The Biggest Oil Industry Giveaway without a Guarantee

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Recent articles in local papers and community forums hosted by Alaska State Senators have promoted Great Bear Petroleum and their North Slope shale oil play as THE answer to stemming the decline in TAPS.

Beware. Great Bear, and the politicians who tout them as the silver bullet for declining production, are not telling the whole truth about Great Bear, their development plans and what it could cost the state of Alaska.

On February 28, 2011, Ed Duncan, President and CEO of Great Bear testified in a House Resources hearing in support of HB 110 – Governor Parnell’s bill to change ACES. Duncan repeatedly stated that in order for his shale oil play to be successful, a change in the tax structure was necessary. Duncan told legislators “Alaska has some fiscal terms that are suppressing the development of that great basin” and “Reduction of the production tax burden would improve Great Bear’s ultimate commercial outcome which would improve the probability of attracting critical capital investment to the state, to the plays and to the business.” In this same presentation, Duncan unveiled a development plan that called for 250 wells per year for 20 years, starting in 2013.

Fast forward to April 25th, 2012: Duncan came before the legislature again, this time the Senate Resources committee, to provide an update on Great Bear’s development plan. What a difference a year makes!

Duncan’s newest presentation called for UP TO 24 wells in 2013-2014 and projected UP TO 192 wells in 2015 and 2016. A far cry from the 250 wells per year for 20 years that was presented the year before.

In this presentation, Duncan also introduced a new strategy for making his project commercially viable – driving down the profits of local service companies and incentivizing people to move up from outside. Say what? The champions of local hire –Senators Paskvan, French and Wielechowski (who spent $150,000 on a study of Alaska Hiring practices on the North Slope) must have been shocked to hear such a strategy!

Apparently they weren’t listening- and continued to promote Great Bear’s development plan as the answer to declining production.

What Duncan and his supporters in the senate have failed to disclose is just how much money the state will give Great Bear for their exploration activities.

If Great Bear accomplishes what they have outlined in their development plans before the legislature- the state could pay them close to 1.2 billion dollars in tax credits. 1.2 billion dollars without a guarantee of production. 1.2 billion dollars pushed across the table with no production guarantee.

It appears that Senators like Paskvan, Wielechowski and French who advocate local hire, oppose HB 110 and demand guarantees in return for tax relief aren’t being intellectually honest.

It appears that Senators like Paskvan, Wielechowski and French are publicly opposing a “2 billion dollar giveaway with no guarantees” while quietly supporting and promoting a 1.2 billion dollar giveaway with no guarantees. A 1.2 billion dollar giveaway to a company who intends to drive down the profits of Alaskan companies and replace Alaskan workers with cheap outside labor. A 1.2 billion dollar giveaway to a company who reduces their development plan by 90% in one year.

A giveaway. No guarantee. No local hire. Beware.

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Jeff Landfield was a delegate to the 2008 Alaska Republican Convention and recently ran for office for the first time, running a close race against Senator McGuire in the 2012 Republican primary. He holds a BA in history with a minor in economics from the University of Alaska.

Alaska September Oil Output Jumps 30% as Maintenance Ends

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Alaska North Slope oil production rose 30 percent in September from the previous month as fields operated by BP Plc (BP/) and ConocoPhillips (COP) resumed production after annual maintenance ended.

Production averaged 516,296 barrels a day in September, up from 398,643 in August, the state’s tax division said on its website.

Production from Prudhoe Bay fields operated by BP rose to 271,444 barrels a day from 177,182 in August, when two fields, Milne Point and Northstar, and three Prudhoe Bay facilities were shut for maintenance during part of the month, said Dawn Patience, a BP spokeswoman in Anchorage.

“Operations are back to normal, and our maintenance season, which typically takes place in the summer because otherwise we are in arctic conditions, has wrapped up,” Patience said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaskan Scientist Galvanized ESA, Global Warming Movement to Polar Bear Drownings with Article that Used “Incomplete” and “Understated” Data

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Photo credit: USGS

An Alaska scientist whose observations of drowned polar bears helped galvanize the global warming movement has been reprimanded for improper release of government documents.

