A Citizen’s Guide

The head of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association on Wednesday presented a long list of concerns regarding Gov. Sarah Palin’s new oil tax proposal.

Marilyn Crockett said the proposal could decrease investment in the state by raising the tax burden on companies and scare companies away by presenting an unstable investment climate. She also said it would replace a tax that isn’t broken and has hardly been given a chance to work.

“The industry does not want to have a special session,” she told members of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance at a luncheon in Fairbanks. Read the rest of this entry »

JUNEAU — The oil industry never liked the 22.5 percent net profits tax the state passed last year, and now Gov. Sarah Palin wants that raised to 25 percent.

It’s part of a restructuring plan of the state’s oil production tax Palin announced Tuesday, but one that doesn’t sit well with the state’s largest operator, London-based BP PLC.

Doug Suttles, president for BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., said the state needs to be mindful that too much change would discourage multimillion dollar investments.

Those investments are crucial to extending the life of North Slope production — already in a 6 percent annual decline — by several decades. Read the rest of this entry »