A federal office which was helping in the organization of research for the proposed Alaska LNG Project is scheduled to shut down due to the budget the U.S. Congress passed last week.
Larry Persily with the Federal Office for Alaska Gas Line Projects said funding for their office was not in the budget.
Persily: “We have some left over money that we had not spent in previous year and we’ll be using that for an orderly shutdown of the office, making sure that the information we’ve compiled is archived, is available to the public, doing as much as we can to make sure the reports and information that we have produced, gathered and put on the web will be available for the public to see after we’ve closed. It’s going to take 2 or 3 months and then we’ll close the doors.”
Persily said he doesn’t expect the closure of his office to affect the progress of the LNG plant, as it will be built if it is economically viable.
Persily: “The market will determine if the project is built or not, whether we’re there or not. I do believe that a project this big, this complex, we could have helped but I believe federal agencies, fish and wildlife service, BLN, EPA, the nation marine fishers, are capable, very capable of doing the job, I think we could have helped. Same thing for Exxon, Conoco and BP, I think we could have helped them navigate some of the issues.”
He presented information on the Alaska LNG Project to a joint Kenai Soldotna Chamber luncheon in October where he called on the community to stay involved in the process and read the reports released by his office.
Persily said personally he will do as much as possible to make sure all the information on the project remains available after they shut down.