An Interior Department official said emails released by Charles Monnett were cited by a federal appeals court in decisions to vacate approval by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management of an oil and gas company’s Arctic exploration plan.

The official, Walter Cruickshank, deputy director of BOEM, said in a memo that an inspector general’s investigation contained findings that Monnett had improperly disclosed internal government documents, which he said were later used against the agency in court. He also said the investigation made other findings in regards to Monnett’s conduct, but he wasn’t taking action on those. He would not specify those findings.

Cruickshank called Monnett’s “misconduct very serious,” and said any future misconduct may lead to more severe discipline, including removal from federal service.

Read more from this story, including the government’s conclusion that Monnett and his co-author had used an “incomplete database as their primary source of information to write the article, made conflicting statements to investigators regarding the writing and editing process and understated data in the manuscript,” HERE.

Alaskan Combat Military Veterans May No Longer Qualify For PFD, But Murkowski, Young & Begich Do

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In a unanimous decision yesterday, the Alaska Supreme Court determined that former-Alaska Attorney General Wayne Anthony Ross’s son, an Annapolis graduate and active-duty Marine, no longer qualifies for an Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend. As a result, his minor children also lose their Permanent Fund Dividends.

This decision was reached even though there is no dispute that Lieutenant Colonel Brian Ross has been a life-long Alaskan resident. He was born and raised in Anchorage. After graduating from Service High School in Anchorage, he attended the United States Naval Academy.

Wayne Anthony Ross told Restoring Liberty that his son “graduated as the top Marine applicant of the Class of 1994. He served in Iraq three times. He always continued to maintain himself as an Alaskan resident, registering his cars, voting, keeping his Alaska driver’s license and hunting licenses here. He owns land and a lodge herein Alaska and has returned home almost every year. He intends to return home here after getting out of the Marine Corps.” Mr. Ross said that, in 2012, his son returned to Alaska three times.

Unfortunately for LTC Ross, who entered active duty in 1990, our ethically-challenged state legislature decided in 1998 that Alaskan residents who have been absent from the state for more than ten years should no longer qualify for an Alaska PFD. Exceptions were made for our royal congressional class (at the time Senator Murkowski, Senator Stevens, and Representative Young), their immediate families, and even their staff, but no exception was made for Alaskan military veterans deployed outside of the state.

Mr. Ross argued that this different approach for congressional members and their families was a violation of equal protection. Obviously, if the legislature is willing to permit Senators and our lone Representative to continue to collect the PFD even though their residences have been in the Beltway for far more than ten years, veterans deployed in the service of their country should have the same treatment.

The Alaska Supreme Court unanimously said “no.” This decision should come as no surprise given the fact that this same Supreme Court chose to ignore equal protection violations during the Miller-Murkowski senatorial race in 2010. There, our royal Senator received a hand count of her ballots while Mr. Miller’s vote result was established by a Diebold machine count even though it was an established fact that the Diebold machine count was inaccurate.

Our Supreme Court unanimously said that it did not matter that over 60% of all Alaskan votes (McAdams and Miller votes) were counted differently than Murkowski’s.

The Alaskan electorate needs to bring accountability to the Alaskan judiciary. And a tool to do that is available. It’s called the retention vote. Vote “No” this November.

Russia declares “ownership” of Arctic Ocean Region Adjacent to Alaska by Russian Orthodox Consecration

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Photo credit: NASA Goddard

Russia has taken a bizarre step to declare its “ownership” of the Arctic Ocean region by having a Russian Orthodox bishop “consecrate” the North Pole on behalf of the church.

According to the Daily Telegraph, a bishop named Iakov of the northern Naryan-Mar (which lies north of the Arctic Circle) placed a “holy memorial capsule” into the icy sea while aboard the Rossiya, a nuclear-powered icebreaker during a polar expedition arranged by Russia’s Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute.

The capsule featured an inscription that read: “With the blessing of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, the consecration of the North Pole marks 1,150 years of Russian Statehood.”

