Legislature(1999 - 2000)
01/25/2000 01:37 PM House MER
| Audio | Topic |
|---|
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
JOINT SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON MERGERS
January 25, 2000
1:37 P.M.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Rick Halford, Chairman
Representative Joe Green, Vice-Chairman
Senator Drue Pearce
Senator Johnny Ellis
Representative Beth Kerttula
Representative Brian Porter
Representative Jim Whitaker
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
Discussion of BP Amoco/ARCO merger
PREVIOUS ACTION
See the Joint Special Committee on Mergers minutes dated 6/11/99,
7/28/99, 9/24/99, 9/25/99, 11/18/99, 11/19/99, 1/12/00, and
1/18/00.
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 00-09, SIDE A
Number 001
CHAIRMAN HALFORD called the Joint Committee on Mergers meeting to
order at 1:37 p.m. and said they had turned in the required report
of their activities to date. Part of the Committee's charge was to
recommend statutory changes, but there weren't any. The Committee
didn't know what the target was because of ongoing negotiations.
He proposed a discussion of where the Committee wanted to go from
here.
SPEAKER PORTER agreed and added that he thought an opinion from the
Committee would have limited effect on the FTC's overall decision,
although he wouldn't feel uncomfortable asking BP to revisit their
original commitment for exploration and development. For the
record he read the consultant's conclusion: "The only adequate
protection for the State of Alaska's interest and for the
protection of competition to require at least the sale of ARCO's
Alaskan operations as an integrated entity with an existing
management, employees, and organization to a large domestic oil
company that would after review, appear to be fully committed to
extending ARCO's past history and position in responsibly
developing Alaska's resources."
He said according to testimony from Kevin Meyers, President ARCO
Alaska, that ARCO's position is not going to stay the same in any
event - with or without the merger. He didn't think going back to
the status quo was possible. He didn't want to offer something
when they didn't know what negotiations were going on now.
SENATOR ELLIS asked if he objected to forwarding the consultant's
conclusions to their colleagues.
SPEAKER PORTER said no, but he wouldn't recommend for the merger,
against the merger, or neutral; and didn't want to do anything.
SENATOR ELLIS asked if he was making a specific proposal to
continue the work and during that ask the company to revisit the
commitment of $5 billion somewhere during the Charter.
SPEAKER PORTER said what he said before was the conclusion of his
general remarks.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said the deadline for the report has been met, but
the resolution continued the Committee through this session. He
thought a continuing review of the proposals was appropriate. It's
a question of what people want as a conclusion or step at this
point.
Number 136
REPRESENTATIVE GREEN asked if they are going beyond what was really
expected of them if they go from a review to a proponent position.
REPRESENTATIVE KERTTULA shared everyone's concerns about having a
complex moving target, but she thought under the resolution, it
wasn't just statutory changes they were supposed to suggest. They
were supposed to take appropriate actions to insure the best
interests of the State are protected. They could talk about
conditions and commitments from BP/ARCO and maybe a consent decree.
Given the interest of the public in the State, the Committee should
put together what they agree on as findings and add suggestions as
a result of the report.
SENATOR ELLIS agreed with Representative Kerttula saying that they
are a Special Committee on the merger, not the Charter. He thought
they should be decisive and make a recommendation.
Number 212
REPRESENTATIVE WHITAKER said he thought the Committee was agreeing
with their consultants by passing on their letter and the
consultant's report. He thought developing a consensus would be
difficult and could be divisive and send no message at all.
REPRESENTATIVE KERTTULA said she would agree if they are agreeing
with what the consultants were saying, but she didn't understand
that was what they were doing.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD stated that in sending the recommendations on,
they are obviously endorsing the general package, although
everything is moving at this point. He thought the bottom line for
Alaska was to get a vertically integrated competitor in Alaska. It
sounds like the Administration's efforts were trying to get there.
It sounds like the FTC's efforts are trying to get there, also.
REPRESENTATIVE GREEN said he is concerned that if they come up with
suggestions that are counter to negotiations coming to a closure,
the Committee might just create a lot more problems. It seems like
the FTC would either ignore their suggestions or they would "accept
things back." If the suggestions were to be ignored, they wouldn't
have accomplished anything. If the Committee has no legal
standing, whatever they recommend would be after the fact.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said if people want an update of the latest legal
information, they could have an executive session; but he thought
it was a policy question of whether they wanted to go on and then,
in what manner.
Number 252
SENATOR PEARCE shared Representative WHITAKER's concerns about
creating a situation where the Legislature ends up either taking
action or through it's inability to take action even though it
tried, sends an extremely mixed message in terms of support of the
Charter and of the merger. She noted that the Committee members
have confidential information that other members are not privy to
and cannot be made privy to. So there is an unequal playing field
in some respects which has led to some misunderstandings on the
part of other legislators in terms of what the merger means to
Alaska. There is no way those can be cleared up, unfortunately.
She thought it might be good to leave things as they are now and
give the Committee a chance in the future to voice its opinion on
specific issues that may come up - since this is a moving target.
Rather than tying the Legislature up into knots that even it
doesn't understand, she would feel more comfortable if they left
themselves the clear opportunity to come out with a clear committee
position at a future date on some specific questions. There were
no specific questions before them right now.
Number 294
SENATOR ELLIS said he wanted to make sure there was a clear
understanding if they adopt the report and forward it on to their
colleagues and what that means. The consultants have said the
merger is a bad idea for documented reasons. That is what it would
mean to him and he wanted to know if thats what it meant to other
members of the special committee.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said Senator Ellis opposed the merger, but it
would be easier for him if he knew what the real merger proposal
was right now. He has heard proposals he could conceivably support
from the rumor mill, but they represent the virtual recreation of
ARCO. If they get to that point, they have gotten to a position he
can support. That's prospective.
SENATOR PEARCE moved to take the Committee into executive session
since there was confidential information that they needed to
discuss.
At approximately 2:15 p.m. the Committee went into executive
session.
The Committee reconvened at approximately 3:43 p.m.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD announced the report had been delivered to the
presiding officers and as soon as the Committee had anything
definitive to act on, they would meet again. At this point, it is
apparent that of the proposals that are currently on the table,
none of them have the legs to be anything the FTC is considering
that seriously. The Committee needs something from them before
they go forward. He asked if there were any comments.
REPRESENTATIVE KERTTULA asked if they would definitely meet again
when they were at that point.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD answered "definitely." He adjourned the meeting
at 3:44.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|