Mixing-zone bill reappears in House

MYRL THOMPSON/Juneau Report

February 11. 2007

Editor's note: The following is excerpted from the weekly Juneau Report of Capitol watchdog Myrl Thompson.

House Bill 74 is the new version of a proposal by Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer, that didn't get any traction last session. It will be heard on Monday in his House Fisheries Special Committee.

The bill would prevent &#8220mixing zones” in freshwater spawning areas. It is actually a slightly watered-down version of last year's bill that takes into consideration a few additional concerns of industry.

For instance, HB 74 will continue to allow site-specific exemptions from state water-quality standards. These include short-term variances from standards that can be used by placer miners and others. Also addressed are some concerns that a wastewater treatment plant in Valdez had with pink salmon invading a drainage ditch running from the plant to salt water.

The bill may have pollution loopholes, but it is far better than the Murkowski-led regulatory changes that were implemented in January 2006. It may take many years to undo some of the industry-friendly loopholes that were put in place under his administration and the 24th Legislature.

The bill offers Alaska waters some degree of protection, at least in some fish-rearing areas. I expect it to make it out of the Fisheries Committee, as it did last year.

House Resources, chaired by Palmer Rep. Carl Gatto, may be another matter, though. So expect a full assault by the mining industry, their lobbyists and industry-cozy legislators in that committee. However, since these shortsighted and very unpopular regulatory changes were forced on us by the former governor, possibly the Palin administration can take a stand and once again undo a Murkowski wrong.

For a more thorough discussion of the mixing-zone issue, check out my Frontiersman opinion column from last year at http://frontiersman.com/ articles/2006/01/31/news/

opinion/opinion2.txt

Ethics bills

There still seem to be three official points of view on this issue. The Senate, the House and the administration are all jockeying for their own version of a fix. A more comprehensive approach is starting to gather steam.

The House, the administration and the Senate minority have expressed some willingness to take on some form of the comprehensive approach. The ethics subcommittee that House State Affairs chair Bob Lynn formed, which includes, Reps. John Coghill, Bob Roses and Max Gruenberg, met for the first time last week in a rare Saturday morning meeting. Because of somewhat lax meeting-notification requirements, even I missed the fact that it was taking place.

The meeting was billed as an informal discussion on ethics issues in general. The posting listed about half of the House bills filed so far, including the governor's HB 109.

On the Senate side, the two bills heard thus far, (SB 19 and 20) were unanimously moved from Judiciary and State Affairs on to the Finance committee. The majority senators that I have talked to all still embrace the incremental approach to ethics reform. They claim that a larger bill may not garner enough support to be passed in the end.

That logic totally escapes me, since everyone else except them is already onboard with a comprehensive approach. But, then again, when did logic ever enter the political arena?

Oil and gas presentations

There were a few somewhat interesting presentations given in the last week. The House Ways and Means Committee hosted a &#8220Production Decline Reality Check,” by BP's commercial director Angus Walker and two associate managers from the North Slope.

Walker's PowerPoint presentation, which seemed much like a BP commercial to me, touched on a number of points. BP's oil production is declining at about a 7 percent rate and will continue to slide without further investment.

The theme seemed to be, &#8220increased capital stems decline.” Bar graphs presented showed Alberta and the Gulf of Mexico with low tax rates and Alaska's PPT as a high tax rate. Then, below the graphs in large letters was, &#8220Alberta & Gulf of Mexico are booming while Alaska production is declining.”

The next slide had in bold black letters, &#8220The level of taxation is too high and is not in the best interest of Alaska.” It went on like that and I started to relive all those pre-election oil industry commercials in my head. I barely escaped going into a company-induced trance.

One interesting graph did show gas production fitting into the equation, about the year 2018.

Sundry things

The Legislative Council met and approved late per-diem requests for ex-legislators Ralph Seekins and Jim Holm. Also approved were late requests for current legislators Mike Kelly and Peggy Wilson.

Frank Murkowski is still costing the state money, even after he's left office. The Legislative Council approved an additional $13,610 dollars for legal work

to Bill Large, who is also the attorney for Randy Ruedrich's state Republican Party, in addition to the original $50,000 that they awarded him to stop Murkowski's gas contract fiasco from proceeding solo last fall. Too bad, Bill didn't bill Frank!

Floor votes attendance

So far this session, there have been 11 full House sessions. Here's the attendance record for Valley lawmakers: Rep. Vic Kohring, six sessions missed; Reps. Mark Neuman and Bill Stoltze, two sessions missed; Reps. Carl Gatto and John Harris, one session missed.

During the 11 sessions, four votes have been taken. Gatto has missed no votes. Stoltze and Harris have each missed one. Kohring and Neuman have each missed two of the four votes.

In the Senate, there have been 12 full sessions. Sen. Lyda Green has not missed any of them. Sen. Charlie Huggins has missed one. During the nine sessions, one vote has been taken. No Valley senators have missed a floor vote to date.

Valley resident Myrl Thompson is a citizen lobbyist and former independent candidate for state House. He writes a twice-monthly &#8220Capitol Watch” column for the Frontiersman. Excerpts from his weekly &#8220Juneau Report” newsletter appear here twice a month, too. For information about receiving the full text of the Juneau Report by e-mail, contact him at myrl@ak.net.