Tide's Changing And I'm Feeling Inadequate

Our Juneau sojourn is coming to a close before long.  We're staying until almost the end of the session.  But our daughter's in Berlin for six months and this is a good time to go see friends and relations on that side of the Atlantic, plus our son's in DC, and I have a conference at the end of May which is pushing us to have a much shorter stay at home than I would have planned.

I wandered off to some committees I don't normally go to yesterday and today and I'm a bit overwhelmed trying to write about them.  I went to Sen Resources yesterday and House Resources today.  I'm telling myself that no one can keep up with everything and to relax.  The video will give you a sense of what I listened to for over an hour.

  It's not as though I couldn't understand what they were saying, I just don't know the larger context and history in this area.  The man sitting to the right a Marcia Davis in the video is Acting Oil and Gas Division Director Kevin Banks who I know through the Alaska Returned Peace Corps Volunteers group.  He did say that the goals in setting up tax incentives are:
1.     To find incentives that will affect the behavior the way you want (to develop Alaska oil and gas)  AND
2.      To find the right level of incentive so you are[n't] giving away more than you have to.

Easier said than done, I'm sure.

I've been coming to believe that without the Legislative staff - both the Legislative Affairs Agency and Leg Legal as well as the legislators' individual staffers - and the career staff in the Executive Branch agencies, the state would be in deep trouble.   There are some very knowledgeable legislators and some that I have serious questions about.  But even if they were all good, the shear amount of work and the rapid pace preclude a lot of thoughtful review and analysis. 

I'm not in a position a judge how well the two bureaucrats who were testifying yesterday perform their jobs, but minimally, they know the regulations well.   I was impressed.  

Another incentive discussed was for gas storage.  Rep. Hawker testified on his bill that had just passed the House and was now being taken up by the Senate.  Fortunately, there are people far more knowledgeable on these things than I who are reporting.  Here's the beginning of Wesley Loy's piece in Petroleum News the other day:  

Gas storage bill passes

Alaska House votes 38-0 for act to encourage Cook Inlet gas storage, exploration

Wesley Loy

For Petroleum News

The Alaska House of Representatives on March 24 passed the Cook Inlet Recovery Act, which provides tax credits for construction of natural gas storage projects plus incentives for gas explorers.
The legislation, House Bill 280, could emerge as one as one of the state Legislature’s top energy initiatives for the session, which ends April 18.
The bill addresses a major and increasingly popular concern — a looming shortage of Cook Inlet gas, long the primary fuel for heating homes and businesses and for generating electricity for the state’s main population center including Anchorage.
The vote in favor of HB 280 was a resounding 38-0 with two House members absent. The prime sponsor was Rep. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage.
The bill now moves to the Senate, where similar legislation is pending, Senate Bill 203. Its sponsor is Anchorage Democrat Sen. Hollis French, who is part of the Senate’s bipartisan majority. [The rest of Loy's piece is here.]

Today I sat in the House Resources Committee.  While the topics overlapped somewhat, it was a very different presentation.  Consultant Mary Ann Pease presented a Commonwealth North Report on rail belt energy - particularly the declining natural gas production compared to the need and ways to be sure the need can be met.

This was in the Ramona Barnes Conference room and I sat below this 82 pound salmon.  

And this is just a tiny bit of what's happening.