1993-05-04                     Senate Journal                      Page 2056
                         THIRD READING OF HOUSE BILLS                        
HB 116                                                                       
CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 116(FIN)(title am) "An Act amending                      
the manner of determining the royalty received by the state on gas             
production, and directing the commissioner of natural resources to             
accept, under certain circumstances, the contract price agreed to              
between a lessee of federal land and a gas or electric utility as the          
value of the federal government's royalty share from natural gas               
production on federal land from which the state is entitled under              
applicable federal law to receive a share of the royalty on gas                
production; and providing for an effective date" which had been held           
to the May 4 calendar (page 2049) was read the third time.                     
                                                                               
Senator Pearce offered the following Letter of Intent:                         
                                                                               
                                Letter of Intent                               
                                      for                                      
                            CSHB 116 (Fin)(title am)                           
                                                                               
It is the intent of the Senate that, upon the effective date of this           
legislation, the departments of Natural Resources and Law                      
immediately withdraw all pending appeals before the United States              
Department of Interior, Minerals Management Service, regarding the             
propriety of utilizing the contract price for valuing federal royalty          
gas from the Beluga River Unit that is sold to Chugach Electric                
Assn., Inc., that those departments take no action to encourage or             
induce the Minerals Management Service to disregard the contract               
price for the purpose of valuing those royalties; and that those               
departments take any such further action as may be necessary to                
ensure that the position of the State of Alaska with respect to federal        
royalty valuation of such gas, as articulated in CSHB 116(FIN)(title           
am), is known and communicated to the Minerals Management                      
Service, notwithstanding that, as of the effective date of this                
legislation, the Department of Natural Resources may not have                  
entered into an agreement with federal Beluga River lessees under              
AS 38.05.180(aa) or Section 4 of this legislation.