Palin Promotions

The organizers and sponsors of Vote Yes! Repeal the Giveaway gathered Thursday to submit their proposed referendum to Alaska Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell to verify the language, so it will be valid for signature gathering, Alex DeMarban, Alaska Dispatch reported. The organizers have 372 sponsors, which is more than three times the amount required, however, they must gather over 30,000 signatures in less than three months for the referendum to be put on the ballot on August 26, 2014. The number represents 10% of the electorate who voted in the last election.

The referendum’s principal sponsors are: “Jim Whitaker, a Republican and former Fairbanks mayor, Bella Hammond, widow of late Republican governor Jay Hammond, and Vic Fischer, a former Democratic senator.” Fischer helped draft the Alaska State Constitution over 50 years ago, and said SB-21 violates the state Constitution.

“In the ’50s, Alaskans worked to get statehood to get away from absentee control of Alaska resources,” said Fischer, referring to outside industries that dominated development.

The Constitution says the state should manage its resources for the maximum benefit of its residents. But Senate Bill 21 doesn’t do that, Fischer said, calling it an “unconstitutional” giveaway of billions of dollars benefiting BP, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, the companies that produce nearly all of Alaska’s oil.

The Bob and Mark Show referred to DeMarban’s report during their Friday morning broadcast. Bob Lester and Mark Colavecchio who host the show have been friends of the Palins for over 17 years and have been at the forefront of repelling Alaska Governor Sean Parnells’s three-years-long war on Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share (ACES), in which he finally emerged victorious.

Meanwhile, DeMarban reported on April 19, that ConocoPhillips cancelled a contract for an oil rig under construction in the Arctic Sea off the North Slope. Drilling was to have begun in the summer of 2014.

“While state leaders put a buoyant spin on Alaska’s future, skeptical observers can’t ignore the facts as oil production on the North Slope continues its two-decade drop…[S]ome skeptics can’t help but wonder how long before the state’s $16 billion savings account vanishes, what with Gov. Sean Parnell’s “great gamble” to lower oil production taxes in hopes the oil patch grows,” DeMarban wrote.

DeMarban cited Shell’s “pausing” of Arctic drilling to focus on repairing rigs in Asia, the stalled 800-mile pipeline which was likely just a ploy to get tax breaks, and the price of crude dropping to below $100 per barrel as the Chinese economy slows.

On April 16, the Juneau Empire published Gov. Parnell’s spiel on SB-21.

H/T Lynda Armstrong, “The Teacher’s Daughter: a Tribute to Sarah Palin” Facebook Group for story lead.

The last few days have been busy at the Alaska Statehouse. While we have been focusing much on SB-21 – the bill that is intended to abolish Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share (ACES), not all the news coming out of the legislature is bad.

Federal Gun Control Nullification

The Tenth Amendment Center reported two days ago that both the AK House and Senate approved HB69, which would nullify any federal gun control laws passed by the Obama administration. Wyoming, Texas, and several other other states have passed or are working on similar legislation. Alaska Governor Sean Parnell will more than likely sign it.

Among other things, SB69 says:

“a statute, regulation, rule, or order that has the purpose, intent, or effect of confiscating any firearm, banning any firearm, limiting the size of a magazine for any firearm, imposing any limit on the ammunition that may be purchased for any firearm, or requiring the registration of any firearm or its ammunition infringes on an Alaskan’s right to bear arms in violation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and, therefore, is not made in accordance with the Constitution of the United States, is not authorized by the Constitution of the United States, is not the supreme law of the land, and, consequently, is invalid in this state and shall be considered null and void and of no effect in this state…”

The legislation requires the state to stand down and not enforce unconstitutional federal gun control laws. It also requires the state’s Attorney General to defend any Alaskan who is charged under any such “laws” that may be passed. The entire premise of this legislation is that the gun laws being proposed are not valid laws.

Alaskans are urged to call Gov. Parnell at (907) 465-3500 and ask for him to sign SB69 into law.

H/T O.P. Ditch, Vets4Sarah for story lead.

HB 4, which will provide $400 million to build an in-state gasline has been approved, Pat Forgey of the Alaska Dispatch reported yesterday. Judging by the headline, Forgey believes this pipeline will be little more than a pipe dream. Hopefully, the pipeline will materialize and become reality – otherwise it would be a nearly half-billion dollar boondoggle. As previously reported, a new state agency would be created to oversee construction of the pipeline which would bring North Slope natural gas to the state’s population centers. It could possibly connect to the larger pipeline being built under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA), one of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s core accomplishments.

