Feige bill moves forward

JUNEAU — House Rep. Eric Feige is set to close out his fourth year in the Alaska Legislature since first taking the oath of office in 2011, and just in time to complete some unfinished business.

Feige, a Chickaloon Republican, received support for his House Bill 47, which puts additional onus on those filing lawsuits to halt or delay construction projects. The proposed legislation also calls for judges to consider costs linked to construction delays, such as wages.

Successful passage ends four years of efforts to “level a playing field,” against lawsuits.

“All it does is call for the judge to take a closer look at the impacts and consider that when it comes time to come up with a bond,” Feige said. “In the end, it’s all up to the judge. I’m not changing the judge’s responsibility. I’m just saying consider all of this other stuff, when it comes time to determine that bond amount.”

The bill passed the Senate on Wednesday and the House concurred with the Senate’s changes late Thursday.

Passage drew quick rebukes from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Byron Mallott and the Alaska Democratic Party.

Mallott accused Feige of making it harder for the public to have a voice.

“I am appalled to see the efforts of the Legislature and the current administration to systematically block citizen action to participate in and shape development activities that affect their neighborhoods and communities,” Mallott said in a prepared statement.

“The latest step was this week’s passage of HB 47, which requires the imposition of a bond whenever a court is asked to stop an industrial operation to cover the costs and damages if the injunction is ultimately lifted. The intended purpose is to deter citizens from ever filing lawsuits against major projects.”

Feige said Mallott’s concerns are misplaced.

“The bill doesn’t really do anything other than give a nudge to the judge to consider the impacts on the workers and the companies,” Feige said. “It does not cut off the public’s opportunity to sue. It doesn’t cut off the ability to call for an injunction.”

The Alaska Democratic Party said Feige had a personal stake in this bill because of his wife’s work as an executive for Linc Energy, which is looking to develop a North Slope oil field in Umiat. This would require a road and pipeline opposed by some Alaska Native groups and communities.

This prompted Mike Wenstrup, chair of the Alaska Democratic Party, to weigh in.

“House Bill 47 sounds more like a Vladimir Putin fantasy than a bill that should even be considered in a democracy,” Wenstrup said.

Feige said Wenstrup’s position is “riddled with errors.”

“This bill doesn’t single out her company or any other,” Feige said of his wife’s employer. “The bill applies to the entire state. I’m sorry. My wife has a job. I think there has been insinuations there that aren’t backed up with any facts.”

Feige said he understands most of the examples would actually fall in federal court, not state court. He even cited an example of a federal lawsuit that delayed construction to the Point MacKenzie rail extension in October 2012.

The Alaska Chapter of the Sierra Club, Cook Inlet and Alaska Survival jointly filed the lawsuit. Then, a federal appeals court temporarily halted construction, initially ruling “the balance of hardships tips sharply in petitioners’ favor.”

Four months later, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals tossed the lawsuit, and work resumed.

“We’ve got 200 guys out there working. So instead of having a job for the good part of winter, these guys are sitting there twiddling their thumbs,” Feige said. “These guys aren’t collecting any pay for four months.

“It’s not fair to the worker, quite frankly. It was just when they were starting to break ground and the injunction happened. That’s the kind of event we don’t want to see happen unnecessarily.”

Feige had pursued this change since he first arrived in Juneau and was named co-chair of the House Resources Committee. Before then, his committee predecessor Craig Johnson, now Rules Chairman, had sought the same changes.