Government

The City and Borough of Juneau is finally getting to work on a comprehensive recycling program at the landfill in Lemon Creek, which may lead to curbside recycling in the Capital City.

Landfill operator Waste Management and garbage collection company Arrow Refuse have reached a tentative agreement on a new tipping fee contract. CBJ Public Works Director Kirk Duncan says that allows the city to resume negotiations with Waste Management over the recycling program.

“It looks like Arrow’s going to be taking the refuse to Waste Management for the next 10 years. So, now Waste Management and CBJ can sit down and start negotiating what the new recycling facility looks like and what the costs are going to be and how we’re going to roll household hazardous waste and junk vehicles into the program,” Duncan says.

Right now the city has contracts to offer three separate recycling services: Household products like paper, aluminum and glass can be dropped off at the landfill Tuesday through Saturday; hazardous waste is collected on designated days a handful of times per year; the same goes for junk vehicles.

Duncan says the city spends about a million dollars a year on those services. Bringing them all under the umbrella of Waste Management at the landfill isn’t expected to save any money, but hopefully it will be easier for residents.

“Consolidation, while not saving the city a tremendous amount of money, will make it much more convenient for everybody to use the facility,” says Duncan. “It also allows Arrow – if they wish to pursue this concept and they’ve made certainly overtures to doing this – they want to start doing curbside recycling. So that’s a potential as well.”

Waste Management was selected for the consolidated recycling contract in August. But negotiations with the city were put on hold when Arrow Refuse announced in September a plan to start a curbside recycling program, and barge trash to the Lower 48 instead of dumping it in the landfill. The Regulatory Commission of Alaska rejected that proposal.

Arrow has since filed a new plan with the RCA that does not include curbside recycling. But as KTOO reported in December, the company hopes to add the service in Juneau soon.

Duncan, along with officials from Waste Management and Arrow Refuse, will discuss solid waste issues at tonight’s CBJ Assembly Committee of the Whole meeting.

Also tonight, the assembly will get an update on the State Library Archives and Museums, or SLAM project, from the state’s hired architect.

The meeting starts at 6 o’ clock in City Hall Assembly Chambers.

Governor Sean Parnell delivered the State of the State address on Wednesday, January 18, 2012, and Beth Kerttula delivered the Minority Response. Audio of both is below.

The federal coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects says Alaskans need to stop thinking of natural gas as the next oil.

Larry Persily says the difference between the gas that would go into a line from the North Slope, and the oil currently filling the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, is that the state needs a natural gas project more than producers or world markets need Alaska’s gas.

“We need the gasline for the decades of affordable fuel it’s going to provide to Alaskans – natural gas for railbelt communities, hopefully propane for everyone else,” says Persily. “We need to accept that we need a line for the jobs, for the tens of billions of dollars in investment that it will bring along, and for the additional barrels of oil that it will put into TAPS that will accompany all of that exploration and development for gas. And after all those good things, there will be some tax and royalty dollars too. Not nearly as much as oil, but it will be a thick icing on the sweet cake.”

Right now Persily says economics and Alaska politics are standing in the way of a line being built.

When the legislature passed the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act in 2007, the idea was that North Slope natural gas would be sold in the continental United States. But with cheap and plentiful reserves of shale gas now available in the Lower 48, some state leaders – including Governor Sean Parnell – have decided to refocus efforts on exporting liquefied natural gas to the Pacific Rim.

Persily says just because the bottom fell out of the U.S. market, doesn’t mean Alaska will suddenly be able to export its gas. For one thing, there’s just as much competition in Asia as there is domestically. For another, there are certain restrictions placed on exports.

“You have to get an Energy Department license. Anybody who’s followed the battles in Nikiski, where Cook Inlet gas, ConocoPhillips has been fighting with the Department of Energy to get their license renewed over the years. You have to show the Department of Energy that you can take those BTUs, ship them overseas, and it will not hurt American consumers, it will not hurt the American economy,” Persily says. “Alaska gas needs a second approval under federal law. You also have to show, to export gas off the North Slope overseas, you have to show that it is not going to harm what’s called the Alaska natural gas transportation system – the pipeline route along the highway to the Lower 48. That’s the law that passed Congress in ’77. There’s that protection in there. It doesn’t mean you can’t, it’s just these are the hurdles you face.”

Persily says it’s time for state leaders to decide the best way to get Alaska’s vast supply of natural gas to market. The problem is that those same leaders keep falling in love with different projects.

“I’m sort of surprised we don’t have a collective case of sexually transmitted disease because we’ve hopped in and out of bed with our favorite project over the decades so many times,” he says.

Persily dismisses talk that Alaska has missed its window of opportunity as far as gas is concerned. He says the market is constantly evolving, and demand for Alaska gas will be realized one day.

“As to which market? Where it goes? I think we need to petition ourselves, get certificates, get designs, position Alaska for a couple of years, see how the markets play out,” says Persily. “And then hope that the state can work out a fiscal deal with the producers to let them take the risk to get it built into long-term what will be a profitable market.”

Persily spoke last night (Thursday) to the Juneau World Affairs Council.

Governor Sean Parnell on Thursday made his first public comment on the resignation of controversial state wildlife official Corey Rossi.

Parnell said he agreed with Fish and Game Commissioner Cora Campbell’s decision to keep Rossi on the job, even after she learned that he was questioned as part of a criminal investigation.

“Each case is going to be different in who knew what, when, and all that. So, my view is that when a person is charged with a crime that directly relates to their job, they need to be removed. Anything short of that is dependent on a case by case basis,” Parnell said at a press availability in Juneau.

