Gwich’in and environmental opponents celebrate the results, while state officials expect the incoming Trump administration to make it easier to drill in the refuge.
The Alaska Gasline Development Corporation can’t find a private company willing to pay $50 million for the final design and engineering work on a proposed gas pipeline unless there is a pledge to get that money back from the state.
Two state-owned corporations that don’t act without the blessing of Gov. Mike Dunleavy have cooked up a plan to tap into a slush fund to provide a $50 million guarantee to pay for a gasline study.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced today that federal protections against mining, oil and gas development on 28 million acres of federal land in Alaska will stay in place.
One company, Bluecrest, said it will need more support even after a state agency agreed to forgive some $7 million in loans. Another company, HEX, says it needs the state to agree to a royalty reduction before it will drill a well.
AIDEA has long used outside attorneys. What’s new is selecting firms in advance, which the agency's leader says allows work to happen more quickly than going through the state’s procurement process each time an issue comes up.
As the world pivots toward lower-carbon energy sources in response to global warming, experts say some of the state’s hard-to-tap oil prospects are becoming less attractive.