Oil debate should put Alaskans first

The hustle and bustle of campaigns for statewide office have brought several issues vital to the future of this state to prominence. Candidates for governor debate differing proposals for a long-sought gas pipeline. Candidates for the Legislature debate the worth of the recently passed Petroleum Production Tax.

While these debates go on, so does an investigation. North Slope producer BP is under the microscope for pipeline corrosion that led to two spills and one shutdown this year.

All indications are that the corrosion was a result of company negligence. Failure to do routine checks and maintenance prevented the company from discovering and fixing the corrosion before damage could be done.

Nonetheless, before BP's operation was up and running again after the August debacle, company officials had signaled their intent to take advantage of &#8220incentives” in the new tax legislation and write off around 40 percent of the cost of pipeline repairs. In this case, the &#8220write off” amounts to little more than sticking Alaska residents with the bill for industry's negligence. BP neglects its own infrastructure, instead putting maintenance expenses to its bottom line and inflating already obscene profits, and Alaskans are left with the tab.

Sound like a good deal?

BP's failure to do the right thing was enabled largely by a lax regulatory and enforcement atmosphere at the state and federal levels, earned over the years by the oil industry's incessant lobbying for deregulation and its showering of millions of dollars in campaign contributions on elected officials. As state and federal officials continue to distance themselves from their own culpability in the matter, posturing about the need for better regulation crescendoed this past week into Gov. Frank Murkowski's proposal to create a new regulatory agency.

The proposed Lease Monitoring and Engineering Integrity Coordinating Office would be charged, essentially, with overseeing the existing regulatory apparatus. In short, a new level of bureaucracy, also funded by taxpayers, is proposed by a governor who bills himself as a limited government conservative to make sure current regulators are doing their job.

How many ways are Alaskans expected to pay?

While gubernatorial and legislative campaigns steam into the homestretch of the Nov. 7 election, we hope to hear someone assure Alaskans that their own interests are being protected. The specifics of the new tax legislation aside, it is, quite simply, unreasonable to expect the residents of this state to foot the bill for BP's negligence. If the law can't be changed or modified, then civil charges should be aggressively pursued against BP in order to recoup any money lost to a tax write off.

Alaskans deserve no less.