Rossi was charged last week with 12 misdemeanor counts related to an illegal black bear hunt that took place in June 2008. Prosecutors say he lied on state hunting reports to cover up who shot three of the four bears killed in the hunt.

Parnell and Commissioner Campbell say they knew that Rossi was to be interviewed, but did not know the nature of the investigation until after the charges became public.

Rossi was director of the state Division of Wildlife Conservation. His lack of qualifications and advocacy of controversial predator control policies made him a divisive figure within the Department of Fish and Game.

Gov. Sean Parnell Wednesday night set out a “road map” for getting access to North Slope gas.

In his annual State of the State address to the Alaska Legislature, Parnell said he talked with the CEOs of Alaska’s major oil producers within the previous 24 hours and it was clear they have not reached agreement on key issues. So he delivered what he calls a “road map” for an Alaska natural gas pipeline.

“First, these companies need to agree to resolve the Point Thomson litigation,” he said. “If no settlement in the state’s interest can be reached with all parties, the state will fight for Alaska’s interest at the Alaska Supreme Court hearing on February 8th in Anchorage.”

Parnell said he also expects the companies to align under the framework of the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) and consolidate all gasline projects. By the third quarter of the year, he wants financial estimates and work schedules for a large-diameter Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) pipeline through Alaska to tidewater.

“If these milestones are surpassed, the 2013 legislature can take up gas tax legislation designed to move the project forward,” he said. “The path ahead is better defined, and benchmarks for progress are in place. And while a lot more work remains, Alaska is closer to the day when our gas can move from the ground to Alaskans and to markets beyond.”

Parnell also took time during the speech to promote the budget he made public last month, saying it holds the line on government spending while adding nearly $4 billion to the state’s savings accounts. He also repeated his call for reducing oil taxes in an attempt to increase North Slope oil production.

“For many years, the TransAlaska Pipeline has provided a pathway to prosperity for Alaskans. But where more than 2-million barrels of oil per day once flowed through the pipeline, less than 600,000 barrels now inch through. And unless we act to reverse this decline, we will pay a stiff price in lost jobs, lost state revenues and lost opportunities,” Parnell told legislators.

Oil taxes promise to be one of the most controversial issues during this year’s session. After the speech, Senate President Gary Stevens said the governor’s tax plan table is flawed and he would like the Senate to introduce its own plan.

Minority Response

House Democrats pledge to fight the governor’s plan to reduce oil taxes.

In the House Minority response to the governor’s State of the State address, Minority Leader Beth Kerttula called Parnell’s plan a “give-away.”

“Alaskans are already investing hundreds of millions of dollars every year in the oil industry in tax credits – three billion dollars in the last four years. Through these credits, actually, we are the biggest investor on the North Slope,” she said.

Kerttula said Alaskans should know where their money is going.

House Democrats voted against Parnell’s bill last session when it passed the House. The caucus this year supports legislation that would increase reporting requirements for oil companies claiming tax credits, including the number of jobs created and the number of Alaskans employed in those jobs.

Democrats also advocate legislation that would invest $10-billion of Alaska’s nearly $13-billion surplus into the state’s Permanent Fund.

“We’ve got to save some of our surplus in the Permanent Fund. That’s what that fund does. It turns a resource that’s not renewable into a future resource for future generations of Alaskans,” she said.

Kerttula also called for investment in education and job training. She criticized Parnell’s education budget, which includes money for rural school construction and college scholarships, but the amount districts receive for operations is the same as last year. Districts across the state stand to lose revenue.

House Democrats are calling for legislation that would require the state to annually adjust the base student allocation for inflation.

The group behind a citizens’ initiative to re-establish an Alaska Coastal Management Program spent more than 100-thousand dollars on its nearly month-long signature gathering effort. Casey Kelly has more.

Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho is chairman of the Alaska Sea Party and a primary sponsor of the initiative.

“While we still have some bills coming in, rough estimate is 100- to 105-thousand dollars,” says Botelho.

From the time it was founded in October to the end of December, the Sea Party reported more than 67-thousand dollars in income to the Alaska Public Offices Commission. It spent more than 59-thousand dollars. Revenue and expenditures for this month (January) are not yet available.

The North Slope Borough gave the Sea Party campaign 25-thousand dollars. Other major donors included the Bristol Bay Borough, the Bristol Bay Native Association, the cities of Valdez and Aleknagik; two Community Development Quota groups: The Western Alaska Community Development Association and the Alaska Pribilof Island Community Development Association; as well as the Alaska Municipal League and the Alaska Conference of Mayors.

The Sea Party’s APOC filing shows the group paid Anchorage consultant Scott Kohlhaas 50-thousand dollars – by far the group’s largest expenditure. Botelho says Kohlhaas – a 2010 candidate for state House as a Libertarian – organized the petition drive in Anchorage, Fairbanks and the Mat-Su, which included using paid signature gatherers. He also provided verification services. Elsewhere in the state, the Sea Party used about 250 volunteers.

The group delivered 34-thousand signatures to the Division of Elections on Tuesday. By turning them in before the legislature convened, the group achieved its goal of giving lawmakers an opportunity to pass substantially similar legislation during the 90-day session. Botelho admits part of that is a desire to avoid a costly campaign to get voters to approve the initiative.

“We’ve been told that we should expect to be looking at a campaign of about a half a million dollars. And of course, that doesn’t take into account the extent to which there might be an organized opposition,” he says.

Lawmakers on Tuesday gave no assurances that they would consider a coastal management bill this session.

The federally funded program, which helped industry and communities navigate the complicated federal and state permitting process for coastal development projects, closed last year after the legislature and Parnell administration failed to work out a deal to reauthorize it.