Moscow is keen to assert its domination of the Arctic, given the huge reserves of untapped oil and gas believed to reside in the region, and has also accelerated its remilitarization there. Reportedly, the Russian military’s MiG-31 supersonic interceptor aircraft will be deployed in the Arctic region by the end of this year.

According to Bishop Iakov, the consecration is important to both the Orthodox Church and the Russian people for it “symbolizes the efforts of the state to recover the positions of Russia and confirmation of its achievements in the Arctic.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Lance Roberts: `Limited government, lower taxes and more property rights are the answer’

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Lance Roberts, a solid constitutional conservative from Fairbanks who will some day make an exceptional Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor, is presently running for FNSB Assembly on a platform of limited government, lower taxes and more property rights:

We need less regulation overall, and the overreach by our Assembly in the last few years has been more than our economy can handle. Twice the people have voted for the borough to stop trying to regulate how people heat their homes, but the assembly has already passed an ordinance set to go into effect as soon as the Home Heating Initiative expires (please say YES on Prop 3).

The road service areas have been treated poorly by the last two administrations; causing costs to go up considerably. This is not the example of public service that we need in our local government.

This borough has tens of thousands of acres of land that is locked up, because the onerous Title 17 subdivision standards won’t let it be developed. The borough itself has a hard time even subdividing and selling its land without losing money.

The budget between 2000 and 2010 has gone up 55%, and went up again in 2011 and 2012.

I’ve had a few negative ads aired directly against me because I exposed the myth of non-partisanship on the assembly, because I opposed more unnecessary government regulation and because I asked people to pray. Well here I go again, more public than the blogs they are cutting and splicing quotes out of: Please pray that God will bless us with good representation that will protect the rights he gave us.

Did Lisa Murkowski Cause the Alaska Republican Party to Adjourn Prematurely in Fairbanks? (+video)

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The Alaskan Republican Party central committee meeting in Fairbanks on Saturday, September 22, 2012, adjourned after only an hour. Yesterday, we suggested that the premature adjournment reflected the dysfunction of the state party. But some suspect the early adjournment by out-going ARP Chairman Randy Ruedrich was intentional, so as to avoid any vote on a pending censure resolution against Senator Lisa Murkowski.

One attendee, an ARP District Chair, wrote down his observations of the Saturday meeting. Here’s his description of what happened after the initial roll call, invocation, and pledge of allegiance:

At approximately 0930 Mr. Ruedrich moved to the Treasurers Report. It was at this time that Alaska Republican Party Treasurer Mr. Frank McQueery stood and stated that Mr. Daniel Palmer had been recording the entire event and was live streaming onto You Tube. He stated he was not comfortable with the live streaming as this was a private organization discussing political strategy.

A motion was made to have the video stopped and the vote was overwhelming to stop recording. At this point Mr. Palmer started discussion on the subject citing his right to record the meeting. Another member pointed out that anything broadcast on You Tube is on a permanent record. Various other members became involved at this point, pointing out the fact that it was being broadcast worldwide and they were not comfortable with speaking live on YouTube.

National Committeeman Ralph Seekins said he agreed he could record his own private conversation but did not believe it was right to record other people without their consent. He also noted that the event was not public but was a private event of the Republican Party.

The motion to restrict the recording of this and future meetings of the SCC was called and passed. The Chairman requested that the video be stopped and Mr. Palmer declined. At that time, following additional comments from the party Treasurer, a motion was made to remove Mr. Palmer from the meeting and recess the meeting until that was done.

Chairman-Elect Russ Millette approached Mr. Palmer and told him that he had voted against the motion to stop the recording but asked him to stop the recording because it was going to create problems for party unity. Mr. Palmer refused to cooperate and said he would continue the recording. Chair-Elect Millette again said, “I’m asking you again nicely to reconsider”. But Mr. Palmer still refused.

Following additional time the meeting was called back to order and a motion to adjourn was made by the proxy vote for Don Young and was seconded. Mr. Ruedrich called for a vote from the few people remaining in the room and the motion to adjourn passed.

