|
Variety of industry-related bills prefiled Include RCA extension to 2008 or 2015; money for wind farm on Fire Island; moving Thomson decision to Supreme Court Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
A variety of oil and gas related bills were among prefiled bills released Jan. 5.
Both the House and the Senate have bills which would confer original jurisdiction in the Point Thomson dispute on the Supreme Court; both houses also have bills that would use money from the Railbelt energy fund for a wind farm on Fire Island off Anchorage. And there are two different proposals to extend the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, set to sunset in June: one to 2008 and one to 2015.
House bills • House Bill 30, by Rep. Ralph Samuels, R-Anchorage, confers original jurisdiction on the Alaska Supreme Court for the purpose of providing judicial review of a final decision by the commissioner of Natural Resources terminating an oil and gas unit or lease in an oil and gas unit all or part of which lies north of 68 degrees north latitude, as does Senate Bill 26.
A portion of HB 30 is retroactive to Nov. 26; former DNR Commissioner Mike Menge issued his decision on Point Thomson Nov. 27.
SB 26 does not have a retroactive provision. Both bills would require a two-thirds majority vote in each legislative body.
• HB 46 by Rep. Kurt Olson, R-Kenai, would extend the termination date for the Regulatory Commission of Alaska from June 30, 2007, to June 30, 2008.
• HB 41 by Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, would return “certain duties regarding habitat management from the Department of Natural Resources to the Department of Fish and Game” with an effective date of July 1. The administration of former Gov. Frank Murkowski moved permitting related habitat issues from Fish and Game to DNR.
• HB 53 by Rep. Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla, would exempt low-volume oil production facilities from the requirements for oil discharge prevention and contingency plans and proof of financial responsibility.
Kohring said in a Jan. 4 statement that the bill provides a change in bonding for small operators, those producing less than 501 barrels of oil per day, per well. “We often hear from the big oil companies that a field is not economically viable. For them, using their worldwide formula, it isn’t. However, a mom and pop operation could easily develop these fields and produce small amounts of oil or gas while increasing the amounts available for in-state refining. Many of these people could already be right here in Alaska, meaning the income from our resources stays in state,” Kohring said.
The language in HB 53 refers to “a production facility that produces less than 501 barrels of oil a day,” rather than less than 501 barrels per well per day, and puts that category of oil production into the same category as natural gas production facilities.
According to Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission production records for November, the most recent month available, a facility producing less than 501 bpd would appear to include a number of Cook Inlet fields — Beaver Creek, Redoubt Shoal and Swanson River. Fields with wells that — on average — produce less than 501 bpd, include Trading Bay and West McArthur River in Cook Inlet, and Badami on the North Slope. Operators of those fields include Forest Oil, Chevron and BP.
• HB 56, by Rep. Harry Crawford, D-Anchorage, would establish the Hydrogen Energy Partnership in the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, and require the commissioner “to seek public and private funding for the partnership.” The idea presented in the legislative findings section of the bill is that there is funding available for hydrogen research and development and Alaska would be “an excellent site to attract federal government and industry investment in hydrogen” because of available renewable resources, including “geothermal energy for processing hydrogen at an industrial scale” and because Alaska’s location is good for transport around the Pacific Rim.
• HB 63 by Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Haines, “An Act relating to the alternative energy grant fund and to alternative energy grants,” would establish the alternative energy grant fund.
At the end of each calendar year, if the fund balance is less than $250 million, the Department of Revenue would calculate an amount equal to 10 cents for each barrel of crude oil produced in the state during the year while the average West Coast prevailing value for crude oil is $35 a barrel or higher. The bill says the Legislature “may appropriate” the amount calculated by the department to the alternate energy grant fund, along with any income earned on money in the fund.
The fund could be used to grant money for alternative energy projects determined to be economically viable and that “will result in reduced costs for consumers of the services of the electric utility.” An electric utility would have to provide a match equal to 25 percent of the grant amount to quality for a grant.
Priority would be given “to alternative energy projects located in areas where fossil fuel costs are higher than in other areas of the state.”
• HB 73 by Rep. Harry Crawford, D-Anchorage, makes a special appropriation of $24 million from the Railbelt energy fund to the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development for construction of a wind farm on Fire Island and transmission lines to connect it to existing electrical infrastructure in Anchorage, as does SB 44.
• House Joint Resolution 1 by Rep. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, proposes amending the state constitution to create a gas revenue endowment fund.
Senate bills • Senate Bill 2 by Sen. Gary Wilken, R-Fairbanks, establishes a natural gas revenue fund in the general fund.
“The Department of Revenue shall deposit into the fund 25 percent of all money received by the state from lease rentals, royalties, and royalty sale proceeds for natural gas and from federal mineral revenue sharing payments and bonuses for natural gas,” the bill says.
Money from the fund could be appropriated to the public education fund, then to the Alaska debt retirement fund; on June 30 of each year the unappropriated balance would be transferred to the general fund.
• SB 16 by Sen. Gene Therriault, R-North Pole, extends the termination date for the Regulatory Commission of Alaska from June 30, 2007, to June 30, 2015.
• SB 26, also by Therriault, gives original jurisdiction to the Alaska Supreme Court for the purpose of providing judicial review of a final decision by the commissioner of Natural Resources terminating an oil and gas unit or lease in an oil and gas unit all or part of which lies north of 68 degrees north latitude, as does HB 30.
• SB 44 by Sen. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, would, like HB 73, make a $24 million appropriation from the Railbelt energy fund for construction of a wind farm on Fire Island and transmission lines to connect it to existing electrical infrastructure in Anchorage.
| 