Permitting moratorium

Dunleavy chooses Corri Feige for DNR commissioner, receives standing ovation

Kay Cashman

Petroleum News

Receiving a standing ovation at the end of his announcements, Gov.-elect Mike Dunleavy named former Division of Oil and Gas Director Corri Feige to head the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and said he would ask outgoing Gov. Bill Walker to put a freeze on the creation of any new state permitting regulations until the new administration is in place.

Dunleavy, a Republican, made the announcements during a Resource Development Council conference in Anchorage on Nov. 14 in which he repeated that Alaska would be “open for business” under “our administration,” crediting his win to people in the room and Alaskans who cast their votes in the Nov. 6 general election, which gave him 52 percent of the vote, 8 percent more than his lead contender.

Dunleavy said he would ask Gov. Bill Walker’s administration to halt the creation of any new regulations across state departments until he takes office on Dec. 3.

He said Walker indicated he was willing to work with Dunleavy on the transition and was hopeful about Walker’s response.

A Walker spokesman told the Associated Press following Dunleavy’s RDC speech that the outgoing administration had had no plans to implement new regulations that would restrict resource development.

Dunleavy closed by reiterating his desire to further develop the state’s natural resources as a way to create jobs and boost the economy. He said the focus would be to “reform” regulations in a way to help streamline the process for developers of all resources, including oil and gas, mining, tourism and fishing.

Speaking to reporters, Feige mentioned looking at regulations and existing programs as the new administration seeks to maximize resource development.

Feige has spent her 34-year career, 21 of those in Alaska, working in the energy sector. A geophysicist and engineer, she has more than 20 years of management-level experience. During her 21 years in Alaska she has worked for and on behalf of small and mid-size independents, looking to level the playing field with the major oil companies in the state and advancing conventional and non-conventional energy projects on the North Slope, Cook Inlet and Southwest Alaska, In April 2015 when Walker appointed her director of the Division of Oil and Gas, which falls under DNR, the agency said her company management positions had been with Pioneer Natural Resources and Linc Energy.

Feige also owned a consulting group involved in energy projects such as independent Malamute Energy’s Umiat prospect and Evergreen Resources Alaska’s coalbed project.

DNR said her skills included project management, permitting, government and regulatory affairs, stakeholder relations and remote Alaska logistics.

Before coming to Alaska, Feige worked as a geophysicist on exploration programs around the world.

Brain drain: Myers, Rutherford, Feige walk

At the time several legislators, Democrats and Republicans alike, such as Andy Josephson and Mike Chenault referred the three resignations as serious talent losses for the state of Alaska.

In an October 2016 interview, chair of the Arctic Council and former two-term Senate President Drue Pearce spoke to Petroleum News about the resignations of Myers, Rutherford and Feige. A former member of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. board, Pearce said “I think all of these losses are indicative of what concerns me with the administration and the governor’s approach … to the gas line. He has world-class people and then he doesn’t listen to them. I do know Mark Myers, I know Marty and I know Corri, and I know others who have not been allowed to stay including my fellow board members who were thrown out when the governor threw me out. … He dismantled a world-class team, and like I said, that team had made tremendous progress. … He’s had five or six different people in charge of AKLNG since he came into office and he hasn’t been in office more than two years. It seems that the governor is single minded, laser focused on building a pipeline.”

During Feige’s tenure at the division, the state maintained its push for more information from top North Slope companies on plans to support a future potential major gas sale.

Walker has been pursuing a liquefied natural gas project and state-sanctioned AGDC has been courting Chinese partners as part of that effort. Most recently AGDC created the holding company 8-Star Alaska LLC. The state owns AGDC, which in turn owns 8-Star Alaska, where it will keep any equity investments it gets and remain a tax-exempt entity.

Feige’s appointment is subject to legislative confirmation.