Gov. Sean Parnell signed Senate Bill 138 in Fairbanks, establishing another step in the process towards the LNG Pipeline.
Speaker Mike Chenault was at the event.
Speaker Chenault: “I’d like to first off thank the Governor for being bold enough to bring forth a piece of legislation that will bring gas to Alaskans. We talked about a linemen, a linemen is the most important piece I think of this project and we have all the pieces in play to bring forth a project. So my hopes and wishes are that AGDC and the oil companies put together the plan that does bring gas to Alaskans.”
We spoke with Mayor Mike Navarre earlier who talked about the bill.
Mayor Navarre: “What the legislation that the Governor is signing today does is really outline some perameters for negotiating anything that is negotiated by the governors office especially when they are talking about changes like payment in leiu of taxes or contractual arrangements that might affect the leases all of those things that are a significant change from the way the tax structure works now have to be approved and signed off on by the legislature so that there will be an opportunity next year for the legislature to evaluate the contractual arrangements or tax changes that are being proposed and then determine whether or not they are in the state’s best interest.”