Alaska Editorials

Here is a sampling of Alaska editorials:

Nov. 8, 2017

Alaska Journal of Commerce: Trump administration breathes life into Alaska

A year ago to the day from this writing, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in a political upset for the ages that both Democrats and Republicans are still trying to come to grips with.

The infighting between Republican ranks of the establishment put off by Trump’s brash nature versus the voters who put them all in power is rivaled only by the Democrats’ self-immolation over the still ongoing Wednesday-morning quarterbacking about how Clinton blew what was supposed to be an easy win and recent revelations about primary-rigging and the Russian “collusion” that are leading not to the White House but to the Democratic campaign apparatus instead.

While there was immediate hope within Alaska at the realization that the federal government would get its boot off the state’s neck after eight years of strangulation by the Obama administration, nobody could have predicted just how greatly Trump would focus on unlocking the state’s resources.

This December, the entire available area of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska of nearly 12 million acres will be up for bid in a lease sale.

Around that same time, Congress should be passing a tax reform bill through budget reconciliation that will finally open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to development as was intended nearly 40 years ago when that area was set aside for its vast potential.

After the much-publicized $7 billion failure of Shell to explore its Arctic offshore leases, Eni and Hilcorp are quietly advancing plans to produce oil from federal waters of the Outer Continental Shelf from manmade islands.

Regular order has been restored to the permitting process for the Pebble mine, whose owners have finally released a plan for a scaled-down version of the project with an assurance it will finally get a fair hearing.

Right now, Gov. Bill Walker is the only state executive traveling with Trump on his trip to Asia, and the president has dotted his administration with Alaskans in some of the most important positions.

Trump has recognized Alaska’s strategic national security importance, and just sought another $4 billion for a new missile defense site at Fort Greely.

He put Alaskans in charge of the nation’s fisheries, its on and offshore minerals, the Environmental Protection Agency Region 10 covering the state and made Tara Sweeney the first Alaska Native woman appointed to a confirmation-level post as the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs.

The road from King Cove to Cold Bay looks surer to become a reality than it ever has, and while the environmental non-government organizations have howled at its recent progress, the fact an issue as relatively small as this one has caught the attention of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke as a priority speaks volumes about Alaska’s status in the current administration.

Oh, there have been troubles along the way, as Trump has aimed his Twitter ire at our senior Sen. Lisa Murkowski over her reticence to go along with a rushed process on repealing Obamacare that even included an alleged threat from Zinke in a beef that was quickly squashed.

Even on that front, earlier this year the state received an “innovation waiver” under Obamacare that allowed the federal government to fund the state’s reinsurance program in lieu of larger premium support payments. The move makes Alaska likely the only state in the nation in line to see insurance premiums fall next year.

Thanksgiving is still a couple weeks away, but it’s never too early to be glad for where the state stands now compared the wasteland it would have been under a President Hillary Clinton.

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Nov. 12, 2017

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Another try for a gas line

Alaskans can perhaps be excused if they happen to have a muted response to Gov. Bill Walker’s signing of an agreement Thursday in Beijing regarding construction of an 800-mile natural gas pipeline from the North Slope and the sale of most of that gas to China.

Alaskans have been hearing about a North Slope natural gas pipeline for more than four decades.

Nevertheless, the agreement between the state of Alaska and Alaska Gasline Development Corp. and the government-owned petroleum company Sinopec, China Investment Corp. and the Bank of China - signed in the presence of President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping - does renew hope for this long-sought project.

The agreement is, in reality, a framework in which the parties agree to work toward the possibility of building the pipeline.

Gov. Walker touted the agreement in more definite terms, saying it “will provide” Alaska an economic boom comparable to that of the development of the oil pipeline in the 1970s.

But the caveats were clear in statements of AGDC President Keith Meyer and the official statement of Sinopec.

Mr. Meyer said the agreement “brings the potential customer, lender, equity investor, and developer together with a common objective of crafting mutually beneficial agreements leading to increased LNG trade between Alaska and China.” Note the word “potential.”

And this from Sinopec: “Sinopec is interested in the possibility of LNG purchase on a stable basis from Alaska LNG.”

The bottom line is that the parties are going to work together to see if they can get a pipeline built and gas produced in a manner that benefits all sides.

That’s good. And seeing progress of most any sort is what Alaskans should want.

But numerous questions remain and many details have yet to be worked out in the $43 billion non-binding agreement.

For example, is it smart to lock up 75 percent of the gas supply with a single customer, in this case China?

Is China just trying to play Alaska against Australia, which has sharply increased its natural gas production through several projects.

Is it, from a national perspective, wise to provide such a massive amount of a U.S. natural resource to a nation that increasingly sees itself as supplanting the U.S. as a world leader?

And, perhaps the biggest of all: Will the oil companies that hold the North Slope leases find it in their best financial interest to develop and sell the gas?

Remember, BP, Conoco Phillips and ExxonMobil haven’t shown much interest lately in developing the North Slope. It was during the administration of former Gov. Sean Parnell, whom Gov. Walker defeated in 2014, that the three companies seemed ready to build the pipeline on their own.

Back then, momentum toward a pipeline seemed great. The state government, the oil companies and pipeline builder TransCanada were all in agreement. Preliminary engineering work was underway and a decision on whether to build was set for 2019.

Gov. Parnell issued an exuberant statement stating that, “For the first time we have alignment among the necessary parties . for a project that will create thousands of jobs and provide fuel to Alaska homes and businesses for decades.”

Nothing came of it, which is why Alaskans might be skeptical of this week’s news about an agreement with China.

Even so, and although many questions remain and much work lies ahead, it is encouraging to see that Alaska officials remain committed to getting the North Slope natural gas into the market and into the hands of anxious customers.