Bills for the third legislative special session will not be available until Saturday but Governor Bill Walker says he believes once everyone sits down to discuss those things will go quickly.
He says if a gas commitment between the State and the Alaska LNG partners is reached before the session, there may be no need for his proposed natural gas reserves tax.
Gov. Walker: “I’m hopeful that between now and Friday afternoon something will come across my desk to give me a sufficient comfort level but we’ll see.”
As far as the state’s buyout of TransCanada, Walker says either way Alaska pays the company for the proposed AK LNG Project.
Gov. Walker: “Alaska gets a seat at the table and we get out of a 7.1% interest rate of obligation. What TransCanada gets out of it, they get reimbursed their costs that they put in, they have basically been our bank in some respects, when there were cash calls for the partners they would put in on our behalf knowing full well that they would be reimbursed by the State of Alaska plus interest.”
He says there is no ill will towards the company and expects the state to continue working with them.
The governor is disappointed because he expected to at least have the gas balancing agreement signed by all of the LNG partners at this point and the lack of that is holding up other agreements.
Walker’s briefing to legislature will be streamed on the legislature’s website at 8:00 am Saturday, October 24.