Why we write …

This page started out primarily as a one stop source for oil & gas news of interest to Alaska.  That continues to be a focus, with the curated news feeds down the lower right side of this page doing the bulk of that work.   Over the past year, however, the commentaries on the left hand side of the page, and the shorter “Observations & Updates” headlined on the upper right, and printed in full here, increasingly have focused also on fiscal issues.

The reason is that, in Alaska, oil and fiscal policy are inextricably intertwined, given Alaska’s reliance on oil revenues to run the state.  A recent video from the website Understanding Alaska’s Budget does an excellent job of explaining.  As the video explains at the beginning, “Alaska is at a crossroads.”  We write hopefully to help shed some light on the factors that go into deciding which path to follow from here.