“Alaska’s constitution contains an explicit provision which requires that Alaska’s resources are for the maximum benefit of Alaskans, not corporate interests no matter how powerful. The Alaska Constitution is threatened by SB21’s resource giveaway. It must be recognized that the corporate goals of Big Oil are not the same as Alaska’s,” Joe Paskavan wrote for the Alaska Dispatch on April 10.

Paskavan wrote that the state Constitutional Constitution had two fears: that Big Oil would exploit the resource under the “thin guise of development,” or acquire oil rich lands and warehouse the resource to prevent competition with activities in other locations – specifically foreign countries. “It is a myth and manufactured crisis that oil throughput decline is caused by Alaska’s production tax,” he wrote saying that the decline is due to both treatment facility constraints and “limitations on capacity to get oil out of the facilities, which were designed, engineered and intended by Big Oil decades ago.”

Oil decline started in 1989, long before Gov. Palin entered politics and long before ACES, as previously reported. The big three companies had a near monopoly less than a decade ago. Under ACES, small independent companies are thriving. SB-21 could return the Big Three to near monopoly status again.

“Alaska’s constitution should not be trampled and our resources should not be exploited. The economic goals of corporate interests, especially those with near monopoly powers and a history of corruption of the public process, are not similar to Alaska’s goals. The SB21 tax giveaway with:

1. no benchmarks to legitimately measure real increased production,
2. no sunset to provide Alaskans with an opportunity for realistic reassessment, and
3. no established reinstatement of the current tax structure when the giveaway tax bill fails…

…is a trampling of Alaska’s constitution and an exploitation of our resources,” Paskavan concluded.

Alaskans are encouraged to keep up the fight against SB-21.

H/T Lynda Armstrong, “The Teacher’s Daughter: a Tribute to Sarah Palin” Facebook Group for story lead.

Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share “(ACES) was intended to ensure Alaska got a fair value for oil pumped from its lands, while at the same time encouraging more investment in the oil fields,” Pat Forgey, Alaska Dispatch reported yesterday in Fact check: What was the purpose of ACES oil tax?.

In a truly bizarre case of “politics doth make strange bedfellows” Alaska State Senator Hollis French D-Anchorage – one of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s most bitter enemies once Obama became the Democratic Party’s nominee in 2008 – was and remains a staunch defender of ACES. French launched his unsuccessful assault on Gov. Palin’s career as one of the principals in the “Troopergate” – or more rather “Tasergate” investigation – at the height of the McCain-Palin 2008 campaign. French is a hard leftist and strong circumstantial evidence suggests the Obama campaign was behind the investigation. French, therefore is neither a friend of Gov. Palin’s nor of conservative principles, but ironically, he is one of the few in the stacked legislature who are standing up for ACES.

Under ACES, which was passed with solid bi-partisan support, the tax levied on production profits increases as oil prices increase, but oil companies are given tax credits for exploring and and drilling new fields. Smaller companies have been more aggressive about exploration, thus have benefited from the capital expenditures breaks offered under ACES. The tax system came under attack as the ink was drying on Gov. Palin’s signature and her successor – Alaska Governor Sean Parnell – who first promised to uphold it, has waged a three-year-long war against it.

Though oil production has declined, employment on the North Slope has increased steadily since the passage of ACES. Forgey reported on the whole back-and-forth among those who claim that ACES is responsible for the decline in production on the Slope. But, “The companies that operate on North Slope say the aging oil reserves have been undergoing “normal field decline,” most of which happened before ACES was adopted in 2007,” Forgey reported. Production has been declining steadily since the 1980s, long before ACES. Gov. Palin was a college student at the time production began to wane.

ACES was not designed to raise taxes, punish companies, or increase production. Forgey reported on a controversy involving Gaffney, Cline & Associates, an oil industry consultant the state retained when crafting ACES. Proponents of SB-21 – the bill that would abolish ACES – say the firm claimed ACES would increase production, but no evidence exists to support the claim. The Parnell administration has the firm under contract, but not for matters related to oil profits taxation. Forgey reported that the Parnell administration refused to respond to requests from State Sen. Gara filed under Alaska’s public records law for the firm’s economic models and reports. Further, the administration will not make a decision on releasing the data until after the legislative session concludes. These moves suggest the Parnell administration knows the firm never made promises that ACES would increase production – which was not the point of the tax system in the first place.

