AGIA Forum Commissioner Tom Irwin

[Blogging on the fly here, so I may give up a little accuracy to get this up quickly. At least the video is exactly what they said.]

Commissioner Tom Irwin gave a brief introduction of the project and then introduced the various experts the State has hired. The videos show that introduction.



[I'll get the second part of this video up later. It is only a few more minutes but Viddler has a ten minute limit so I couldn't do it all in one video]

(6pm - OK, here's the second part of the video)




The report is billed as over 2000 pages - including all the appendices. Essentially, today's presentation came off to me as a sales pitch to the legislature. The pitch is to pass the AGIA legislation which will authorize the pursuit of permission from regulators to build the pipeline.

When I say sales pitch, I do need to qualify this. The State's job is to get the best deal for the State - for the people of Alaska. I believe that the Department of Natural Resources team is dedicated to that goal. I've had the pleasure of a couple of meetings with Marty Rutherford, who is in charge of this project, a number of years ago when I as working as a professor of public administration. They were hour long open ended meetings in which she impressed me as bright and a dedicated public servant.

Additionally, the team working on this is essentially the team that resigned their jobs during the Murkowski administration because they believed the Murkowski administration was giving away the store in its negotiations with the oil companies. My sense, given that history, and listening to them this morning, is that they strongly believe what they are doing is in the public's interest.

Key points the presenters have made are:

The heart of the AGIA - the must haves, our obligation to

• Expandable pipeline
• Low tariffs
• Allows explorers an open basin

Our birthright to protect open access.
For these rights we were willing to give something

• Move with fixed timelines
• Put up $500 million - not a giveaway, our investment to get the gas to market. Most comes back to the state in lower tariffs. Tells them we are serious.
• An AGIA project coordinator
• Stable production tax rate for ten years - it makes sense from a business perspective

They also spent time comparing the AGIA proposal to the Producer Proposal and to the LNG options.
They discussed why the Producers, who control the gas, are likely to release the gas eventually. Rep. Mike Dugan pursued this question when the legislators had a chance to ask question.s

All this will be available on the Gavel to Gavel tomorrow.(The link gets you to Gavel to Gavel, they don't have the link to today's sessions up yet.) I think this morning's session gives a good overview of the areas the state thinks are important and their rational for why this is the best path.

Watch the first couple of hours. They start with an overview. Then the repeat that overview with more detail. Then they open to questions from the legislators.

At one point Irwin responded with something like,

"If we get the state resolve - to protect open access - the companies will adjust to the new realities."

Open access refers to a pipeline where all producers have open access to get their gas onto the pipeline which is different from the current oil pipeline situation as I understand it.

I'm going to stop here so I can get this posted and return to the afternoon session.