01/25/2012 03:30 PM Senate RESOURCES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB24 | |
| Department of Natural Resources (dnr) Overview | |
| Adjourn |
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| += | SB 13 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | SB 24 | TELECONFERENCED | |
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE RESOURCES STANDING COMMITTEE
January 25, 2012
3:34 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Joe Paskvan, Co-Chair
Senator Thomas Wagoner, Co-Chair
Senator Bill Wielechowski, Vice Chair
Senator Bert Stedman
Senator Lesil McGuire
Senator Hollis French
Senator Gary Stevens
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
OTHER LEGISLATORS PRESENT
Senator Cathy Giessel
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION: Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Overview by
DNR Commissioner Dan Sullivan
- HEARD
SENATE BILL NO. 24
"An Act establishing the Sport Fishing Guide Services Board and
licensing requirements for sport fishing guide-outfitters, sport
fishing outfitters, sport fishing assistant guides, and sport
fishing transporters; making conforming amendments; allowing the
Department of Fish and Game to collect information on guiding
services; and providing for an effective date."
- HEARD & HELD
SENATE BILL NO. 13
"An Act providing for the waiver of certain fees and charges in
state parks for disabled veterans."
- SB 13 MOVED OUT OF COMMITTEE ON 1/23/12
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: SB 24
SHORT TITLE: SPORT FISHING GUIDING SERVICES
SPONSOR(s): SENATOR(s) MCGUIRE
01/19/11 (S) PREFILE RELEASED 1/7/11
01/19/11 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
01/19/11 (S) RES, FIN
02/07/11 (S) RES AT 3:30 PM BUTROVICH 205
02/07/11 (S) Heard & Held
02/07/11 (S) MINUTE(RES)
02/19/11 (S) RES AT 10:00 AM BUTROVICH 205
02/19/11 (S) Heard & Held
02/19/11 (S) MINUTE(RES)
02/21/11 (S) RES AT 3:30 PM BUTROVICH 205
02/21/11 (S) Heard & Held
02/21/11 (S) MINUTE(RES)
10/10/11 (S) RES AT 9:00 AM Anch LIO Conf Rm
10/10/11 (S) PUBLIC COMMENT
01/23/12 (S) RES AT 3:30 PM BUTROVICH 205
01/23/12 (S) Heard & Held
01/23/12 (S) MINUTE(RES)
01/25/12 (S) RES AT 3:30 PM BUTROVICH 205
WITNESS REGISTER
MICHAEL PAWLOWSKI, Staff
Senator Lesil McGuire
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Discussed provisions in CSSB 24( ) version
I.
AL CAIN
Division of Sport Fish
Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G)
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Answered questions about provisions in CSSB
24( ) version I.
DAN SULLIVAN, Commissioner
Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave presentation on Alaska oil production
issues.
BILL BARRON, Director
Division of Oil and Gas
Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on Alaska oil production issues.
BRENT GOODRUM, Director
Division of Mining, Land and Water
Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on Alaska oil production issues.
ACTION NARRATIVE
3:34:53 PM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS WAGONER called the Senate Resources Standing
Committee meeting to order at 3:34 p.m. Present at the call to
order were Senators Wielechowski, Stevens, French, McGuire,
Stedman, Co-Chair Paskvan and Co-Chair Wagoner.
SB 24-SPORT FISHING GUIDING SERVICES
3:35:10 PM
CO-CHAIR WAGONER announced SB 24 to be up for consideration.
[CSSB 24( ), labeled 27-LS0278\I, was before the committee.]
MICHAEL PAWLOWSKI, staff to Senator Lesil McGuire, sponsor of SB
24, said the Department of Fish and Game representatives were
asked to talk about the enforcement provisions in the current
draft, in particular AS 08.57.220 on page 13, the responsibility
provisions.
3:36:51 PM
AL CAIN, Division of Sport Fish, Alaska Department of Fish and
Game (ADF&G), explained that section (1) on page 14 [Section
.220] makes the guide, outfitter or transporter responsible when
a client commits a violation in their presence. He didn't see
any culpable mental state stated; Section .200, the civil
penalties provision, would come into play for that. An example
would be a client on a boat catching too many fish while the
guide wasn't paying attention. But the guide could not be issued
a citation for the same violation that the client had committed
in those circumstances.
