states: It is a general rule that no one can vote on a question in which he has a direct personal or pecuniary (financial) interest. In recognition of this maxim, Rule 34(b) of the Alaska Legislature’s Uniform Rules advises legislators to declare any conflicts of interest they may have and ask to be allowed to abstain from voting on those issues. Read the rest of this entry »