The Alaska Legislative Session concludes April 18. Alaskans should urge the representatives to vote NO on ACES. The group, AKBackbone has been organizing protests and taking other political action to preserve ACES.

H/T Lynda Armstrong, “I Stand With Sarah: a Tribute” Facebook Group for story lead.

Alaska Senate Bill 21 has been re-written to reduce the oil tax base rate from 35% to 33%, the Alaska Dispatch reported on April 4. The changes could cost the state an additional $1 billion over the next six years, according to the State’s Department of Revenue, in Pat Forgey’s report filed on April 6. The bill is estimated to cost the state between $5.7 billion and $6 billion over the next six years. Ordinary Alaskans have been protesting SB-21 as well.

One of the bill’s chief proponents “House Resources Committee Co-chair Eric Feige, R-Chickaloon, said that if Alaska took $1 billion less in taxes from oil companies, that money would all be reinvested in Alaska,” Forgey reported.

But, “the tax cut is to oil companies’ profits, they’ll have to pay income tax on that money. The federal corporate income tax rate is 35 percent, though companies had varying effective tax rates. Therefore, a billion dollar tax cut would leave companies with only $650 million available to be invested in Alaska, in theory, if they choose to do so.”

The entire point of Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share (ACES) – one of Gov. Palin’s three core accomplishments while in office – is to give oil companies the opportunity to buy down their tax burden by reinvesting in Alaska.

Meanwhile, Forgey reported on April 6 that the House in the dark of night passed an Amendment to SB-21 that requires state auditors checking companies’ tax returns to use oil industry figures and not their own. “The amendment was proposed by Rep. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage. His wife is a business and financial analyst for ConocoPhillips, the state’s largest oil producer. According to Hawker’s financial disclosure filings, she earned between $100,000 and $200,000 from her ConocoPhillips job last year,” Forgey reported.

The language of this amendment was in the Petroleum Profits Tax (PPT) of 2006. Out of the PPT was born the Corrupt Bastards Club (CBC) and the VECO scandal. It appears Alaska Governor Sean Parnell along with his henchmen and women in both houses are gearing up to launch CBC 2.0.

Another Dispatch article filed on April 4 by Laurel Andrews delineated in detail how Alaska’s laws foster conflicts of interest in the legislature. Legislators cannot simply recuse themselves from a vote. The Uniform Rules require unanimous consent from the requestor’s colleagues, however, a legislator is free to abstain from voting altogether absent a request to recuse.

Alaskans Awake and Protesting

Alaskans are awake to what is going on with SB-21 and have protest in at least two cities. Some have organized under the banner of “AKBackbone,” which is comprised of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.

You can follow AKBackbone on Facebook and Twitter.

AK Backbone has been conducting rallies and protests throughout the state and the Dispatch provided photos from Anchorage, all courtesy of Clark James Mishner.

These photos in which protesters burn a symbolic $5.5 billion check in Homer are courtesy of Bob Shavelson.

H/T Lynda Armstrong, “I Stand With Sarah: a Tribute” Facebook Group for story leads.

The last several days have seen a mixed bag of reports about legislation pertaining to the energy industry in Alaska. US for Palin, of course has been covering Alaska Governor Sean Parnell’s three-year-long war on Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share (ACES) as reported by various columnists in the Dispatch (principally DeMarban and Fogey), and the Bob and Mark Show.

Covering new news first and shifting gears to gaslines, Pat Fogey today reported that the Alaska House has voted for an in-state small-diameter gas pipeline that will originate in the North Slope and terminate at a point yet to be determined in Southcentral. The project known as ASAP “would bring 500 million cubic feet of natural gas to the state’s urban centers,” Fogey reported. The pipeline is covered under House Bill 4, which passed 30-9. The Alaska Gasline Development Corporation is to be funded and created under the HB-4 if it is made into law.

Fogey reported some good news on the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) front – one of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s other core accomplishments. The City of Valdez supports a large-diameter pipeline – specifically the one being built under AGIA:

“The big pipeline Valdez supports is being considered for development by pipeline-builder TransCanada Corp., under a state-backed process — the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) — started under Gov. Sarah Palin. The Calgary-based pipeline company has since been joined by Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips and BP — the companies that hold most of the rights to develop the North Slope’s massive gas reserves — in the AGIA effort. Last fall, the partners said their pipeline and LNG project would cost more than $65 billion.”

Though Rep. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage has long been against AGIA, according to Fogey’s report, Hawker said, “if TransCanada and its partners decide to build the big pipeline, his ASAP line could run to that line instead. He stressed that the two proposed pipelines aren’t in competition.”

