July 11 is the deadline for comment on Chukchi OCS development. Here’s a website for easy, automated comment. -dh
Alaska’s Statehood Act is 53 years old today. (Below is an email alert we issued on the subject and reader Joe Henri’s first hand perspective.) Today your author addresses the South Anchorage Rotary Club, suggesting that, "Alaska’s Constitution Could Guide Us Through Alaska’s Greatest Challenge: Breathing Life Back Into the Trans Alaska Pipeline" -dh
CNBC completed a ranking of state business climates and found Alaska to be among the bottom 5 investment climates in America. Earlier this week, we reported a similar finding by the Fraser Institute. The state is developing among investors and unbiased observers the reputation of being among the worst of the worst investment climates. This circumstance is certainly not what the Congress or Alaskan citizens envisioned for the future, a half-century ago. For several years…
| Calgary Herald by Rebecca Penty. The world’s biggest liquefied natural gas purchaser is buying into a northeastern B.C. shale gas play in a move proponents and observers say promises to accelerate LNG exports to Asia. (Comment: When Alaska adopted its predatory, net profit, progressive severance tax Alberta was lowering its royalty take in reaction to a diminished investment climate. From the vantage point of an observer, Alberta and British Columbia both seem to work cooperatively to properly develop and transport hydrocarbons while observing stringent environmental rules and the ‘duty to consult’ aboriginal interests. -dh) |
…Alaska businesses have advised decision makers that high taxes, permit delays, regulatory uncertainty and otherwise high costs matter. The state’s governor, Sean Parnell (NGP Photo), has acted to improve the investment climate by battling arbitrary and capricious federal overreaching policies that apply mostly to federal lands and seeking tax and regulatory improvements applying to state lands. But the Obama administration has continued to strangle Alaska’s economy with bureaucratic delay and roadblocks while the Alaska state Senate has blocked efforts to reform Alaska’s predatory taxing policies. If the federal government and the Alaska state Senate don’t begin paying more attention to the components of an investment climate and dedicate themselves to improving them, the state and the country will continue their symbiotic downward economic death spiral as western Canadian provinces continue to thrive with lower costs, better access to markets and more attractive investment
policies. -dh (Note: Here is the CNBC study and here is the Fraser Institute study.)
Joe Henri’s (NGP Photo) perspective and today’s Email Alert.
David,
I have no correction to urge upon you. Thanks, as usual, for taking the time and trouble to instruct and inform your readers.
The thrilling day for statehood was 30 June 1958, when the Senate voted favorably, 64-20, and the Anchorage Times headlined ‘WE’RE IN.’ The House had previously passed HB 7999, but there was lots of anxiety that southern senators would derail the bill when it reached the Senate floor by sending it back to committee or by amending; my recollection is that if the Senate amended the House bill, then a conference committee would be required; this would have effectively killed the legislation because procedural rules would not have actually permitted a conference (don’t remember why). Either the Senate accepted the House bill as written, or there would be no Alaska statehood in that Congress. There had been a number of previous efforts in past Congresses, always to be ensnared and defeated. So much could have gone wrong at the last minute, but the fears and forebodings did not materialize. All of this added zest to the celebrations.
I was frolicking around the Anchorage bonfire with all the other wildly enthusiastic people that long and beautiful summer night. Alaska’s great future seemed to be surging and tumbling upon us. The only other emotional crowd scenes to match or exceed the Alaska statehood Senate vote in my experience were the VE Day and VJ Day spontaneous celebrations when WWII ended in each of those theatres in 1945.
Statehood is working out well. Life as a Territory and colony was pretty bleak and unpromising.
Joe
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Today is the 53rd Anniversary of passage of the Alaska Statehood Act. The Act promised revenue from resource development of federal lands and blessed Alaska’s Constitution — founded on the economics of resource development on state lands.
Today, at a Rotary club speech, I’ll demonstrate how the Constitution and Statehood Act point the way to future prosperity — with proper leadership and courage.
Happy Statehood Act anniversary, Alaskans! (Note: the Statehood Act couldn’t be implemented until the citizens ratified it in November of 1958 and President Eisenhower signed his subsequent Proclamation the following January 3, which is considered Alaska’s actual birth date.)
Dave
P.S. We hope our historian readers will correct us whenever they detect error or opportunity for improvement.
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Yesterday, we were also pleased to note Dan Fauske’s (NGP Photo) intrastate gas pipeline accomplishment — and the American Trucking Association’s support of OCS exploration in Alaska!
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2440 E. Tudor Rd.
Anchorage, Alaska 99507
907-227-7110
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