This type of action was completely detrimental to the Alaska Republican Party as a whole. We have approximately 42 day’s left to win the election and at the present time Obama has 269 confirmed electoral votes. The fact is, we will not win this election as a divided party.

For the video of the Fairbanks SCC meeting, click HERE.

The “Non-Partisan” Scam at the Fairbanks North Star Borough

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Heard a lot lately of the line “non-partisan” or “bi-partisan” in political advertising? Have you seen who is usually pushing that line? The “bi-partisan” coalition in our Senate this last year was “bi-partisan” as long as the bill was pushing the progressive, liberal line of thought. For example, the House had true bi-partisan support with Coastal Zone management and passed it 40-0, but then the Senate bowed to the environmentalists and refused to craft anything but a hard-core environmentalist document. We then ended up having to defeat a bad Coastal Zone management initiative at the polls. The “bi-partisan” Senate would not let any social issues be touched, since the Democrats in control wouldn’t allow anything that conflicted with their platform.

Running for office in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, there are a few candidates who like to spout the “non-partisan” line. Kathryn Dodge says on her website that Kathryn will “Keep local government non-partisan.” Similarly, Cliff Russell has stated at forums that he wants to keep things non-partisan. Of course, anyone who has spent any time observing the actions of the Fairbanks North Star Borough government knows it is anything but nonpartisan!

In addition to this warning about candidates who disingenuously advocate the “non-partisan” line, here is some additional guidance conservatives may use for the Fairbanks election next week:

Borough Assembly Seat G

Lance Roberts – A solid conservative who wants to ease subdivision and land use restrictions. He also wants reforms that will allow road service area commissioners to do their job without Borough interference. Mr. Roberts is seeking to cut the budget and mill rate to give people more money in their pockets, which will create more economic development. He also believes that private companies should be used for any gas distribution system and the state money it will take to build it.

Cliff Russell – IBEW Electrician with little apparent knowledge or experience with the Assembly. He has attended a few of the forums but has failed to offer much specificity with respect to his positions. Mr. Russell does not seem to have any signs or literature. On Facebook, he states that, “I have a strong connection with the community of Fairbanks and hope to serve you and the rest of the borough if elected. Although being new to the scene I know that my belief in local hire, drive to assist in affordable energy, and keep local issues local, will only help this great community. ”

Borough Assembly Seat F

Rocky MacDonald – Rocky MacDonald is another solid candidate with a history of conservative activism. From his campaign literature, Mr. MacDonald’s primary positions include making local government “responsible to the taxpayers”; working “to stop the loss of people from the borough due to high-energy costs”; and using Borough government resources wisely, “with an eye to lessening the burden on citizens’ lives.”

Kathryn Dodge – Kathryn Dodge is a former Fairbanks North Star Borough employee who says on her web page that she has “moderate, non-partisan views, willingness to challenge the status quo when it is in the community’s best interest, and partnering skills are what our community needs to develop our energy solutions and economy.” Her long-term association with liberal Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker suggests that she is unlikely to pursue any policies that restrict government growth or citizen accountability over the FNSB. Her apparent positions put her squarely in the pro-union, anti-wood stove, and pro-big government camp.

Bill Stodden – Although Bill Stodden is likely a well-intentioned candidate who undoubtedly would make a better Assembly member than Ms. Dodge, he does not appear to be running a serious campaign. He has no apparent website, Facebook page, or campaign signage. His presence in the race will likely only serve to pull votes from Mr. MacDonald.

Borough Assembly Seat A

Joe Blanchard – Joe Blanchard has three years experience with the Assembly, last year as its Presiding Officer. He’s getting more conservative as he matures, but does not have a consistent conservative history. His “Vision” statement on his blog states that he “support[s] a reasonable gas pipeline project regardless of diameter to bring much needed energy options to Fairbanks, with a corresponding distribution system”; works to “ensure our education department has the money and flexibility to succeed”; and want to keep “the Borough government out of the wood stove banning business.”

