My Twitter Feed

March 28, 2024

Headlines:

No Time for Tuckerman -

Thursday, August 3, 2023

The Quitter Returns! -

Monday, March 21, 2022

Putting the goober in gubernatorial -

Friday, January 28, 2022

Sen. Calls Oil Giveaway “Crapshoot”

Senator Kevin Meyer conceded that it is not known whether Senate Bill 21 will actually lead to significant oil production increases, despite a giveaway of billions of dollars from state coffers.

“Realistically, we all would expect new oil,” Meyer said. But he added, “It’s kind of a crapshoot. You really don’t know, and the industry certainly isn’t going to say one way or the other, because you know their motivation is to try to keep the rates down as low as they can.”

A billion dollar a year crapshoot! Yay! Anyone want to play? I didn’t think so. Oh, and did I mention that Kevin Meyer is the Co-Chair of the Senate Finance Committee?

 

crapshoot

Former Senate President Chancy Croft writes in the Alaska Dispatch:

“A big fight is going on in Juneau, and it’s coming to a head. The stockholders of three of the world’s largest oil companies are trying to take money away from Alaskan citizens. So far, the governor and the House have helped the oil companies. On Monday, twenty members of the Alaska Senate will have to decide whose side they are on.

“This takeaway/giveaway is Senate Bill 21, masquerading as an inducement for future development of Alaska oil resources. Nobody supporting the takeaway/giveaway even pretends any actual development by the oil companies is required. The oil companies don’t have to do anything to take $1 billion a year away from Alaskans. Nothing. Nada. Zero…

“The Department of Revenue’s fiscal note calculates, without increased oil production, SB 21 will transfer more than $5 billion over the next five years alone from Alaskans to the stockholders of these oil companies. Starting in 2014, it will double from $625 million to $1.375 billion.”

Well, it’s Monday. And here’s a peek at the Senate calendar for today:

5628_10151536126950535_116128691_n

Hmm. Scallops, crab, Coast Guard, food issues…  I don’t see any massive giveaway to multinational oil corporations in there, do you?

One would think that if there were enough votes to pass the giveaway, that it would be on the calendar, wouldn’t one? But, one does not see SB21. Therefore, one must conclude that perhaps the votes are not to be had.  Remember that a 10-10 split means no dice on the bill. There must be an 11-9 vote at least for the legislation to move forward.

It’s obvious that we regular Alaskans don’t want this bill. It doesn’t take someone with an MBA, or a rocket scientist, or a petro-economist to know that it’s a bad idea to enter into a business transaction when you’re giving the other party billions of dollars, and they are giving you… nothing. Common sense tells you that.

Here are some ways to make that $1.3 billion a year tangible: (And remember, it will grow to $1.8 billion in five years)

That’s more money than the State of Alaska spends on education every year.

$1.3 billion is the equivalent of building 30 new schools.

It is dozens of times more money than the state spends on military and veterans affairs.

That’s more money than Alaska spends on Health and Human Services annually.

That’s two to three times more money than the State spends on transportation every year.

Is Sean Parnell planning on eliminating Alaska’s entire education, health, or transportation budget?

If not, where’s he going to get the money?

The good news is that Alaskans are miffed enough, and motivated enough to actually be calling (on the actual telephone!) their senators and telling them how they feel. So, keep it up! Working together for a common purpose is still a powerful force.

741877_findingnemo_poster

Remember that scene in Finding Nemo where all the fish were trapped in the big net? They all started swimming in the same direction as hard as they could, and after concerted efforts they were able to break free. Well, I have no idea if that can happen in real life, and I’ve looked high and low for an image of that scene, and couldn’t find it. But imagine yourself there in the net. We can turn over this boat, and its disastrous legislation before we’re trapped in a state that has basically acknowledged it’s an oil colony. We just need to swim hard, and in the same direction. It’s better than flopping around on the deck and wondering what the hell happened.

So, keep it up. If you didn’t call senators over the weekend, do it today. Send emails. If  you see them wandering around Juneau, ask them in person. Make them explain to you what they will do and why. Hold them accountable for the vote they will cast. They work for YOU.

Former Aide to Governor Wally Hickel, and Senior Fellow at the Institute of the North, Malcolm Roberts recently wrote a compass piece in the Anchorage Daily News:

Alaskans struck a deal with Congress when we won statehood to own our natural resources. But the fight continues over who will benefit from their development. Gov. Sean Parnell’s Senate Bill 21 threatens to give away great value from our oil resources without guarantees that production will be increased or that the giveaway will ever be repaid.

