The former temporary budget director for Gov. Mike Dunleavy is back, hired by Rep. Ben Carpenter, the right-wing Kenai Republican who leads the committee that will allegedly figure out the future of state finances. Donna Arduin didn’t belong on the state payroll in 2019. And she doesn’t belong on it now.
Read MoreWhen Dunleavy said, “I need Alaska to say yes to everything,” he confirmed what has been clear during his first four years as governor—he will say yes to every development project without stopping to think or asking anything in return. He did admit this during either of his campaigns for governor and would probably have denied it had someone made the accusation.
Read MoreGov. Mike Dunleavy introduced his carbon management bills to the Legislature, but the fiscal notes attached to his bills do not use the word “billion” or even “million” about future revenues. They contain no revenue numbers for the next five years.
“Revenues are not specifically estimated because of the market and timeline uncertainty for carbon offset projects,'“ the fiscal notes say.
Read MoreThe right-wing majority on the Borough Assembly refused to allow another member to quote from the newsletters of right-winger Lance Roberts before voting 5-4 to place him on the nonpartisan assembly board of ethics. Presiding Officer Aaron Lojewski claimed Roberts could be fair and impartial.
Read MoreWhen Gov. Mike Dunleavy championed a 41 percent cut in state funds to the University of Alaska budget in 2019—a budget wrecking ball that did lasting damage— Bethany Marcum, a former Dunleavy employee he has just named to the UA regents, was all for it.
Read MoreGov. Mike Dunleavy populated his State of the State speech with straw men and the word “people,” which he repeated 40 times.
Read MoreIt was less than two weeks ago that Gov. Mike Dunleavy said that carbon sequestration “has a very real potential of bringing revenue to the State of Alaska to the tune of millions, if not billions, of dollars.”
But 12 days have passed and Dunleavy has a bigger sales pitch.
Forget about the measly millions. Experts that he won’t name are saying we are talking billions from promising not to cut down trees, the painless cure to state finances.
Read MoreAt long last the borough climate action committee meets Tuesday at 6 p.m. Four of the members have submitted comments about revisions they want in the draft plan. The most valuable are from scientist Terry Chapin and Borough Mayor Bryce Ward.
Read MoreKelly Tshibaka, who is acting as if her next act will be to run against Rep. Mary Peltola for Congress, is trying to keep herself in the public eye with a new nonprofit she has started called “Preserve Democracy.”
She will portray herself as a victim of ranked choice voting, while raising money and generating publicity Outside, trying to preserve her political options in Alaska and claiming that ranked choice voting is a threat to democracy.
Read MoreThe Dunleavy administration has refused to explain how it intends to generate $7 billion in new revenue over the next decade, though it released a state budget forecast saying the money will begin to appear starting next summer, rising to $900 million a year by 2027.
The Senate Natural Resources Committee plans a hearing Wednesday at 4 p.m. that may inject a sense of reality into the carbon capture and sequestration plans that Gov. Mike Dunleavy is promoting as a painless cure to state budget problems.
Read MoreThe uncertain future of Cook Inlet natural gas supplies has the Interior Gas Utility turning its focus to the North Slope and a proposed 20-year contract with Harvest Midstream, a company owned by Hilcorp. Liquefied natural gas would be shipped to Fairbanks by truck.
Read MoreHank Nuwer, the new managing editor of the Daily News-Miner, is a veteran author and teacher from Indiana who has long owned 15 acres outside of Tok.
Read MoreThe near-term revenue prospects for the state from carbon sequestration are signifiant, but not in the billions or the hundreds of millions, according to a state consultant’s report that is happily devoid of the over-aggressive sales pitch that Gov. Mike Dunleavy has adopted. The report calls for three pilot projects that would bring the state about $8 million a year.
Read MoreCarbon sequestration holds potential as an income source for Alaska. Gov. Mike Dunleavy is right about that. But Dunleavy keeps overselling this as a miracle money machine that will cost the state nothing to get going and will generate enormous returns in short order, $7 billion over the next decade.
Read MoreThe proposal by the EPA this week to reject key parts of the state air plan comes against the backdrop of a fifth federal lawsuit filed against the agency because it has missed deadline after deadline in coming up with a workable plan over many years.
Read MoreEPA questions the state claim that modifications to existing power plants are not feasible because they are so expensive. This has serious implications for the Fairbanks area. The health consequences of breathing polluted air also have serious implications for the Fairbanks area.
Read MoreI’ll say this much for the effort to overturn the Two Rivers fire service election—the proposed assembly ordinance makes it clear that this is not about election irregularities, a mistake in a newspaper story or any of the other excuses invented to disguise the truth.
Read MoreUnder the guise of protecting property rights, Tammie Wilson and Jimi Cash are taking aim at a key provision in local law that makes Fairbanks more livable, raises property values and protects local trails for hiking, running, mushing, skiing, snowmaking and all-terrain vehicles.
Read MoreSince the sale of BP’s Alaska assets to Hilcorp, Gov. Mike Dunleavy has done nothing to fix a glaring loophole in state tax law, which has made it easy for the Legislature to do nothing, a government failure that amounts to an annual gift of tens of millions or hundreds of millions a year to HIlcorp owner Texas billionaire Jeff Hildebrand.
Read MoreAlaskan John Reeves, who never tires of stirring the pot, is trying to set off a “bone rush” in New York City for a valuable load of mammoth tusks from Fairbanks that was dumped in the East River in 1940.
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