Senate Actions on Day 119 & 120 and lots more!

Senate Majority Coalition Website

State Senator District E

Senator Cathy Giessel Newsletter

UPDATES

Issues affecting

your family, community and jobs.

May 16, 2023

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

This is Day 120 of the 121 day session.

You are receiving more frequent newsletters to keep you up-to-date and informed about work being done.

Photo: Kensington Mine, where Resource Committee Legislators and staff toured the facilities.

Wondering when the Second Regular Session of the 33rd Legislature begins? According to AS 24.05.090, the Legislature shall convene at the capital each year on the third Tuesday in January, which is January 16, 2024.

Items in this Newsletter:

· Finished FY24 Budget

· Senate Floor Sessions

· Hope Studios Award for Arts Business Leadership

· Current Topics, Economy, Health Care, Energy

· Oil and Permanent Fund Resources

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Senate Floor Session May 15 & 16

Senate Floor Session May 15

SB 48- Carbon Offset Program on State Land

This bill would create a carbon offset program on state land.

Vote 20-0; SB 48 passed the Senate.

Senate Passes Bill to set up system for selling credits. Alaska Beacon

SJR 12- Section 404 CWA Permit Program

This resolution states that the Alaska Legislature supports the U.S. Congressional action to force Congress's intent that states assume 404 programs.

Vote 18-2; SJR 12 passed the Senate.

Senate on-track for final day vote on State Budget. Alaska Beacon

Senate Floor Session May 16

Senate Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute HB 61 - Limitations on Firearms Restrictions.

Passed the Senate 17-3

SB 95- License Plates: Specialty Organizations

This bill would delegate specialty license plates to the DMV's discretion and create one last specialty license plate for fallen peace officers.

SB 95 passed the Senate 18-1.

HB 51- Use of Designated Refrigerants

This bill would modernize refrigeration technology to meet federal standards. Amended to include restrictions on PFAS.

HB 51 passed the Senate 20-0.

SB 89- Age for Tobacco/Nicotine/E-Cig; Tax E-Cig

This bill would align state law with federal law in raising the minimum age to buy, sell or possess tobacco and E-Cigarettes, and establish a sales tax for E-Cigarettes.

SB 89 passed the Senate 15-5.

HB 39- Approp: Operating Budget/Loans/Fund; Supp

This bill is the combined operating, supplemental, and capital budgets for FY24. WILL BE HEARD & VOTED ON MAY 17

HB 41- Approp: Mental Health Budget

This is the Mental Health budget for FY24.

WILL BE HEARD & VOTED ON MAY 17

HB 141- Establishing Don Young Day

This bill would establish June 9 of each year as Don Young Day in Alaska.

HB 141 passed the Senate 20-0.

Congratulations to Hope Studios (part of Hope Community Resources).

2023 Governor’s Arts & Humanities Award for Arts Business Leadership.

Hope Studios is an open, barrier-free art studio designed to stimulate boundless imagination. Its diverse, creative team, composed of individuals with varying abilities, collaborates to practice numerous mediums, drawing on each person’s unique talents. The vibrant, imaginative art generated by Hope Studios adorns venues such as the early learning center in Loussac Library, the exterior walls of FasionPact on Ingra, the Elders Home, Kitta Learning Center, Ipalook Elementary in Utqiagvik, Palmer Senior Center, Mat-Su Services for Children & Adults, and Anchorage Community Mental Health Center. The art can also be found in numerous homes and businesses throughout Alaska and beyond.

Current Topics

Trail Support shows Anchorage's community. ADN

If the news in Anchorage sometimes makes you feel a little low about how we in this community treat each other, take heart. Here’s an example of organizations and individuals coming together for a project that benefits not only Anchorage, but visitors from around the state and outside.

National Trails Day- Gasline Trail Brushing. Alaska Trails

Alaska Trails seeks volunteers for Prospect Heights Trail work.

Falls Creek Trail Brushing. Alaska Trails

Alaska Trails seeks volunteers for Falls Creek Trail work.

Alaska trollers will feel pain and unnecessary hardship from ruling on orca lawsuit. Alaska Beacon

As president of Seafood producers Cooperative, representing nearly 400 fishermen-owners, who reside in California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, I want to convey our great disappointment and frustration with the recent ruling concerning the Wild Fish Conservancy and their lawsuit directed at our Salmon Troll fleet.

Politics

Alaska Redistricting Board voted to approve current maps. Alaska Beacon

Changes to Alaska Voting Laws Unlikely to Change this Year. ADN

Alaska Legislature seeks to drop one-year waiting period for commercial driver's licenses. Alaska Beacon

Ukrainian refugees and others newly arrived in Alaska would have an easier way to get a commercial driver’s license under a bill passed by the Legislature.

