The Senate bill to close the glaring loophole that enriches billionaire Jeff Hildebrand to the tune of $100 million a year or more moved out of the Senate Resources Committee Wednesday.

The Legislature should have closed the Hilcorp loophole in 2019 when he bought out BP. Since then many hundreds of millions that could have gone to state services, including the Permanent Fund Dividend, went to Hildebrand’s pockets in Texas.

The oil industry propaganda, which is thoughtlessly copied and repeated year after year, never mentions this high-stakes cash flow Outside.

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Tuesday was the perfect day for Randy Ruaro to release the “robust, independent analysis” of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority that was completed more than a year ago and kept secret.

Not because it was April Fools’ Day, but because the Alaska House and Senate held a joint meeting of their state affairs committees.

Legislators should have demanded to see what they received for the $250,000 contract.

Ruaro addressed the topic “What is AIDEA and how does it benefit Alaskans?”

There is no better document to answer that question about benefits than the study prepared for AIDEA and completed more than a year ago by Northern Economics of Anchorage for $250,000.

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The habit of promoters to inflate themselves to the point of bursting with grandiose claims is worrisome, given the half-century history of exploding gas line bubbles.

Glenfarne CEO Brendan Duval said his company operates plants in Louisiana and Texas that have not been built yet.

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Sen. Dan Sullivan, during his speech to the Legislature, exaggerated his role in the passage of the Social Security Fairness Act and didn’t mention that he opposed the bill until it was clear that the measure would be approved by the full Senate.

Sullivan, who is running for reelection in 2026, became a born-again champion of the bill after it was approved.

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Alaska politicians are looking at all this and saying once again that a pipeline is closer than ever. What they aren’t saying out loud is that their new confidence is based on the dream that Trump’s blackmail threats will work.

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Among the renewable energy projects on an Trump hit list is a $50 million grant to back a major energy storage project in Healy for the Golden Valley Electric Association, the news site Popular Information reports.

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There was a lot of competition, Sullivan’s was one of the dumbest statements from anyone in the U.S. government, with Sullivan claiming the contents of the leaked information about attack plans demonstrated the competence of Team Trump.

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Barbara Haney did repeat and amplify Suzanne Downing’s lie that the Fairbanks protest was the work of imported characters brought to the Golden Heart City specially for the occasion.

Haney did this in a limited way on Facebook under her own name and more directly on X, formerly known as Twitter, where she does not use her real name but self-identifies as “Steamboat Landing.”

The Fairbanks protest was “protest tourism” and was “paid for by the 50501 fund—the Bernie Bros,” Haney/Steamboat Landing said.

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Marvin Roberts has won his case against the City of Fairbanks for wrongful conviction. The settlement is $11.5 million.

Here is a press release from his attorney, Fairbanksan Mike Kramer, of the law firm Kramer and Cosgrove.

“I don’t think any amount of money will be enough to justify what I endured as an innocent man in prison,” Roberts was quoted as saying.

“This settlement, however, give me freedom with my life, and most importantly, more time with my daughter and my parents, who supported me throughout the nightmare.”

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The president of the school board and the city mayor complained at length on KFAR Monday about my blog post headlined “Alaska Republicans invent lie that 200 Fairbanks protesters were imported actors.”

In the process, School Board President Melissa Burnett and Mayor David Pruhs misrepresented the contents of that blog post. Now I admit the headline could have been toned down, but nothing in that blog post was inaccurate.

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Fairbanks Assembly Member Barbara Haney promoted this Alaska Republican Party nonsense about someone, somewhere spending tens of thousands of dollars to import 200 Outside actors to take part in a Fairbanks protest.

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Sen. Dan Sullivan said that he’s been through more stressful environments than having elected officials “asking me questions that were clearly drafted from some far left group.”

This comment about questions legislators asked him Thursday tells me that Sullivan is out of touch with a significant number of his constituents and does not understand that many Alaskans are worried about the chaos created by President Trump.

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Speaking to reporters in Juneau Thursday, Sen. Dan Sullivan left no doubt that he blames Sen. Lisa Murkowski for the disastrous decision to put Josh Kindred on the federal bench. He takes no personal responsibility for his role in backing Kindred, wanting Alaskans to forget that Sullivan predicted Kindred would be a fantastic judge.

He did not name Murkowski as he complained about Kindred, just as he did not name federal Judge Sharon Gleason, when he attacked her as doing unimaginable damage to Alaska with rulings he doesn’t like.

He said he has a “red line” that he won’t cross when it comes to supporting new judges and that he will block anyone he thinks will be like Gleason.

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Though he has refused invitations to take place in town hall meetings in Alaska, Sen. Dan Sullivan will be the keynote speaker Friday at a Republican Lincoln Day banquet with a $100 per person charge at Pike’s Landing in Fairbanks.

There will be a free protest outside the venue from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Sullivan prefers speaking to people who agree with him, but the Musk/Trump regime has many people in Alaska deeply worried about the future of the nation.

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In selecting future trustees of the Alaska Permanent Fund, the state should consider looking Outside of Alaska for candidates, according to a 7-page memo prepared by a consultant to Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

“An expanded geographic scope may provide a broader field of candidates for consideration who have relevant expertise,” the $450,000 report from Alyssa DaCunha and Bejamin Neaderland of WilmerHale says.

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Sen. Dan Sullivan’s stonewalling deprives Alaskans of any knowledge of what he is doing behind the scenes to evade the more open and traditional process that Sen. Lisa Murkowski is using to consider names of applicants to be forwarded to the president for consideration.

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Alaska’s senators know better, but they have attached their names to a letter to the Trump administration that claims “four years of inaction and squandered time” by the Biden administration prevented construction of an Alaska natural gas pipeline.

I don’t know if Rep. Nick Begich the Third, who also signed the letter, understands that the claim is a lie.

The thrust of the argument from Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan and Nick the Third is that by failing to set up federal regulations to qualify for a federal loan guarantee the Biden administration stopped the project.

Sullivan has lied on a separate document that it is a priority to “reverse the Biden administration black-balling” of the federal loan guarantee program.

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“We all want this war to end, but it cannot end on Russia’s terms,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Tuesday.

“If it does, we should expect nothing more than a temporary respite before the resumption of hostilities. Why are we going to start trusting and believing Putin’s word now, given his track record? We’ve seen this before and the appeasement of tyrants does not bring peace. Russia started this conflict and it’s critical for us to stand with Ukraine to end it, not just because it’s right, but because it’s necessary.”

And what of Sen. Dan Sullivan?

His new position is that whatever Trump says on Ukraine and Russia is correct, regardless of whether Trump is contradicting himself, lying or catering to Putin.

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The bill to reduce oil tax credits from a maximum of $8 per barrel to $5 per barrel is one step toward erasing the state deficit and providing the money needed to adequately fund public education.

The change will not mean a drastic cut in the profitability of the North Slope oil companies, according to research the Dunleavy revenue department did in 2021 before proposing this as an option.

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It has long been obvious that the Dunleavy administration does not have a coherent agriculture policy, going back to his 2019 vetoes and the layoffs of 20 employees.

It’s also obvious that the Legislature should reject the Dunleavy executive order creating a new ag department until there is a plan for something other than an nearly empty shell.

Dunleavy has not produced a coherent plan to do anything or pay for anything that needs to be done. All we have is a bumper crop of weasel words.

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