Senate committee recommends state gas authority funding

The Alaska Senate Resources Committee has recommended $2.15 million in additional funding for the state gas development authority, which says it needs the money soon to complete its planning work for a state-owned liquefied natural gas project.

The committee moved the funding measure, Senate Bill 241, to the Finance Committee for its consideration. No hearings in Finance were scheduled as of Feb. 5.

Board members of the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority have been pushing hard since last fall for the additional money to add to the $350,000 they have already spent this fiscal year. The authority, created by a voters’ initiative in November 2002, has a mid-June deadline to submit its project development plan to the Legislature.

The authority is looking at building a natural gas pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope to Valdez, where it would build an LNG terminal to ship the chilled gas to possible buyers around the Pacific Rim. The project is estimated to cost at least $12 billion.

Resources Committee members Sens. Ralph Seekins, R-Fairbanks, and Kim Elton, D-Juneau, recommended passage of the bill Jan. 28. Sens. Scott Ogan, R-Palmer; Ben Stevens, R-Anchorage; and Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River, signed the bill sheet “no recommendation.”