Here is a sampling of editorial opinions from Alaska newspapers:
March 10, 2017
Ketchikan Daily News: Who’s going to pay
Mexico should start writing checks for our border wall - and soon. Because if we fund it, the money will be taken from federal services that are actually useful, like the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Trump administration’s draft proposal developed by the Office of Management and Budget would cut the Coast Guard’s budget by 14 percent - about $1.3 billion - to help pay for the wall.
Other agencies that would have substantial cuts include the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, both of which would see budget reductions of 11 percent under the Trump proposal.
We’re not too familiar with TSA and FEMA, but Ketchikan is an official Coast Guard city and long has been the base of most Coast Guard operations in southern Southeast Alaska. From that perspective alone, we don’t believe whacking the Coast Guard budget by 14 percent is a good idea under any circumstance.
We know firsthand that the Coast Guard takes its motto, Semper Paratus (Always Ready), quite seriously. As a maritime community, we are grateful that Coast Guard personnel and equipment are here and standing by around the clock to assist in times of emergency. All marine traffic in this region relies on aids to navigation maintained by the Coast Guard.
Like it or not, the Coast Guard enforces federal laws and regulations. That includes rules regarding fisheries, and in ensuring that foreign vessels aren’t harvesting seafood illegally in waters controlled by the United States. These enforcement efforts help protect American lives at sea, guard our fish stocks and economic interests, maintain a viable environment, and prevent the inflow of illegal immigrants and substances.
The Coast Guard accomplishes these things in Ketchikan and nationwide on an annual budget of $9.1 billion. That’s a lot of money. And we know that the nation gets its money’s worth and much more from the Coast Guard. So much so that it’s easy to understand how the agency would be hobbled by losing $1.3 billion from its annual budget.
Conversely, we know there would be value in boosting the Coast Guard’s annual budget - especially given its key roles in homeland defense and security, not to mention the need for an expanded Coast Guard icebreaker fleet and presence in the Arctic region.
When one hears that cuts such as these are being proposed for services like the Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather operations, and the Sea Grant program that’s active in Alaska, one must wonder about the administration’s priorities and promises.
Americans were told time and again that Mexico would pay for the wall. Whether anyone believed that during the campaign is an open question. But if Mexico won’t be writing the checks, it’s becoming clear who actually will be paying and how that will affect places like Ketchikan across these United States.
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March 11, 2017
Peninsula Clarion: Let’s build on fish board success
A remarkable thing happened at the Board of Fisheries meeting last week: Several user groups collaborated with Alaska Department of Fish and Game staff and fish board members to write a conservation plan for a Kenai River fishery.
On Monday, the fish board approved a re-write of the management plan for Kenai River early run king salmon. The proposal, which implements a variety of conservation measures for the early run, was put forward by three groups which, while falling under the category of sportfishing user group, have not always agreed on fishery management practices - the Kenai River Sportfishing Association, the Kenai Area Fishermen’s Coalition and the Kenai River Professional Guides Association.
Representatives of the three groups, along with Fish and Game staff and fish board member Robert Ruffner, spent a great deal of time and effort revising the original proposal. Ruffner then championed the proposal to the board, which passed the measure unanimously.
That’s not to say there aren’t concerns with the measure, and it may need to be amended when the board looks at Upper Cook Inlet issues again in three years. But it is an example of how the fishery management process in Alaska is supposed to work, allowing fishery stakeholders to propose changes, and an open and transparent process for discussing those proposals.
And it appears that the fish board did a good job in sticking to that process throughout its two-week Upper Cook Inlet meeting.
That’s not to say that every user group was thrilled with every decision, or that there wasn’t any of the rhetoric of past fish board meetings, such as the accusations that sport fishing was “under attack” by the board when commercial fishermen were given the potential for additional fishing time.
We’re also aware that bringing competing user groups, such as sport- and commercial fishermen, into the same discussion makes compromise more challenging.
But the work on a new early run king plan is an excellent start - and something we might not have thought was possible after the last Upper Cook Inlet meeting three years ago.
We hope the dialogue between user groups continues outside of fish board meetings. Whether it’s renewed support for the local Fish and Game advisory committees, community roundtables, chamber of commerce panel discussions or some other forum, it is in all users’ best interests - as well as the best interests of the fish - to build on the progress made over the past couple of weeks.
We are well aware that it is almost impossible to completely separate politics and stakeholder competition from the fisheries management process, but we look forward to seeing continued collaboration on issues crucial to healthy Kenai Peninsula salmon runs.
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March 10, 2017
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: New oil find will help state, but doesn’t solve budget problems
It seems that almost every time talk picks up about Alaska’s oil days being on the wane, a new discovery extends the horizon a bit further. On Thursday, the talk in Juneau pivoted suddenly from budget woes to potential opportunities offered by an expanded field on the North Slope, which producer partners Repsol and Armstrong
Oil and Gas are calling the biggest onshore find in North America in 30 years. Indeed, there’s much to cheer about the find from the standpoint of the state’s budget and economy. At the same time, it isn’t a way to sidestep addressing Alaska’s fiscal situation.
The discovery took place near the North Slope village of Nuiqsut at a prospect known as Horseshoe. It expands a previously discovered oil formation known as the Pikka unit, on the edge of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The unit, when it was first discovered in 2015 by the two companies, was estimated to range between about 500 million barrels and 3.76 billion barrels of recoverable light oil. With the additional data from the Horseshoe wells, Repsol and Armstrong say they have identified a total of 1.2 billion barrels in recoverable oil.
When the two companies initially announced the find in 2015, they estimated the Pikka unit could produce as much as 120,000 barrels of oil per day. That’s close to a quarter of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline’s current throughput, which stood at an average of about 517,000 barrels per day in 2016. Given that the Pikka formation is on state land, that stands to have a considerable positive impact on the state’s bottom line.
But the find, as well as revenue from it that will flow to the state, will take time to develop. Repsol and Armstrong estimate first production from their wells in the area will take place in 2021. That’s beyond the horizon of when state savings would run out if current spending and revenue patterns are maintained. Though the Pikka Unit find and its expansion via the Horseshoe wells are a significant positive development with regard to the future of oil development on the North Slope, they won’t solve the state’s budget woes or alleviate the need for immediate budget action to put Alaska on a stable revenue trajectory.
Repsol and Armstrong’s new field will be a boon for the state. But while Alaska’s leaders are right to cheer the expanded discovery, they shouldn’t see it as an excuse to take their eye off the ball. Alaska needs a revenue solution that doesn’t lean so heavily on oil production; the Pikka Unit will give the state’s economy some breathing room, but not a new lease on life. To think otherwise would be repeating the same mistake that has put the state in its current budget condition.
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