This is no breakthrough. AGDC couldn’t reach this point without a state promise to pick up the tab for the $50 million planning phase of the gas pipeline. If the pipeline company pulls the plug, it will get all of its money back.
Read More
Perhaps Nick Begich the Third is trying to cultivate an image as a Trump-like tough guy, when he is just a rude freshman seeking attention.
“Joe Biden is a son of a bitch,” the freshman House member announced on Elon Musk’s social media website.
I’m surprised he didn’t challenge him to a duel.
Read MoreIf there is one positive element about the failure to name a sixth trustee, it is a reminder that the current structure in state law for guidance of Alaska’s most important financial institution is out of date.
Read More
The political chasm between Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan has been best illustrated over the last four yeas by their conflicting approach to the confirmation of federal judges for lifetime appointments.
Murkowski voted to confirm 160 district and circuit judges appointed by Biden, while Sullivan voted for 2.
Read More
While staffing shortages have received national attention and have been a problem across Alaska, we need to hear from the governor about the real decline in state services on his watch, what he’s doing to fix the growing problems, the impact on Alaskans and how much it will cost to turn things around. He hasn’t provided a recovery plan
Read More
As the calendar closes on 2024, I can tell you the high points for me took place in late November and early December.
Read MoreThe idea is not to draw from AIDEA’s hundreds of millions in cash reserves to potentially pay for a gas pipeline study, but to get the Legislature to add $50 million to AIDEA’s cache of $600 million.
It turns out that AIDEA, AGDC and the Dunleavy administration did not tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the $50 million.
They will be asking legislators for forgiveness, not permission. I doubt they will get it.
Read More
“The window for making decisions is closing,” says Bob Pickett, a longtime member of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.
“If things just sort of slide and there’s no leadership, and we’re in the same position 12 months from now, we are looking at a dire, dire, situation. And people should get angry.”
Herz mentions how the potential shortfall in fuel supplies has the natural gas utility, the electric utilities, regulators and legislators worried about the immediate future.
Indecision is the biggest problem right now.
Read MoreThe Alaska Industrial Development & Export Authority continues to claim that the $250,000 “independent economic analysis” of AIDEA can be kept secret because it is a draft and not subject to the public records law.
Randy Ruaro, the executive director of AIDEA, has denied my appeal of the agency’s refusal to release the report. The report was supposed to be released in late 2023.
Ruaro said if I want the document my only option is to appeal to Alaska Superior Court.
Read More
Before the vote, Sullivan’s office sent form letters to Alaskans in which Sullivan highlighted his reservations about the bill championed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who worked on the idea for more than 20 years.
Sullivan refused to answer questions from reporters about the bill, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
“Spokesperson Amanda Coyne instead shared a statement prepared last month, indicating Sullivan favored a more tailored response from the Social Security Administration ‘to find an Alaska solution for Alaskan public servants,’” the Daily News reported.
Read More
Announcing the creation of a new department, the cost of which will exceed $20 million, will do nothing for agriculture and food security unless there is leadership from the governor, backed by a larger financial commitment from the Legislature for research, marketing, farm development programs, business initiatives and infrastructure.
Unfortunately, Dunleavy’s empty Office of Food Security is the clearest sign of what to expect.
Read More
The U.S. Congress deleted a provision in the defense authorization act that would have required the Interior Secretary to approve a 211-mile road to the Ambler mining district from the Dalton Highway within 30 days.
Read More
A 1-gigawatt computer data center—on the low end of the Dunleavy vision for power—would require more than twice as much electricity than what could been drawn from the 700-foot Susitna River dam that was never built. A gigawatt is 1,000 megawatts.
Read More
Gov. Mike Dunleavy asked Donald Trump to reverse a wide range of Biden Administration policies with an executive order on his first day in office, create an Alaska task force, and hire six new high-level political employees to make things happen within agencies.
The Dunleavy Six would personify redundancy, as they would be hired to “oversee the implementation of each action directed by the Executive Order,” duties that other people are already getting paid for.
Read MoreIf a pipeline is built, according to Wood MacKenzie, “Fairbanks could change to gas for energy/heat needs. We assume 90 percent penetration with a 3-year transition. (2031-2033.)”
Does that mean 90 percent of buildings within the city? Or 90 percent of buildings in the borough? What is the cost of building the infrastructure to serve 90 percent of either?
Read MoreThe state may install traffic cameras next summer at 82 Anchorage intersections that don’t have cameras as a safety move.
The idea is that the presence of cameras will motivate drivers to not leave the scene of an accident.
Read More
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is again asking the Legislature to buy a high-performance $6.5 million turboprop airplane that the Swiss manufacturer claims is the “most versatile and valued business aircraft in the world.”
The proposed budget calls for buying a Pilatus PC-12 NG, which is mainly used around the world for business transportation, as well as by small airlines, governments and law enforcement agencies.
But if the state plans to buy the current version of the aircraft, it will be a PC-12 NGX, which the company began selling in 2019 to replace the PC-12 NG, the older model.
Read MoreGov. Mike Dunleavy says the first thing the Alaska Legislature should do on the budget in 2025 is approve a $50 million transfer to the Alaska Industrial Development & Export Authority to pay the potential cost for a gasline study.
This is urgent, according to Dunleavy, which is why it is the major element in his so-called “fast track’ supplemental budget.
AIDEA doesn’t need the money.
Instead of giving more to AIDEA, the Legislature should be looking at tapping into the AIDEA cash reserves of more than $600 million to reduce the deficit and pay for state services.
Read More
I know exactly how the 2025 Legislature will cut $50 million from the proposed “fast track” supplemental budget released by Gov. Mike Dunleavy Thursday.
The money to cut without worry is the $50 million that Dunleavy claims the Alaska Industrial Development & Export Authority needs to pay for a promise that AIDEA made on December 4.
The only other item in the fast track supplement is $15 million for disaster relief funds.
The AIDEA bailout is a disaster of a different kind.
Read More