Van Lawrence – Van Lawrence is a local attorney who ran a close race against Assembly member Michael Dukes last year. His Facebook fanpage has not been updated to include the current race against Joe Blanchard. The Interior Democrats have referred to Mr. Lawrence as “our long time friend” and he reputedly has held party positions within the Alaska Democratic Party. Like Kathryn Dodge, he seems to be pro-union, anti-wood stove, and pro-big government.

As in past municipal elections, the turn out in the Fairbanks North Star Borough is likely to be very low. Every vote will undoubtedly count. Please ensure that you call all of your conservative family, friends, and neighbors to get out and vote. Many local elections have been determined only by a handful of votes; this one may be no different.

Alaska Republican Party Resolution to Censure Senator Lisa Murkowski

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At the Alaska Republican Party State Convention earlier this year, a Resolution to Censure Senator Lisa Murkowski was proposed but not voted on because the outgoing ARP Chairman Randy Ruedrich adjourned the convention early. Later, the same Chairman discouraged delegates from attending the reconvened state convention so that a quorum would not be reached. Again, the censure resolution was not considered. Finally, at the most recent SCC Meeting in Fairbanks on September 22, 2012, the meeting was again adjourned prematurely leaving the censure resolution without a vote.


Here is the language of the controversial censure resolution:

Resolution To Censure Senator Lisa Murkowski

WHEREAS Lisa Murkowski has showed especial contempt for the Alaska Republican Party Electorate by expressly promising and subsequently breaking her word to support the winner of the 2010 Alaska Republican Primary Election for US Senate; and

WHEREAS she sought re-election in 2010 as an independent write-in candidate after losing the Republican primary; and

WHEREAS she actively campaigned against, and maliciously attacked, the Republican Nominee; and

WHEREAS she has aligned herself with the AFL-CIO, NEA, Planned Parenthood, Public Employee Unions, and other Democrat special interest groups; and

WHEREAS support of these left-wing special interest groups cannot be reconciled with the ideals and values of the Alaska Republican Party, nor with the best interests of the people of Alaska; and

WHEREAS during the 2010 general election Lisa Murkowski demonstrated a dishonesty and duplicity not in keeping with Republican Party values; and

WHEREAS these actions exhibit an extraordinary disloyalty to the Alaska Republican Party and Electorate without which her career as an elected official would never have been possible; and

WHEREAS Senator Murkowski was the only “Republican” to vote for every major piece of President Barack Obama’s 2010 “lame duck” agenda; and

WHEREAS she has subsequently obstructed Republican attempts at reform, and supported numerous policy positions opposed to the Alaska Republican Party Platform;

Therefore, be it hereby resolved, that we, the delegates of the 2012 Alaska Republican State Convention publicly censure and repudiate the words and actions of Senator Lisa Murkowski, and revoke her Republican privileges until she publicly apologizes and pledges to never campaign against the Republican nominee again and to cease and desist supporting parts of President Obama’s agenda that are in opposition to our Republican values and Platform.

Former AFN Chair: Alaska Federation of Natives No Longer Represents the People

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Several days ago, a good friend and leader in the native community sent me an email from the former chair of the Alaska Federation of Natives. This email, publicized throughout the Alaska native community, was written by Nels Anderson, Jr. His email made a number of excellent points about how the regional native corporations were perpetuating the problems in the villages and were improperly interfering with native voting in Alaska. Many of Mr. Anderson’s points were nearly identical to what my campaign advocated in 2010.

After receiving a copy of Mr. Anderson’s email, I contacted Mr. Anderson and asked for his permission to publish the email on our Restoring Liberty site, under the Alaska News section. He graciously agreed.

Mr. Anderson’s article was posted at Restoring Liberty the evening of September 24. It ran for almost two days before I was contacted by Mr. Anderson again. Without explanation, he retracted his permission for the article to be posted. Although under no legal obligation to do so, we have as a courtesy to Mr. Anderson removed his article from this page. Additionally, as requested by Mr. Anderson, we have posted his retraction of permission HERE.

We have requested additional dialog with Mr. Anderson to determine what was behind his retraction, but he has declined.