Legislation would formalize proposed ACMP, DNR changes

Kristen Nelson, PNA editor-in-chief

Gov. Frank Murkowski sent bills to the Legislature March 12 to reform and streamline the Alaska Coastal Management Program and to designate the Department of Natural Resources as the lead state agency in the permitting of resource development projects in the state.

House Bill 191 (Senate Bill 143), the governor said in his transmittal letter, “is premised upon the statutory changes contained in Executive Order 106,” which transfers responsibility for the ACMP from the Division of Governmental Coordination in the governor’s office to DNR.

The ACMP was enacted in 1977, the governor said, so that the state could participate in the federal Coastal Zone Management act of 1972. The goal of HB 191, he said, “is to create a new coastal management program that retains the benefits of the federal act but eliminates the duplication and complexity built into the present ACMP” by “choosing the simplest of the three management techniques allowed by the federal act.”

The legislation eliminates the Alaska Coastal Policy Council and creates a Coastal Program Evaluation Council to report to the governor on the implementation of the reforms. That council sunsets July 1, 2005.

House Bill 192 (SB 142) designates DNR as the lead state agency in permitting of resource development projects. “In recent years,” the governor said in his transmittal letter, “the laws governing resource development have proliferated, and there are now more agencies than ever with permitting authority over large projects. Resource development should not be held up by the sheer complexity of government.”

The governor said the bill authorizes DNR “to lead and coordinate the permitting activities of all agencies with jurisdiction over the project.”

An accompanying DNR fiscal note says DNR would establish an Office of Project Management and Permitting to lead and coordinate. It would have five project managers and coordinators; two of the positions would be established in this fiscal year.