Comment: NGP Readers should be grateful to the organizations below for grading elected officials based on certain resource development/energy policy votes.  As elections approach, this is one more tool Alaskans can use in judging the quality of those whom they elect.  -dh

Representatives from the undersigned statewide business associations collaborated to evaluate members of the 2010 Alaska State Legislature based on their respective performances related to the priorities of Alaska’s business community. Legislators were evaluated on the following broad policy areas – 1) Government Spending, 2) Regulatory Streamlining, 3) Tort Reform, 4) Business Taxes, 5) Open and Transparent Government, 6) Energy Policy and 7) Leadership.

Specific legislation considered in the grading process included, but was not limited to, the operating and capital budget bills (HB300 and SB230), reform of the Alaska Coastal Management Program (HB74 and SB4), limited liability in workers’ compensation claims (SB303), oil and gas production tax reform (HB308), decoupling of oil and gas production taxes (SB305), vessel passenger taxes (SB312), ballot initiative reform (HB36), Cook Inlet natural gas storage and tax credits (HB280), state energy policy (HB306), and in-state pipeline coordination team (HB369). Grading was based on bill sponsorships, committee and floor votes as well as actions taken in committee when applicable.

Each of the participating organizations actively works to build a strong economy in Alaska and to ensure the state develops a policy regime that supports jobs and business. The scorecard is intended to give our collective memberships a clearer sense of who in Juneau stands up for Alaskan business. Each of our organizations will continue to work with all of our policy makers to make Alaska an attractive place for private sector investment, jobs and economic growth.

 Prosperity Alaska

 Resource Development Council for Alaska

Alaska Newspapers by Margaret Bauman.  Vice President Joe Biden ... saluted his friend ... "To the people of Alaska I can say with absolute certainty, without fear of contradiction, what Hamlet said to Horatio: "we shall not look upon his like again."

The Anchorage Baptist Temple was the site, yesterday, of Senator Ted Stevens' funeral

(NGP Photo: 8-18-10)

In addition to those mentioned in the ADN story below, we were delighted to note the attendance of General Colin Powell and Donna de Varona -- both of whose lives intersected your author's, because of Senator Ted....  -dh

See KTUU, KTVA and KIMO Coverage.

ADN, by Sean Cockerham and Kyle Hopkins.   Ted Stevens' friends and former colleagues, including the vice president, remembered him at his funeral service as a generous, loyal man who went far beyond partisan politics and was a master in delivering vast sums to the state he embodied.  ...  The vice president recalled how the Alaska Republican Stevens reached out to him when Biden, at the time a 30-year-old Democrat from Delaware, was first elected to the U.S. Senate. Biden, lowest in the Senate in seniority, had lost his wife and baby daughter in a car accident a month after he was elected.  ... Steven's close friend, Hawaii Democratic Sen. Dan Inouye, said Stevens was a man of trust, a good friend who went beyond the idealogy that divides politicians.  ...  In the pews, Alaska Sen. Mark Begich, who narrowly defeated Stevens in the 2008 election, sat clapping. U.S. Rep. Don Young nodded next to him.  ...  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell ... also spoke at the funeral service.  He said it is hard to imagine that any man ever meant more to a single state than Stevens did to Alaska.  ...  U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski put it simply, saying in her tribute that "Ted was Alaska."  ...  The service included voices not usually heard talking about Alaska's senator for four decades, like Rear Adm. Barry Black, the chaplain of the U.S. Senate. "Senator Stevens gaveled me in for the Senate prayer and we would have a wonderful conversation before each prayer and he always left me with a smile."  ... The Rev. Norman Elliott, a retired Episcopal priest and longtime Stevens friend, said "Alaska and the nation have lost a mountain," He suggested naming a great peak somewhere in Alaska after Stevens and calling it "Uncle Ted."  ... Anchorage Baptist Temple Pastor Jerry Prevo was the final speaker. He said he wouldn't be surprised if the wiry, compact Stevens was 6 feet, 10 inches tall in his new life. "He's going to be the Hulk we all knew he was," Prevo said.

 Report and Editorial Comment 

by

Dave Harbour

Addressing a World Trade Center audience yesterday, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski (NGP Photo) began her presentation with an homage to the late Senator Ted Stevens. 

Obtain Senator Murkowski's Complete Speech Here

Since the balance of her presentation focused on a theme we have long stressed--Federal attacks on Alaska's economy--it seemed appropriate that she recall Stevens' viewpoint on such matters:  "What I planned to speak about today, resource development in Alaska, is actually one of the central pillars of Ted’s vision for our future. He understood, perhaps better than anyone else, that our ability to develop a 'climate for investment' starts and ends with our ability to develop our natural resources."

She then went on to cite instance after instance where an adversarial Federal government has sought to close down economic activity in Alaska, including attempts to delay or stop development of the Tongass forest, the Kensington Mine, ConocoPhillips' National Petroleum Reserve project, Shell's Chukchi and Beaufort sea exploration, and the 1002 area of ANWR.  

Murkowski said that, "If we continue to let the supply in this line diminish, operational issues will crop up within a decade, and it could be shut down entirely. It is indisputably in America’s interests to fill TAPS back up, with American oil, but as you can see from its actions on NPR-A, the Chukchi, and ANWR, this administration does not want to let that happen."  

We would add that since Alaska's constitution rests on the state's ability to develop natural resources, and since the Statehood Act recognizes Alaska's reliance on natural resources, that an Administration's consistent effort to shut down resource development is a violation of the Statehood Act and the compact with Alaskans.  

See our Face Book photos: Friday's Last Campaign Rally for Senator Stevens

This Tuesday night, at 8:00pm, the Senator's body will be moved from where it lies in repose at All Saints Episcopal to Anchorage Baptist Temple for ceremonies on Wednesday.

Word has gone out that it would be appropriate (even encouraged) to line the procession route. For more information, please see the event page:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=143227922378203&ref=mf

All events are open to the public. The public should address questions regarding the services to: (907) 249 0249

"My future is in God's hands."

ADN.  Here are the preliminary plans for the services for former Alaska U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (NGP Photo), who died in a plane crash early this week. All evens are open to the public.