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Legislature begins AGIA license debate
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Alaska Legislature settled down — en masse — June 4 to begin hearing testimony on awarding an AGIA license to TransCanada. The Legislature formally received the administration’s recommendation to award the license June 3 and has 60 days under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act to approve the license.
Presentations, beginning with consultants hired by the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee, are in the Terry Miller Gym, a room large enough to accommodate all members. The administration and TransCanada are up next, with that portion of the proceedings expected to run through June 10.
Then they hit the road: Fairbanks June 12-14; Anchorage June 16-20; Mat-Su June 24; Kenai June 26; and Barrow June 30. Ketchikan is on the schedule, at a date yet to be determined.
When the Legislature reconvenes after the July 4 holiday they will be back in Juneau.
House Speaker John Harris, R-Valdez, said June 3 that while the Legislature could simply let the proposal die — AGIA requires that the Legislature approve a license recommended by the administration — it is his intention to bring the license to a vote in the House. He said he expects members will want to vote and said he’d have to hear an overwhelming sentiment not to vote, from both Republicans and Democrats.
To handle the proceedings for the House John Coghill Jr., R-North Pole, chair of the House Rules Committee, designated a subcommittee with Harris as chair, House Minority Leader Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, as minority member and LB&A Chair and House Majority Leader Ralph Samuels, R-Anchorage, as vice-chair.
The Senate established a 12-member Special Committee on Energy, chaired by Charlie Huggins, R-Wasilla; Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, is vice-chair.
Roundtables planned Samuels said at the hearings that he planned a roundtable of the state’s consultants following their presentation.
When House Rules met June 4 there was discussion about how to get all views aired; the consensus was that a larger roundtable would be held when the Legislature reconvenes in July.
Kerttula said House Democrats have found roundtables very useful in the past and would like to see all of the players assembled to answer questions.
Samuels said he hadn’t had discussions with the producers on a roundtable, but had talked to ConocoPhillips about participating. He agreed with Kerttula and proposed a large roundtable after the road show, with participation by LB&A consultants, administration consultants and TransCanada.
Harris said that would help meet the goal of an “open and transparent process.” A roundtable gives people the opportunity to immediately disagree and if a statement is going to be contradicted, we’d like it to be done immediately, he said.
Harris also noted that although there is a fiscal note, the AGIA bill was not sent to House Finance. There was no appropriation bill attached, he said, so at this point the fiscal notes are “really hollow fiscal notes” based maybe on future appropriations. Since that was the case, he said it wouldn’t have facilitated the process to send the bill to House Finance.
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