BRADNERS' ALASKA LEGISLATIVE DIGEST

Governor cites lower oil prices in budget plan Gov. Mike Dunleavy submitted former Gov. Bill Walker’s proposed $11.5 billion FY 2020 budget on Dec. 15 as a “placeholder” to meet the statutory deadline for submitting a budget. The full 2018 revenue forecast was also released, but there differences with the preliminary forecast released by Walker two weeks earlier, just before Dunlevy took office. The Dec. 15 budget assumes a $64-per-barrel average oil price for Fiscal 2020, the budget year beginning…

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The U.S. Interior Department estimates that full development of lands with oil potential in the Arc- tic National Wildlife Refuge could result in $3.04 billion per year to the state of Alaska and $52 mil- lion yearly to the North Slope Borough, according to the newly-released Draft Environmental Impact Statement, or DEIS, for ANWR leasing. If lease sales are held in 2019 or 2020 it would still take a decade or more for exploration and development of discoveries, the DEIS…

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Walker okays Ambler Road funds In the closing days of his term Gov. Bill Walker approved $3.6 million in state funds to complete federal regulatory work on the Ambler Mining District Access Project, a 211-mile industrial road that would support copper and zinc projects in the western Brooks Range. Trilogy Metals and its partner, South 32 Ltd., an Australian company, are planning development of Arctic, a high-grade deposit, and are in advanced exploration of Bornite, a large copper deposit in…

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Salmon decline linked to warming 2019 is expected to be another poor year for pink salmon in Southeast and Southcentral coastal areas and the Bristol Bay sockeye catch is predicted to be down, although 2017 and 2016 were both record-setting years. The Southeast pink harvest is pegged at 18 million fish, or half the 10-year average of 36 million, according to the state Department of Fish and Game’s annual forecast for the upcoming season. State biologists say warm waters in…

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$28.1 million bid for slope leases The state received $28.1 million in bonus bids in its Nov. 15 North Slope and Beaufort Sea “areawide” lease sales, the bulk of the money from Repsol and a newly-formed company based in Louisiana, Lagniappe. Repsol bid top-dollar for selected unleased tracts near the Pikka discovery, in the west-central central slope, where the Spain-based company is 49 percent owner. Lagniappe bid mostly near the state’s minimum per-acre bid but picked up a large 195,200-acre…

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New Gov. Mike Dunleavy supports university getting its lands New Gov. Mike Dunleavy told the Fairbanks News-Miner’ editorial board that he favors getting more state land available to the University of Alaska to generate revenue. The UA is a land-grant college that was supposed to get a substantial land endowment, which did not happen. Efforts to get more land to the university have been fought by environmental groups who worry that the UA will move to develop them. Credit Union…

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New Gov. Dunleavy fills out his leadership team Gov. Mike Dunleavy has named his new leadership team, most with  a strong conservative focus but also naming an unusual number of women to cabinet positions. Donna Arduin was appointed Nov. 26 as budget director, heading the Office of Management and Budget. Arduin is well-known in national conservative circles and has advised several Republican governors.   Feige at Natural Resources; MacKinnon at DOTPF; Tangeman at Revenue Dunleavy appointed Corri Feige as Commissioner…

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