Section (2) requires that the guide expressly (or implied)
authorizes an unlawful act; in that case the guide would be
equally responsible for that violation. He could be sentenced
under Section .210, the criminal provisions.
3:39:46 PM
SENATOR STEDMAN asked how the guide or the assistant guide is
tied back to the outfitter. There seems to be occasions when the
behavior of the guide is condoned by the people that own or
manage particular lodges; and then they have the tendency of
claiming they are just hiring an individual contract worker.
MR. CAIN said he didn't see any provision allowing that
connection under Section .210 in the bill. And by outfitter, he
assumed that he meant the actual guide; current law provides for
operators who employ guides; those premises change in SB 24 to
"a guide who employs assistant guides." He asked if Senator
Stedman meant how the guide who is not on the boat but who is
the employer of the assistant guide is made responsible.
SENATOR STEDMAN said yes.
MR. CAIN said he didn't see a provision that allows for that
connection. Under Section .210 he sees "a person who is licensed
under the chapter who commits or aides in the commission of a
violation or permits the client to commit a violation." That
language infers the guide or assistant guide who is out on the
boat and does not make the actual guide who is back at the lodge
responsible. Current language in AS 16.40.260 makes the operator
liable for inappropriate actions committed by the guides they
employ. At this time SB 24 doesn't capture that element.
SENATOR STEDMAN suggested they look at strengthening that
language, because there are some lodges that condone egregious
violations of the state's fish and game laws. It's very
difficult to go back to the lodge owner from a guided sport boat
when he is not on the boat.
3:42:53 PM
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN said he had heard over the years in the
construction trades a general contractor, for example, hires
sheetrock workers not as employees but as independent
contractors, and the question is if a lodge operator would use
an artifice to create a mechanism to avoid a liability for
egregious conduct.
CO-CHAIR WAGONER agreed that language needed to be looked at and
thanked Mr. Cain for his testimony.
3:44:01 PM
CO-CHAIR WAGONER said he had an amendment to restrict public
members to current commercial fishers not one person who has
been a commercial fisherman. He also had an amendment to delete
the waiver for the Kenai River Special Management area that is
already in statute.
CO-CHAIR WAGONER said SB 24 would be held for further work.
^Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Overview
Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Overview
3:45:26 PM
CO-CHAIR WAGONER invited Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
Commissioner Dan Sullivan to provide the presentation Alaska Oil
Production Issues.
3:47:09 PM
DAN SULLIVAN, Commissioner, DNR, said a top priority for him and
the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) team is to have a
strong, respectful and responsive relationship with the
legislature. He encourages timely responsive information with
his team to help the legislature and the administration do their
jobs. He said he would give an overview of some of the
strategies, activities and results they have focused on since
the end of last session and invited them to jump in and ask
questions.
CO-CHAIR WAGONER said he wanted some emphasis placed on where
they are in the permitting process and cleaning up the backlog
of permits.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN said he would provide that. He would also
mention some opportunities and challenges including their
thinking behind the million barrels a day "road map." In that
respect he tried to focus their mission statement to be more in
line with Article 8, Section 1, of the Alaska Constitution and
revamp their core services to more accurately reflect what the
DNR actually does.
SENATOR STEVENS asked how the mission statement is different.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN replied that he wanted the department's
mission statement to be more in line with the Constitution's
policy statement. There was another issue from an internal
management perspective focusing on providing a mission that the
department gets behind. Early last year when he became
commissioner, he visited a number of communities around the
state and was surprised to hear that in a number of areas one of
the views of DNR is that it was "the department of no" and
locked up resources, particularly in Fairbanks. He wanted to
make sure that at least people within the department know this
was the land of Alaska people not the land of DNR. It doesn't
mean they are not focused on future generations and
conservation; but he thought it was important to make the
alignment closer to the directive in the Constitution.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN said it came out that writing a mission
statement is actually a role the legislature has in statute. But
he checked with the Department of Law and from their perspective
that didn't preclude commissioners from reworking it.