Let your Senator know it’s time to slow down, make sure everyone understands how much could be lost and find a better solution than what is being offered. Our constitution and the deal we cut for statehood are at stake.

Here’s your targeted phone list:

Senator Click Bishop – 800-336-7383
Senator John Coghill – 877-465-3719
Senator Mike Dunleavy – 907-465-6600
Senator Fred Dyson – 800-342-2199
Senator Dennis Egan – 855-465-4947
Senator Anna Fairclough – 800-861-5688
Senator Peter Micciche – 800-964-5733
Senator Cathy Giessel – 800-892-4843
Senator Charlie Huggins – 800-862-3878
Senator Pete Kelly – 907-465-3709
Senator Lesil McGuire – 800-365-2995
Senator Kevin Meyer – 866-465-4945
Senator Donny Olson – 800-597-3707

Copy and paste this list into the “To” field on an email to reach all the senators above:

Senator.Click.Bishop@akleg.gov, Senator.Peter.Micciche@akleg.gov, Senator.Mike.Dunleavy@akleg.gov, Senator.Fred.Dyson@akleg.gov, Senator.John.Coghill@akleg.gov, Senator.Dennis.Egan@akleg.gov, Senator.Anna.Fairclough@akleg.gov, Senator.Cathy.Giessel@akleg.gov, Senator.Charlie.Huggins@akleg.gov, Senator.Pete.Kelly@akleg.gov, Senator.Lesil.McGuire@akleg.gov, Senator.Kevin.Meyer@akleg.gov, Senator.Donny.Olson@akleg.gov

Just keep swimming!

Comments

comments

Comments
11 Responses to “Sen. Calls Oil Giveaway “Crapshoot””
  1. Zyxomma says:

    More obscene profits for the profiteers. Get your legislators to vote against the give-away. Do it today.

  2. John says:

    It isn’t a crapsooy for Senator Meyer’s employer, Conoco Philips. They get a reduced tax rate that trans
    Ates into ginormoser profits. If they decide to invest some of those profits in Alaska, they make even more money. It s a win-win situation for Conoco.

  3. bubbles says:

    Alaskan Mudpups can swim like Dolphins. go Pups go! you can do it!

  4. David Otness says:

    If ever people (Alaskans) need to come out of their cocoons it is now or forever zip your lips.
    I think too many have grown dumb-downed by a pernicious lassitude that is a certain and inevitable byproduct of oil wealth and no state income tax for all of these decades.
    Magical money.
    We are not the people nor the consciousness we Alaskans were when the possibilities of our future were being considered in the mid-70’s. That is, on so many levels we were much more cohesive socially across the spectrum and the petroleum industry had not yet sunk its claws into our every day lives via lobbyists, steady streams of propaganda via advertising, i.e. Big Oil’s growing, nurturing and fertili$ing the ad agencies who keep the appearance of the Industry a benignly subtle affirmation of its-own innate ‘goodness’.
    And back then the big ANC’s had not been so inextricably seduced into the siren-calls of culture-busting pots of money from the purveyors of petroleum and military contracts, and now due to their cohabitation have become the best local illustration of unbridled capitalism having the ideology of a cancer cell to date. (Lie down with lobbyists and don’t be surprised if yer gonna get up with fleas).
    We now have two further generations who have grown accustomed (habituated) to the blandishments, the background white noise of the petroleum industry as Big Sugar Daddy, when in reality big Daddy has some nasty habits world-wide but keeps them covered under his Octopus of all of the public relations the biggest pile of cash in the world can buy.
    So, what we now confront is Big Daddy grown impatient for the Harvest, Big Daddy is miffed that he got slapped by the venal ignoramus’s of the Corrupt Bastards Club, the bought-off and slutty Alaska legislators He got for such bargain prices in the middle part of the previous decade. With Bill Allen as His chosen pimp why would or should He have been surprised? “Ya gotta dance with who brung ya” is a Texas aphorism and Alaska is but a cold-assed Texas colony to these bum steers and their veddy-British compadre/compatriots. Even though BP was owned [majority stock] by JPMorganChase and Black Rock Capital back in the CBC heyday.(And likely still is). Not terribly British after all, eh, wot?
    Any Alaskan able to fog a mirror with respiration knows ConocoPhillips Alaska chief (Sean Parnell’s-then boss) Jim Bowles was in the loop with Bill Allen and his corralled-up Doofus Legislators Gang and they only dodged a ricochet because we know from all too much experience even lately that certain people and institutions are “Too Big To Fail” for any number of reasons.
    Ben Stevens comes to mind as someone who more than likely had enough beans to spill they couldn’t risk him on the stand. So phone calls were made to Eric Holder.
    The same Attorney General who recently stated the big banks were well, “just too big to prosecute for breaking the Laws of the United States of America.” (My paraphrase, but you catch my drift)…..
    Such is the magnitude which our courageous legislators and citizen journalists confront these days going against Big Daddy.
    Boiled down?
    Soapy Smith stalks the halls of power in Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kenai and all of the legislative districts in between.
    This is Texas Hold ‘Em.
    This is passive Extortion being laid out by oily-tongued lobbyists for their masters of ka-ching and bling.
    This is a small segment of Alaska’s population demanding they get more than their fair share at the expense of the rest of Alaska’s people (the Majority) not employed by Big Daddy.
    There. You. Have. ‘It’.

