Category Archives: Immediate Reactions

As SB 21 moves from the Senate to the House for consideration some will suggest various changes that should be made while in the House.  One set of changes that should be made is to the membership of the “Oil & Gas Competitiveness Review Board,” a proposal offered and championed by Senator McGuire during the bill’s  time in the Senate.

I have long been a supporter of such a Review Board and believe I was in the room when it was first discussed.  Indeed, one of the earliest pieces I wrote on Alaska oil & gas policy was in support of adopting such a proposal.  (“Alaska’s Future:  Sen. McGuire’s Proposed Competitiveness Review Is Important,” Feb. 10, 2011).

But the proposed membership in this version is not the same as when the Board was first discussed and the change is for the worse.  As the bill travels through the House, the membership of the Board should be modified to reflect a broader constituency. Continue reading →

The Senate and House Finance Committees met jointly this morning to hear from Dr. Scott Goldsmith of the University of Alaska Anchorage Institute of Social & Economic Research (ISER).  Dr. Goldsmith is the author of “Maximum Sustainable Yield:  FY 2014 Update,” the ISER study which outlines an approach to moving toward a sustainable budget for Alaska. Continue reading →

Today’s papers are full of articles about the coming vote Monday in the Senate on oil tax reform.  The best of the batch (i.e., most fact rich) to me is Juneau Empire reporter Mark Miller’s “Senators preparing for oil tax bill vote,” but there are additional updates as well in the Anchorage Daily News,  Alaska Dispatch and APRN.

The Senate should pass the bill forwarded Thursday from the Senate Finance Committee.  Looking at the current prospects across the North Slope, the bill likely will result in a badly needed near-term uptick in short-term, productive investment. Continue reading →

From time to time I use a second blog — Observations and Updates:  A Companion to Thoughts on Alaska Oil & Gas — for posts.  Normally, posts on that blog are more about upcoming talk radio and other appearances, but sometimes, especially when I have a post on this blog that I want to keep at the top for a few days, I will post more substantive pieces.

Readers of this blog are able to follow the posts on the second by paging down the right hand side of this blog to the box headed “The Last Five from Observations & Updates.”  Readers also are able to follow posts made to that blog by subscribing via email or RSS feed (both available down the right side of the front page of that blog). Continue reading →

Today (February 26) is Johnny Cash’s birthday.  He would have been 81.  My first concert, lifetime.

Of many pieces over a long, long career, among his last and perhaps his most powerful is available by clicking on the picture.

The Senate Resources Committee on Friday (February 22) took up the first Committee Substitute (CS) for SB 21.  The working draft the Committee reviewed is available here.  A webcast of the hearing is available here.  The slide decks used by the consultants in analyzing the proposed change in tax rates are in the hearing folder, available here.

The CS proposes modifications of the Governor’s original bill primarily in five areas .  Those areas are: Continue reading →

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark, from BC’s Liberal Party, announced Tuesday that BC will impose a tax on LNG sales, taking part of the revenue that producers anticipate receiving in exporting BC gas to the Pacific Rim.

According to an article yesterday in the Vancouver Sun, “[t]he new tax is expected to play an essential role in building Clark’s promised Prosperity Fund …. Clark has said the fund, which is also financed from natural gas royalties and corporate tax income from the LNG industry, could amass more than $100 billion over 30 years.” Continue reading →

Casey Reynolds asked me to join him on his talk radio show this morning to discuss yesterday’s analysis by the Legislative Finance Division of the Governor’s proposed FY 2014 budget and the fiscal issues that face the state this coming legislative session.  

While preparing to join the show earlier this morning , I wrote briefly about the Leg Finance report .  My summary: Continue reading →

Paul Jenkins, from the Anchorage Daily Planet,  is sitting in as guest host this week on The Mike Pocaro Radio Show and asked me to join him yesterday (1.9.2013) afternoon to talk about Alaska fiscal policy.  The Planet had editorialized earlier in the day (“More Swell News“) on the report on Alaska fiscal policy released last week by the University of Alaska’s Institute for Social and Economic Research (“Maximum Sustainable Yield:  FY 2014 Update“).

The Daily Planet’s editorial concluded: Continue reading →

In an editorial Sunday, the Fairbanks News-Miner focused on fiscal reform, the issue that, in my opinion, is the most important this coming legislative session (yes, even more important than oil tax reform, although that is a close second).

I have only one disagreement with the editorial — the assertion that “the crisis is not yet upon us.”   As the graphic from the ISER study discussed in the editorial makes clear, the deficits are clearly in sight and the only time to address them is now, while oil revenues remain relatively high.  But other than for that matter of perspective, the News-Miner gets it.  The full editorial follows: Continue reading →