A bill which would limit the State’s involvement in any gasline project but the AK LNG Project has passed the House and is on its way to the Senate.
Speaker Mike Chenault’s HB 132 initially stirred the pot with Governor Bill Walker…
Gov. Walker: “We have one project being driven by those who have competing projects around the world, but maybe at some point they decide they’d prefer their other projects rather than the one from Alaska, and we just can’t be in the situation that we don’t have an option ourselves that we can control.”
The bill passed the House 24-14, with opposition from Homer Representative Paul Seaton. Other ‘nays’ included: Reps. Claman, Colver, Drummond, Gara, Gruenberg, Guttenberg, Josephson, Kawasaki, Kito, Kreiss-Tomkins, Tarr, Tuck, and Wool.
Two Legislators were excused: Reps. Lynn and Ortiz.
Walker’s office says the Governor hasn’t changed his views on the bill which he threatened to veto.
Chenault says the State and partners need certainty as they pursue the largest LNG pipeline and liquefaction facility in the world…
Speaker Chenault(R-Nikiski): “I’m hoping that we can finally come to an agreement on what we’re doing there as a state and what the meaning of it is and if we can do that, maybe we can move forward on other things.”
Critics say the bill ties the state’s hands.
If HB 132 passes the Senate, the Alaska Gasline Development Corp would be prohibited from pursuing any other project until one of three milestones is reached: the state or another party withdraws from Alaska LNG; Alaska LNG enters its next phase; or July 1, 2017.