|
Chenault, McGuire, merge in-state bills Team to plan small line for North Slope gas to be headed by AHFC; Alaska Railroad board chairman included; standalone team, ANGDA Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Competing House and Senate bills designed to focus efforts to create an in-state gas pipeline merged April 12 in the Senate Resources Committee with passage of a substitute for House Bill 369. The bill was scheduled in Senate Finance April 15 and appeared to have a chance of passing the Legislature before its April 18 adjournment.
The “Joint In-State Gasline Development Team” established by the bill is tasked with developing an in-state natural gas pipeline plan and delivering that plan to the Legislature by July 1, 2011. The bill requires that the plan be for a line which would be operational by Dec. 31, 2015.
The bill which moved out of Senate Resources reflects the combined efforts of House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, the sponsor of HB 369, and Senate Resources Co-Chair Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, the sponsor of Senate Bill 287.
The committee substitute rolls in provisions of House Bill 44, also sponsored by Chenault, clarifying the authority of the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority and allowing it to issue bonds for energy projects.
AHFC’s Fauske will lead team The in-state gas pipeline effort had been run out of the governor’s office, first by Harry Noah and then by Bob Swenson. The bill changes that position from project manager to coordinator, comparable to the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act coordinator. Like the AGIA coordinator, the in-state gas coordinator is tasked with moving permitting forward.
The development team will be headed by Dan Fauske, executive director and CEO of the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. Fauske was the individual identified — by title — in HB 369 as the head of the development team.
McGuire’s bill, SB 287, would have moved the in-state gas pipeline project to the Alaska Railroad Corp., expanded the railroad’s authority to allow it to buy and sell North Slope natural gas for in-state use, and put its Chief Executive Officer Pat Gamble in charge of the effort.
Then Gamble was named to head the University of Alaska and the Alaska Railroad began the search for a new CEO.
The Alaska Railroad is still on the team, but its chairman, John Binkley, is now the representative, rather than the CEO, along with the CEO of the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority, Harold Heinze, the in-state gas line project coordinator and the commissioner of the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.
Art of compromise Chenault said after the bill passed Senate Resource that conversations about in-state gas had been “long and strenuous at times” and said the compromise on the bills came because “two strong-willed individuals” had the same goal.
“We wanted to ensure Alaskans that we’re serious about in-state gas, that we think it’s a high priority of this Legislature” and want a new way to move forward to obtain the information needed so the Legislature can make a decision, he said.
McGuire said their staffs had been working together for a couple of weeks to put the compromise together and said she and the speaker think they have “merged the best of both bills into a package that we can move forward.”
The Legislature’s 17-member in-state gas caucus was involved, McGuire said, concerned that while AGIA may lead to a bigger line, it may fail, and “we wanted to get something going forward.”
The bill’s timeline calls for the development team to complete a project plan for the Legislature by July 1, 2011, a project that specifies and documents “how an in-state natural gas pipeline can be designed, financed, constructed and made operational” by the end of 2015.
In addition to monthly reports to all legislators, the team will deliver a report by Dec. 15, 2010, detailing any legislation required to advance the project.
AHFC subsidiary Fauske said AHFC brings “a strong team on a variety of project management and finance,” but said he looks forward to working with the development team named in the bill.
A subsidiary will be set up for the project, and Fauske told Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, that AHFC has set up subsidiaries before, and that it is done so that there’s a standalone legal entity handling the work under AHFC. The AHFC board, he said, will oversee the work of the subsidiary as they have other subsidiaries set up in the past.
Fauske said working with legislators “has been a fun process” because of the “excitement that you see from people that are wanting to get involved and try to move something forward.”
Fauske told Senate Resources Co-Chair Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, that a lot of good work has been compiled and he thinks that once the team gets into it they’ll find that most of the work has been done and just needs to be organized. He said he’s looking at bringing in six to seven people and maybe some additional administrative staff, and said there is office space at AHFC for those people.
Sen. Charlie Huggins, R-Wasilla, told Fauske that he liked Fauske’s description of the project as short-term, saying he looked forward to a solution that the team would present, but urged Fauske to include ideas the team looked at and discarded.
Fauske said he envisioned a document that would show the things that were considered, the evaluation that was done on each, and an executive summary of what was s elected.
HB 44 ANGDA CEO Harold Heinze told Senate Resources he was “excited to be part of what I see as a very collaborative process you’ve set up.” He said the ANGDA board was pleased to have AHFC in the “command and control position” on the project. He asked legislators to support the inclusion of HB 44 in the committee substitute and said passage is critical for ANGDA.
He said ANGDA has been trying to deal with some of the shorter-term issues facing the state, and if it can’t act quickly some of those opportunities will slip away.
Heinze said he’s stuck his neck out because of the need, and if the HB 44 language isn’t enacted, he said he’d have to relook at what he’s doing in Cook Inlet probably have to back away.
The HB 44 provisions in the bill allow ANGDA to bring natural gas from areas of the state other than the North Slope to market; add markets in the state to its charge and authorize it to bond up to $250 million “to acquire a gas supply, develop the Cook Inlet and Fairbanks markets, and plan, permit, and design gas transmission systems to mitigate gas shortfalls, the effect on consumers, and the economy of high cost energy, and ensure energy sufficiency for Alaskans.”
| 