Kohring praises bill for lobbyist funding

May 24, 2005

DARRELL L. BREESE/Frontiersman reporter

JUNEAU - Wasilla Rep. Vic Kohring announced last week that Gov. Frank Murkowski signed House Bill 32, appropriating $1.3 million to Arctic Power for promoting the opening of the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas exploration.

The legislation, sponsored by Kohring, chairman of the House Special Committee on Oil and Gas, was approved by the Legislature in late April with near-unanimous support and then forwarded to the governor for his

signature.

One Republican voted against the bill in the House. District 13 Rep. Carl Gatto questioned the need to fund the nonprofit lobbying group, which has worked on behalf of the state for the opening of ANWR over the last 12 years. The organization has received more than $10 million from the state for its efforts.

Passage of the bill led Gatto to speak out publicly. He and Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch, R-Juneau, wrote a letter late last month questioning the need to fund Arctic Power, and sent the letter to newspapers statewide.

"Arctic Power has yet to present evidence of their accomplishments to any legislative committee that we are aware of," they wrote. "What we do know is that Arctic Power pays $31,000 a month in salaries for three Anchorage-based staff and $7,500 of that goes for the salary of Kevin Hand, the Executive Director."

The letter continued, questioning the logic of having an Anchorage office to lobby Congress in Washington. In addition to the Anchorage staff, Arctic Power pays Washington, D.C.-based lobbyist Stephanie Victory a monthly salary of $9,350.

"We question the expenditures when what we really know about Arctic Power is that it spends quite a bit of money on salaries," the letter concluded.

Almost immediately, Arctic Power downsized its Anchorage office, cutting the jobs of Hand and project manager Adrian Herrera in Anchorage and leaving only one person in the Anchorage office to handle financial matters.

Arctic Power says it will use the funding for marketing purposes, to help secure the necessary votes in Congress to pass legislation that would authorize exploration, drilling and production of oil and gas in ANWR. The bill grants $1.2 million to Arctic Power and another $100,000 to the village of Kaktovik for "education" activities.

"With an estimated 10 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the refuge, the stakes are high," Kohring said in a press release. "Arctic Power's efforts could very well make the difference between ANWR legislation passing or not passing. This is a critical time in the history of the debate on ANWR."

Kohring added, "I appreciate the governor signing this bill into law, and for his strong leadership on the issue. This was a team effort involving the Legislature and governor, and I'm optimistic it will yield good results for Alaska."

Darrell Breese may

be reached at 352-2267

or darrell.breese@

frontiersman.com.