Rep. Bill Stotze, R-Chugiak who was skeptical at first about HB-4 now thinks the ASAP project could help expedite AGIA. Two gaslines big and small complementing one another is a good thing.

Complete details on the AGIA project can be found in Gov. Palin’s Accomplishments during the 2006 – 2009 time-frame.

Meanwhile, the attacks on ACES have reached even lower nadirs and have crossed deep into the realm of the absurd. On March 30, Fogey reported that oil lobbyists see the billions in production tax cuts that would result from demolishing ACES as merely “a positive start.” But, deepening the cut, would require sending SB-21 back to the Senate, risking failure. Oil industry executives have gone on record as saying the proposed demolition of ACES under SB-21 would not be sufficient incentive to spur greater production – which is the whole stated point of the exercise. Will greed and pride goeth before the fall? We have until April 18th to find out.

If conflicted interests are not enough, we have one representative – Kurt Olson, R-Soldotna – who thinks the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 was not the company’s fault. Even the company’s legal counsel was surprised at that one.

I’m still wondering what to call it when crony and politician are the same person. I mean, it happens often enough that we have to call it something. Perhaps, “Auto-Crony Capitalism”? It’s sort of like being the master of your own domain….

Let’s have a little fun with this. Fellow Palinistas…what say you? “Auto-Crony Capitalism” a good description for when crony and politician are the same person?

H/T Lynda Armstrong, “I Stand With Sarah: a Tribute” Facebook Group.

Back on September 3, 2011, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin coined the term “crony capitalism” to describe politicians who are beholden to lobbyists, special interest groups, and business interests passing laws to benefit them in exchange for large donations. But, what do you call it when the crony and the politician are the same person? When key Alaska legislative committee chairs ramrodding SB-21 through are ConocoPhillips employees and are taking testimony from company vice presidents, under the leadership of a governor who is a former lobbyist for the company, there could not be a more naked conflict of interest.

Pat Fogey, yesterday reported about these conflicts of interest and egregious ethical lapses in ConocoPhillips employees steer Alaska oil tax cut bill through Legislature.

Legislative leaders who support a tax cut on oil companies doing business in Alaska have appointed industry-friendly committee chairs and then sent the bill through those committees, resulting in ConocoPhillips vice presidents appearing before legislative committees chaired by ConocoPhillips employees.

As it turned out, ConocoPhillips employees serving as legislators agreed with the ConocoPhillips vice presidents that taxes on oil production need to be curtailed (emphasis mine).

ConocoPhillips is the single largest oil producer in the state of Alaska.

A Train of Conflicted Interests

Fogey chronicled the entire corrupt journey SB-21 has taken thus far starting with AK State Senator Micciche, R-Soldotna, who earns over $100,000 per year as a Conoco employee. He could have recused to his committee co-chair – Sen. Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla – which would have been the right thing to do. He took on debating the bill despite this very clear conflict of interest.

After passing through the Special Committee on TAPS Throughput, the bill made its way to the Senate Resources Committee, whose chair Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage is married to the manager of R&M Consulting’s Construction Services. This company has deep petroleum ties. Giessel’s husband, Richard earns well over $200,000 per year in his capacity at R&M. Of course, Giessel voted in favor of SB-21.

The bill passed on to the Senate Finance Committee chaired by a Conoco employee – Sen. Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, who earns up to $100,000 per year. He could have recused to a co-chair, but just like Micciche involved himself with the bill despite the clear conflict of interest.

SB-21 is now being heard by the House Resources Committee. The wife of this committee’s chair, Rep. Eric Feige, R-Chickaloon – earns up to $200,000 as a manager for “Linc Energy, which is developing the Umiat oil field, helped by state incentives.” Feige is the third person to have a co-chair to whom he could have done the right thing and recused. Feige is handling the bill.

In Alaska, it is legal and common for legislators to work in the private sector, as long as their conflicts of interest are disclosed. Just because something is legal, does not make it ethical, right, or smart. Fogey reported that “Senate Bill 21 would cut oil taxes an estimated $5 to $6 billion over six years, given projected prices and production levels. That would all-but guarantee several years of deficit spending.” Everyone trying to ramrod this bill from top to bottom is involved with major conflicts of interest. These Judas Iscariots are putting themselves and their employers ahead of their State’s Constitution and the people they were elected to serve in exchange for today’s 30 piece of silver.

H/T Lynda Armstrong, “I Stand With Sarah: a Tribute” Facebook Group.