Thoughts on Alaska Oil & Gas

Late last week I put together a piece that attracted some attention.  Entitled “Five things to look for in oil tax reform …,” the piece summarized the important characteristics that I will look for in evaluating various  proposed approaches to oil tax reform this coming legislature.

This week, Casey Reynolds had me on the Casey Reynolds Radio Show for an hour to discuss the piece and go through all five issues, one-by-one.    It is one of the best public discussions on the issue I have been involved with, inside or outside a radio or TV studio. Continue reading →

Mark Johnson, the General Counsel of Chugach Electric Association, Inc., and I are Co-Chairs the week after next (Monday and Tuesday, December 3 and 4) of a two-day conference on Energy in Alaska.  The conference does not focus just on the North Slope, or the Cook Inlet, or the OCS, or oil and gas, or electricity, or the instate energy crisis, or federal, or state issues.

Instead, uniquely among Alaska energy conferences, it covers all of the above, providing a pre-session review of both state and federal issues likely to be of interest in the coming legislative and business years.  I am honored to be serving my third year as Co-Chair of the Conference, the last two with Mark. Continue reading →

The election results from last week have put Alaska Republicans clearly in charge of the Governorship, state House and state Senate for the first time  since 2006, when the Senate coalition was first formed.

As difficult as the election battles may have been, however, the hard work is only now beginning.

Most successful R candidates said during their interviews on local television stations election night that oil tax reform is their highest priority.  The Governor said the same. Continue reading →

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The Fairbanks News Miner editorial page this morning made it official.  The editorial pages of the News Miner, the Anchorage Daily News, the conservative Anchorage Daily Planet (Paul Jenkins and Tom Brennan’s outlet), and Dermot Cole (the News Miner‘s lead columnist), amazingly given their different perspectives, all agree on one thing — Alaskans should Vote NO this coming week on Bonding Proposition A.

The Anchorage Daily Planet actually has doubled down on the issue, editorializing against the bond issue both last week (“Who“) and again today (“We’ll be voting no“). Continue reading →

The commentary in the next piece down expresses my opposition to Bonding Proposition A appearing on the upcoming general election ballot.  Subsequent to that piece, the Anchorage Daily Planet and Fairbanks News-Miner columnist Dermot Cole also have expressed their opposition here (the Planet) and here (Cole).

The Planet also published a link to my commentary.  Today, coming from that link, I received the following note from former (1992-94) Commerce and Economic Development Commissioner Paul Fuhs.  I regularly receive notes on commentaries from readers  and have received an unusual number of others on the column below. With the exception of the note from Fuhs, however, all of the remainder on this piece have supported the position taken in the commentary and indicated that they also intend to oppose the ballot measure. Continue reading →

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In addition to the 59 legislative races that have been — and will continue to be — widely discussed between now and election day, there also are two statewide measures that will appear on the election day ballot.

One is the question, required by the Alaska Constitution to be included on the ballot every ten years, of whether there shall be a new Constitutional Convention called. Continue reading →

With all due respect to those on both sides of the debate, at this point oil reform is only the second most important issue to Alaska’s future.  Right now, reforming Alaska’s fiscal policy should take priority.

Alaska is at a crossroads.  As I have explained elsewhere on these pages, continuing the current levels of state spending will doom future Alaskans to a lower standard of living, either as a result of reduced state goods and services or the need to implement state income, sales and property taxes to sustain them.  As current spending rates, oil reform may delay that result, but it will not change it. Continue reading →