3:54:46 PM
SENATOR STEVENS said some Senators have said it's their job and
asked him to provide the committee with the legal explanation.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN said language says the legislature has
authority to issue mission statements, but it doesn't preclude
commissioners from doing it.
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN asked if a prior legislature had enacted the
mission statement.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN replied in 2003 the legislature last
issued a mission statement and that the DNR's mission statement
has changed a few times since then.
3:56:12 PM
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN repeated that Senate President Stevens was
indicating that he would like to see a legal analysis of that.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN said okay.
SENATOR STEVENS said it would be interesting to see a comparison
in writing of the old and the new mission statements.
CO-CHAIR WAGONER asked him to proceed with his presentation.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN said since the last legislative session,
the United States Geological Survey (USGS) came out with new
Cook Inlet estimates reflected in slide 9. Slide 10 showed the
very significant mineral deposits. The key to what he wanted to
cover here was looking back on the year since the last
legislative session when the state government was very focused
on a vision and a strategy to address the TransAlaska Pipeline
System (TAPS) throughput and to get it up to 1 million barrels a
day.
4:00:06 PM
He and his team focused on implementing all five parts of their
strategy:
· Enhance Alaska's global competitiveness and investment
climate
· Ensure the permitting process is structured and efficient
· Facilitate and incentivize the next phases of North Slope
development
· Unlock Alaska's full resource development potential through
partnerships with key stakeholders.
· Promote Alaska's resources and positive investment climate
to world markets
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN said part two is focused on permitting and
Brent Goodrum, Director, Division of Mining, Land and Water, who
is a retired Marine and recon and infantry officer and has a lot
of experience in systems management, has been leading the
charge. Since the last session the number of people in that
division increased (as part of the increment from the
legislature) and 31 of 36 vacancies were filled. New employee
training was conducted for over 50 employees. They have focused
on a new IT system within the division as part of the same
increment. At the same time, they have made a 20 percent dent in
the 2,500 permit backlog.
Additionally, they are looking at an entire area of regulations
and potential statutory changes in a package they would present
to the legislature for permitting efficiencies in terms of
certainty and coordination. They have listened to stakeholders
and other agencies and have held public meetings throughout the
state to get input while also trying to coordinate with the
federal government. They have been anticipating and planning for
permitting the next phases of resource development such as shale
oil and underground coal gasification, and he reported that
progress had been made.
4:04:00 PM
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN said there are signs that some of this is
bearing fruit and they are going to have a busy exploration
season this winter and spring. Similarly they had a North Slope
lease sale in December that was successful. He said they
"really, really, beat the pavement" to get a lot of companies
interested in it; some didn't show at the last minute, but they
got diverse companies. Shell, Repsol and ConocoPhillips picked
up additional acreage, any he is asking the other companies why
they didn't show. For some of them it was the tax issue.
SENATOR FRENCH asked if he knew the status of any of the
explorations wells.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN deferred those answers to Mr. Barron.
4:05:47 PM
BILL BARRON, Director, Division of Oil and Gas, Department of
Natural Resources (DNR), reported that Repsol had started its
activities; most of the ice roads and ice pads had been built.
The season looks to be favorable, but from where they were four
or five months ago thinking it was going to be one of the
largest ever they are looking at somewhere between 10 and 16
wells to be drilled this year, which is the normal average over
the last 10 or 15 years. It still looks like a good season but
it didn't play out as good as expected.
SENATOR FRENCH said this is the "reality check" they wanted from
the division as the season is upon them. He asked if he sensed
that the North Slope is "rig constricted."
MR. BARRON agreed that is part of the problem. Only so many rigs
are available and that causes a bottleneck with the limited
timeframe of winter only on ice roads and ice pads.
SENATOR FRENCH said that Repsol is actually sticking to their
plan (a five-rig exploration program), and asked if that is
because they are bigger and more sophisticated.
MR. BARRON answered that Repsol realized what the limitations
were and were aggressive; they dropped one rig that is being
picked up by Savant for exploration work out of Badami.
4:07:45 PM
SENATOR FRENCH stated that is fantastic news, because he hated
to think of where we would be with no wells drilled this year.
