It didn’t take House Resources long to throw down the gauntlet in the form of HB 111, which raises the minimum production tax, changes the system by which the state buys credits from independent explorers and increases the interest rate on delinquent taxes.

“Today’s bill, if passed, would represent the seventh oil tax law change in 12 years,” said Kara Moriarty, president and CEO of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association (AOGA). “Combine that reality with the governor’s repeated vetoes of the earned tax credits, and Alaska looks like an unreliable, unstable and unpredictable business partner.”

Not true, said House Resources Co-Chair Andy Josephson. “This is commonsense legislation to fix problems in our tax policy that unfairly shifts benefits from the state to the oil and gas industry,” he said. “Our intent is not to gouge the industry for more money to avoid the hard and necessary decisions that must be made to overcome our fiscal challenges. Rather, we want to make necessary changes to the current tax regime in an effort to strengthen the partnership between the industry that extracts and markets the resources, and the State of Alaska, as the owner of the resources.”

The bill was referred to the House Resources and House Finance Committees. Resources has scheduled hearings at 1 p.m. Monday and 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17. Testimony is by invitation only but don’t hesitate to reach out to House Resources Committee members. You can send a message clicking here.

To read the bill, click here.

To read AOGA’s press release, click here.

More oil. More investment. More revenues.

The industry testified on SB 21 last week. Kara Moriarity told House Resources that SB 21 is working just as it was intended.

Click here to see her presentation and here to read her press release.

Click here to watch testimony from BP, Caelus and ConocoPhillips

How much is enough?

Under our current oil tax policies, Alaska’s share is higher than the producers at every price point. In fact, the state gets paid even when producers are operating at a loss because they still collect royalty, property tax and income tax.

Alaska must resolve the budget gap

KEEP’s co-chairs penned an opinion piece in Monday’s Alaska Dispatch. In it, they point out that the solution to our fiscal crisis is not that hard. You can read it here.

And more words from Brena

Robin Brena made it clear he’s not representing Alaska’s best interests when he spent two hours – and 71 slides – Friday telling the Legislature that they don’t know what they are doing.