    • hedgewytch says:

      It seemed pretty dam obvious to me that Ted called in his chips. The deal was struck behind the doors and away from even the prosecutors that Ted would be indicted, but would never see the inside of a jail cell, and neither would his boy.

    • Blue_in_AK says:

      David Otness, your post is a thing of beauty. I have nothing to add. I’ve emailed all the senators today. We’re in Nome and away from a phone, but hopefully emails work, too, to get their attention.

    • skinnerAK says:

      That was absolutely poetic. Thank you.

    • Bob says:

      Should have read yours before I wrote ;and sent mine. I’ll be making calls tomorrow.

      Senators,

      There is nothing wrong with the idea of changing tax codes in exchange for increased petroleum exploration, development and production. There is everything wrong with doing so without even the slightest idea of what the outcome will be in terms of returns to Alaskans.

      I understand it’s hard to extract guarantees from the industry for what they will do if changes are made. I also understand they are in business to make money. They don’t make money sitting on leases. They’ve never been bashful about coming forward with requests for changes in order to make projects feasible. In all of their testimony as far as I know, not a single industry representative mentioned any project that would benefit from the proposed changes. I also didn’t hear of any legacy fields that would be helped.

      What is so wrong with tying changes to taxes to specific increases in activities that puts more oil in the pipe or other activity which leads directly to new production?

      I come from a small business background and I can’t think of any situation where I would put so much on the table without getting something concrete in return. You’re making a huge bet on which the very future of our State rests. I don’t like the odds on this bet. When I was in Real Estate I would ask myself if this was my money instead of my clients, would I make the same deal. If this was all your money, your home, your business, your future, would you still make this deal? Would you risk everything in the hope your trading partner would give you some undefined return on that investment?

      Finally, do you really expect Alaskans to believe that Senators Kevin Meyer and Peter Micciche don’t have a serious conflict of interest? It’s bad enough how much influence the oil industry has with lobbyists and campaign contributions but do they really need their own Senators too?

      I believe Alaskans are paying attention and will remember when elections come around who stood on the side of the oil industry and who stood on the side of the people and our shared future.

      Robert Cortez
      Anchorage Alaska.

  5. AKblue says:

    I sent an email to the senators.
    Thanks for keeping us up to date on this.

    • AKblue says:

      Cheryl Frasca, “Miss Budget Shortfall” just came out with a study for Commonwealth that says the state will likely have to institute a state income tax, and maybe use up the permanent fund dividend money. If that doesn’t get some citizens riled up against the oil tax giveaway, I don’t know what will….
      Cheryl Frasca: “Miss Budget Shortfall” in October, “Miss Oops, Never Mind, I Found the Money–And Maybe Even a Surpluss” by May.

  6. Seems to me... says:

    NANA and CIRI can speak up any time about this matter…they seem to invest their monies better than the State does…has a snag or two but not a whole consensus of corruption like the State has and does and operates…
    If I were NANA or CIRI I would take the State to court to get back ownership of the lands and resources on it…
    Wouldn’t that just upset the apple cart a little more…they might have other plans but you can ask them about this matter…they have legal departments…may be some pressure from them will get the matter resolved…
    After all they have been dealing with white men who can’t jump for sometime now…live entertainment for them!