Alaska Legislature votes to criminalize abusive 911 calls. Alaska Beacon

The Alaska Legislature has voted to criminalize the harassment of 911 dispatchers and threats against them.

Alaska Legislature approves giving photo IDs to people leaving prison. ADN

The Alaska Legislature passed a bill Saturday that requires the Department of Corrections to provide photo IDs for people leaving prison who don’t have them.

Healthcare News

Legislature votes to repeal Alaska law including veterinarians in opioid monitoring. Alaska Beacon

The Alaska Legislature has reversed a seven-year-old law that requires veterinarians to participate in the state's prescription drug monitoring program.

Alaska has the nation's highest rate of deaths by traumatic brain injury. ADN

In recent years, Alaskans have died from traumatic brain injuries at a rate that’s more than twice the national average, according to a report published last week by the state health department and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Alaska Regional Hospital proposes $18M freestanding emergency department in South Anchorage. ADN

Alaska Regional Hospital has applied with the state for approval to build an $18 million freestanding emergency department in South Anchorage by the end of next year.

One person will make this decision under Alaska’s “Certificate of Need” law. The Commissioner of the Dept of Health is the individual making these decisions. Alaska Regional proposed building two such departments in 2015, in South Anchorage and Eagle River, at more than $25 million. Providence Alaska Medical Center also sought to build more emergency rooms in the Anchorage area. The state had decided that at least 13 additional emergency rooms were needed in the Anchorage area. The state approved the 13-room expansion at Providence’s campus in Anchorage. It denied the proposals by Alaska Regional.

Energy News

Carbon Capture's slow launch at power plants. Axios

Deployment of carbon capture tech in the U.S. and worldwide is slated to grow, but as you can see, most global action to date has not been at power plants.

The common-sense path Alaska can take on oil taxes. ADN

There is one proposed tax change that makes sense, from a fairness perspective: Imposing state corporate income tax on S-corporations (like Hilcorp), which are currently exempt from corporate income tax on other businesses structured as C-corporations (these are typically larger, publicly traded companies such as ExxonMobil and Alaska Airlines).

Alaska Oil Resource Values

ANS crude oil price (5/13/23): $75.04

The current budget requires $89 per barrel to be fully funded.

Price on 9/30/22: $86.91

Price on 6/29/22: $116.84

Price on 3/8/22: $125.44

Price on 12/22/21: $75.55

ANS production (5/10/23): 485,561 bpd

ConocoPhillips Alaska reports $416M in Q1 income, incurs $464M in taxes. Petroleum News

ConocoPhillips Alaska reported net income of $416 million for the first quarter of 2023. During the quarter, the company incurred an estimated $464 million in taxes and royalties, which includes $320 million to the state of Alaska and $144 million to the federal government.

Hilcorp, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips testify in Senate Finance on tax increases. Petroleum News

The Senate Finance Committee heard from oil companies May 5 as it considers Senate Bill 114, part of which would impact Hilcorp, and potentially other independent oil and gas producers and transporters in the state, while other portions of the bill would impact all North Slope producers.

Slope LNG plant moving forward; Harvest has acquired gravel pad. Petroleum News

Harvest is a subsidiary of Hilcorp. Steps are moving ahead to develop a new liquefied natural gas plant on the North Slope for the supply of LNG to Fairbanks based Interior Gas Utility, IGU general manager Dan Britton told the IGU board on May 2. IGU supplies gas to customers on the Fairbanks region from LNG storage tanks in Fairbanks and North Pole.

EIA drops '23 Brent forecast by 7% to $79. Petroleum News

The U.S. Energy Information Administration has dropped its Brent spot oil price forecast from $85 per barrel for 2023 in April, to $79 per barrel, down 7.5%, in its May Short-Term Energy Forecast, issued May 9. EIA dropped its 2024 Brent forecast from $81 per barrel to $74 per barrel, down 8.3%. The Brent spot price averaged $101 per barrel in 2022.

Permanent Fund 5/13/2023: $76,757,500,000

Value 9/30/22 : $70,625,300,300

Value 8/31/22 was: $73,670,500,000

Value 4/30/22 was: $81,387,500,000

Principle - $61.7B

$52.1 B savings, royalties, other deposits

$9.6 B unrealized gains

(special transfers from Legislature - $4 B in 2021; $4.943 B in 2020)

ERA - $12.6 B (was $16.9B May 2022)

$3.5 B set aside for FY24 POMV

$4.2 B for FY23 Inflation Proofing

$ 2.2 B unrealized gains