He asked what the practical limit is on the North Slope for
drilling exploration wells in the next five years.
MR. BARRON replied while what he says is true given current
operating conditions on the North Slope, it wouldn't take much
for some of those operation conditions to change. Anything the
state can do - for example, roads to resources - to extend
permanent roads into those areas that would minimize the need
for the length of some of the ice roads would be an advantage.
And if Repsol and Great Bear have success, there will be a
market-driven exercise to get more rigs up here.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN added that discussions with all companies
indicate that a lot more rigs could be here with proper
planning.
SENATOR FRENCH said Great Bear is a good example of what can be
done in the summer time.
MR. BARRON agreed and said Great Bear had a good idea to go to
previously disturbed areas. That allowed the division do a
resource evaluation on existing disturbed soils and to sign a
waiver from the ice road/pad stipulation in the best interest
finding to accommodate that.
SENATOR FRENCH remarked that is exactly the kind of thinking
they want to reward.
MR. BARROIN clarified that the Great Bear wells are not included
in his numbers, because they will be done out of the winter
season.
SENATOR FRENCH said the roads to resources program is the kind
of thing Alaska could do with its oil wealth to be a partner
with the oil industry. He said with lower taxes they could hope
for more activity, but a concrete proposal to spend $90 million
for a road to Umiat or double that could actually open up a new
basin.
4:13:12 PM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI said his understanding is that some wells
were denied permits by some local North Slope communities.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN replied he wouldn't call it denied, and
explained that Repsol, the State of Alaska and the North Slope
communities collaborated over a number of weeks to get to an
optimal number of wells that got support from all the different
stakeholders.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if five wells were planned.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN replied five rigs for about fifteen wells
and now that is down to four rigs.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if the number of wells was decreased.
MR. BARRON replied yes; those were deferred until next year.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if that was the North Slope Borough.
MR. BARRON replied yes.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if that would that have gone through
the Coastal Zone Management (CZM) program before.
MR. BARRON replied yes. The issues and concerns that were
brought forward by the communities and the borough would have
been the same ones that would have been brought forward through
the CZM Act. But it allowed the DEC, ADF&G and the local
communities to actually engage in a "much more healthy and
direct dialogue."
4:16:10 PM
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN agreed that it was a very healthy
dialogue.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI remarked "although we have less rigs and
less wells being drilled now."
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN said if he was implying with CZM there
would have been more wells, that's the wrong conclusion. He
explained that the borough has its own processes to go through
and he was coordinating closely with them.
MR. BARRON stated ironically the one rig being removed from
Repsol's program actually gave a smaller player, Savant, an
opportunity to drill this winter. So, there is an exploration
program in an area they would not have had prior to this.
4:17:59 PM
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN asked in a global context if any permit
application for a significant activity on the North Slope is
being held up by permitting activity.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN answered probably no. He said they had a
very busy November and December because of the lease sale, the
permitting requirements for a fairly busy exploration season and
some big deals closing in the Cook Inlet. His team made a
"Herculean effort" along with others in state government.
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN said the public should hear that there is
nothing on a permitting basis right now that is inhibiting
activities on the North Slope.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN responded if you're talking state
government that is correct.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked how many permits are backlogged and
if there had been any delay in any development in the state
because of it.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN deferred that answer to Mr. Goodrum, but
added that because of this backlog somebody somewhere is
probably hurting. He had to do triage based on economic impacts
but his goal is to eradicate it. It's just not fair.
4:20:25 PM
BRENT GOODRUM, Director, Division of Mining, Land and Water,
Department of Natural Resources (DNR), reported on June 30,
2,658 authorizations were in a backlog status; that number had
grown from the last legislative session because they had 26 to
28 vacancies within his division. Once they started hiring folks
(31 of 36 vacancies) as of December 30, in 2011 the total
backlog was 2,095, a decrease of 563 authorizations or 21
percent.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI thanked him for trying to get rid of the
backlog and asked who is hurting from it.
