Knowles signs two coastal zone bills

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

Gov. Tony Knowles signed two bills May 29 changing the state’s coastal zone management program. Senate Bill 308 amends the Alaska Coastal Management Program to allow the state to make consistency determinations in separate phases for a North Slope natural gas pipeline project that parallels the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and the Alaska Highway or a route that runs to Alaska tidewater.

The governor also signed House Bill 439 which eliminates project-specific petitions to the Coastal Policy Council.

The governor’s office said that while the council will no longer hear petitions on specific projects it will “focus on whether a pattern of problems or abuse exists, and take necessary action to ensure proper future decisions.”