Representative Chris Tuck

Representative
Chris Tuck

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November 9, 2015

End of the 3rd Special Session

Dear Neighbors,

After 12 days of Legislative hearings featuring presentations from the Governor’s cabinet, industry representatives, and state experts, the legislature voted to save money by severing our relationship with TransCanada for the Alaska Liquefied Natural Gas Project.

A special session at this time was necessary. This "off-take" opportunity expires December 31st and the governor respectfully wanted the legislature to be part of the decision, to get an update, and to get this done before Thanksgiving.

Above (right to left): Rep. Chris Tuck and Sen. Bill Wielechowski speak while presenting a Legislative Citation honoring the 15th Anniversary of the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

Unrelated topics distract from focus of special session

The Governor's call was for “an appropriation related to the Alaska Liquefied Natural Gasline Project.” During this session the House and Senate majorities introduced two additional resolutions. I objected when the first one was introduced because it was outside the purpose of the special session, but my objection was overruled by a majority vote.

The resolution was about the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) - opposing the recent decisions by the U.S. Department of the Interior to cancel future lease sales in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas and to deny the suspension of Shell and Statoil's leases. This is clearly outside the governor’s call and conflicts with the constitutional subject restriction that applies to special sessions called by the governor.

The reason special sessions should be narrow in scope and limited to thirty days is to prevent unrelated topics from distracting our focus and causing delays and added expenses.

The legislature could request the governor to expand his call or call itself into special session with a 2/3 vote of both the house and senate. If we called ourselves into special session, we can hold it at the same time as the governor's.

Although I agree with many of the statements that support drilling in the outer continental shelf, I could not agree with bending the law or breaking the rules for one or two companies. Unfortunately, because Shell didn't find the oil we all were hoping for; they discontinued any further exploration in the OCS, and decided not to provide a "reasonable schedule of work" that would be required to get an extension

I had the privilege of removing the road closed barricade with Granite Construction Superintendent Ryan Moren to open the new part of West Dowling.

The second resolution was an attempt to strip power away from the governor and turn it over to the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC). The Legislative Branch had previously turned over most of its own oversight authority to AGDC, and this resolution would have restricted the Governor’s jurisdiction and further reduced public oversight.

Currently, AGDC is tasked with acting as the primary agency but must also assist the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Revenue to maximize the public value of the state’s royalty natural gas, natural gas delivered to the state as payment of tax, and other natural gas received by the state. Instead, the resolution attempted to make AGDC the exclusive representative of the state and have our state agencies secondary to them.

This nonbinding resolution was only introduced in the House and passed by only one vote.

I’m here for you, so please keep in touch on matters important to you and your family!

Warm regards,

      Chris Tuck
      Alaska State Representative
      District 23 - Anchorage

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