MR. GOODRUM replied there are various types of authorizations;
over 600 are water related. Permits are shorter in nature and
there are around 200 from throughout the state. He said the
division has developed tools for greater visibility so they can
prioritize efforts to provide the most benefit to the state.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN said they are not just getting the backlog
down, but they are trying to reform the system to make it more
efficient through technological changes and using a kind of
systems approach, but also through regulations or statutory
changes, some of which no longer make sense.
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN asked if he expected to see the 20 percent
reduction continuing. He thought 20 percent in six months was
awesome and wanted to know what to expect in the future.
MR. GOODRUM replied when the commissioner worked with the
legislature last year, the initial three-year timeline was
ambitious. While some permits are easier to obtain, they also
hired and trained new folks and identified tools to better
understand their processes so they improve continuously. To hit
20 percent was great, but he couldn't anticipate doing the same
next year. Some authorizations are more complex, but the goal is
still to keep within the three-year commitment.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN said that in 2011 clearly there was
positive news from Cook Inlet. The USGS report came out upping
the numbers significantly and the department had one of its most
successful lease sales in about 30 years there. A competitive
price is driving this as well as competitive investment
incentives. The Inlet has significant players - Apache, Hilcorp
and diverse other players - as a result of this committee's
actions. He emphasized that they were very vigilant with regard
safety with all the new players.
4:29:49 PM
In 2011, a mining exploration "boomlet" was going on and that
one-third of all mineral exploration and investment in the US
took place in Alaska. It's not just big projects, but 34
different exploration projects worth over $1 million each. The
offshore mineral leases in the Nome area obtained a lot of
interest and a significant amount of money for the state.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN said the department had a summit called
the Strategic and Critical Minerals Summit in Fairbanks. They
tried to get high level panelists, participants and industry
folks from all over the country; it was a sold out event. Half
the people were from out of state. At least two big newspapers,
Bloomberg and Reuters, covered it and talked about Alaska's
potential.
He said the department is coordinating a three-year assessment
of strategic and critical minerals in the state with the USGS
with a focus on rare earth elements. Companies think it's great
because all the information will be made public.
4:33:51 PM
He said DNR has other areas of responsibility; they had a good
year with regard to agriculture and continue focusing on
promoting the Alaska grown program. The Division of Parks and
Outdoor Recreation has the largest park system in the country,
and the director, Ben Ellis, has been doing a fantastic job
there and has new initiatives like Arts in the Park and the
boating safety program.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN reported that the Division of Forestry had
doubled the size of the state forest. The Governor's task force
made progress, too. Alaska had a fire season, but by the end
they went down to help Texas put out its fires.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN said finally they saw a bit of a shift in
alignment with federal government with regards to resource
development although the Point Thomson EIS that has been delayed
one year. Fish and Wildlife might want to bootstrap some of the
ANWR values into state land, which he would oppose vigorously.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked how many federal permits are
backlogged.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN replied that he didn't know, but would get
back to him on that.
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN asked how he felt the coordination with federal
government went on last fall's lease sale.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN replied that it went great. He has gotten
very good cooperation from them on the Rare Earth issue and the
lease sale. The idea was to hold the NPRA and state lease sale
on the same day, so a company could think more strategically
about the North Slope, and it would be great to do it again.
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN agreed that coordination between the state and
federal government is good.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN said that was an overview of the last
year, but added that there are significant challenges ahead.
There are a lot of good things to build on. The TAPS throughput
issue remains the most urgent from their perspective. A lot of
positive progress has been on commercializing North Slope gas
and he pointed out that Alaska is closer to Asia than the Gulf
States and Qatar.
4:39:40 PM
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN said DNR tries every day to strike a
balance between responsible resource development and being good
stewards of the environment.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI said the new mission statement took out
"conserve" and asked what the pressing need was to change that.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN replied that he was focused on aligning
the mission statement with the policy statement in the Alaska
Constitution. They see the issues of conservation and the
public's future use encompassed by the term "within the public
interest responsible development" and he pointed out that entire
divisions are focused on conservation, like the Division of
Parks and others.
