HB 77 comes to a halt in Senate Resources

House Bill 77, the proposed legislation aimed at streamlining the permitting of resource development projects, is dead, at least for this year’s legislative session. The bill had been reviewed by the Senate Resources Committee but on April 3 Sen. Cathy Giessel, the committee chair, announced that, given the controversy surrounding the bill, she had decided to hold the bill in the committee indefinitely.

“What began as an efficiency permitting bill has morphed into a heated debate and it’s driving Alaskans apart,” Giessel said. “It is clear that this bill raised a lot of concern among constituents and at this point there doesn’t seem to be a resolution.”

Dubbed “The Silencing Alaskans Act” by some environmental groups, criticized by opponents as potentially subverting the public comment process for permit approval, and slammed by some Native groups as undermining traditional rights to water use, the bill would allow the administration to issue general permits for some resource development activities, would make some changes to the law relating to appeals over agency permitting decisions and would also change the law relating to the reservation or sale of water in the state.

The House passed the bill during the 2013 legislative session but the bill subsequently stalled in the Senate. During the current legislative session Gov. Sean Parnell introduced a new version of the bill, which the state administration said addressed the concerns raised in 2013. But, with a storm of objections to the new bill version voiced during a public hearing arranged by Senate Resources, and with a number of senators still expressing misgivings over the bill, it appears that Alaskans remain sharply divided in their response to the bill’s proposals.

—Alan Bailey