SENATOR MCGUIRE said it's predicted the state will need 180,000
barrels of oil by 2016 in order to keep up with the current
budget and asked if he knew of permits that would be requested
that will help achieve that goal.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN replied that TAPS is at a 6 percent
decline right now (he estimated that's about 36,000 barrels a
year) and that while the exploration season is positive, getting
a discovery on line will take more time than 2016. He wasn't
aware of any developments that would even hold the line at
600,000 barrels unless there is more i-field drilling in the
legacy field.
SENATOR MCGUIRE said Alaskans want the state to remain
competitive with its oil and gas investments and have asked if
there isn't a way to link a tax benefit to guaranteed
production. She tells them no and recalls how lowering the
cruise ship tax couldn't guarantee that new cruise ships would
come in. She said she thought the Senate was coming around, but
that they needed data and his help to explain to the public why
the formula is wrong. There is a base rate and the progressivity
element; trying to understand how every dollar compounds into
the .4 percent tax and why that ends of up acting punitive is
very complex to explain.
SENATOR MCGUIRE said she also wanted a good dialogue between
Commissioner Sullivan and the co-chairmen of Finance on
decoupling, because even though it was vetoed last year, a
majority of the Senate members believed decoupling was the right
way to go. They are two separated systems and it was presented
to them as a 6:1 ratio until the discovery of shale oil which
put that ratio "way off the charts." They now know at a minimum
those two systems ought to be separated. She wanted to hear
assurances he would work with the co-chairmen of Finance about
it, because that is the only way they will get to a solution.
4:50:07 PM
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN said there is no doubt that Alaska still
sits on a world class hydrocarbon basin; it includes
conventional state and federal, but if you start to look at
unconventional, USGS is doing an unconventional study up there
and they think the numbers are going to be off the charts.
Everybody recognizes that; that is not the issue. The issue is a
lot of people think we're at a sustained high price base in
terms of oil prices, but the disturbing thing from the
administration's perspective is that oil production is booming
everywhere - other states and countries - but not in the great
hydrocarbon basin of North America. Why? That is a hugely
important question and it has to do with costs. "There is no
doubt about it." In the state of Alaska. development on the
North Slope is saddled with certain costs that we're never going
to get rid of: remoteness and extreme Arctic climate and
environment. How can these costs be addressed? Road to resources
is one thing, but he has heard across the board from companies
that are looking to come here and the ones that are already
here. Even Repsol said they are exploring, but they aren't
promising any development because of the high taxes. What he
heard was focused mostly on the marginal tax rate at higher
prices.
4:54:06 PM
He said the Governor's concern with decoupling is not having to
work through it twice, but he didn't say "no" at his press
conference.
4:54:53 PM
SENATOR STEDMAN said he didn't know how changing the policy
statement interties with the legislature and he thought that
should be checked so everyone understands the legislature's
responsibilities versus the executive branch's.
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN said in discussions he has had with people on
development of the central North Slope, he has heard about a
section 404 permit and asked what application that has on the
North Slope region.
COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN replied that it is the wetlands clean
water related issue that provides a "federal hook" into all
kinds of different activities even in the state lands. So, if
you have a federal government that is not being cooperative...
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN asked what the experience has been in the
central North Slope and if it will be an issue with shale oil
extraction.
MR. BARRON answered the 404 permit for shale will undoubtedly be
an issue. Most of Great Bear's acreage will be involved in a 404
determination.
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN asked if there is any history in comparable
lands on the central North Slope with respect to how 404 issues
have been dealt with in Alaska.
MR. BARRON replied almost all of the developments on the greater
North Slope have had a 404 determination one way or another, and
the companies have come to understand what those time
constraints are and plan accordingly. Federal permitting
associated with wetlands and their primacy is one of the things
that has slowed development.
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN asked if this is a standard business
application on the central North Slope.
MR. BARRON replied yes, and in the Cook Inlet.
4:59:30 PM
CO-CHAIR WAGONER thanked everyone and adjourned the meeting at
4:59 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| State of Alaska Opportunties 2012_Sullivan_Fairbanks DNM.pdf |
SRES 1/25/2012 3:30:00 PM |
|
| Sullivan_Presentation_SRES_1-25-12 (2).pdf |
SRES 1/25/2012 3:30:00 PM |