GOVERNOR TO BRIEF LEGISLATURE TONIGHT
Governor Bill Walker will brief the Alaska Legislature on the deal he has signed with the People’s Republic of China. The briefing is at 9:15 pm.
Bloomberg is reporting that the Alaska Gasline envisioned by Gov. Bill Walker is part of a $250 billion package of deals, memorandums and handshakes that President Donald Trump is brokering in China.
The AK-LNG agreement with Sinopec, the Chinese government-owned oil and gas company, or Sinochem, the government chemical company, could reduce the trade deficit between the countries by $10 billion a year if built, according Bloomberg’s sources. The trade imbalance issue is important to the president.
The details from Bloomberg:
- The White House expects to announce upwards of $250 billion in business deals in China this week, the sort of U.S. jobs-based diplomacy that President Donald Trump likes.
- Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross mentioned the number in a meeting with chief executives in China on Wednesday, but offered few details, according to two people who attended the meeting. A U.S. official confirmed the amount.
- Many of the deals are expected be in the form of nonbinding memorandums of understanding, not contracts.
- “Addressing the imbalance in China trade has been the central focus of collaborative discussions between President Trump and President Xi,” Ross said. “Achieving fair and reciprocal treatment for the companies is a shared objective.”
- Alaska Gasline, and representatives from more than 20 companies planned to accompany Trump, who arrived in Beijing on Wednesday and sits down for formal talks with President Xi Jinping on Thursday.
- Among the CEOs taking part in the visit are Kevin McAllister of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Steve Mollenkopf of Qualcomm and Keith Meyer of the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, according to a list provided to U.S. companies in China taking part.
- Trump has complained that China engages in unfair trade practices and has pledged to close the trade deficit.
- The deals are expected to focus heavily on the energy sector.
- One of the biggest deals the Trump administration is currently negotiating is a multibillion-dollar energy investment from Chinese oil and gas giant China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., known as Sinopec, that would bring thousands of new jobs to hurricane-ravaged areas in Texas and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This deal, too, would be a memorandum of understanding.
- According to a government document obtained by Bloomberg News, the announcement will include agreements between Alaska Gasline Development Corp. and Sinochem.
The full Bloomberg report is here:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-08/trump-team-said-to-plan-250-billion-in-deals-from-china-visit
This will be fun. It seems to me that question should be: “Are you willing, in order to bring Alaska natural gas to market, to sell that commodity to a Communist regime that has murdered perhaps hundreds of millions of Chinese people?” And a follow-up question: “Does any part of that cause you concern?”
Well, it is two hours and change before the big “reveal.” I was born in the morning, but not this morning and I’ve been around the block a time or two. My money is on any deal with the Chinese being along the lines of we’ll agree to buy the gas if you’ll agree to provide it, which means we pony up about $60 Billion with a B to bring the gas to Tidewater. That means we either use or mortgage the corpus of the Permanent Fund to build the gas line that won’t really make us any significant ongoing revenue and will actually diminish our oil revenue because we have to spend more money to recover oil if we can’t re-inject gas.
The other part of this is that it is simply a memorandum of understanding with no means of enforcement. If the Chinese decide that they’d rather buy the much cheaper Malaysian or Indonesian LNG, they can just say “Sorry,” and we’re left holding the bag with overpriced gas, an overpriced and useless gasline, and no more Permanent Fund. Since there is absolutely nobody in the government of the State of Alaska that I trust any more, color me skeptical.
The state needs to stop this pipe dream, will not be worth it in the long run, plus a large influx of outsiders with no respect for the land or its people. Just imagine the crime. Have china build LNG ships and we build the infrastructure th facilitate the transfer and sale of LNG
Capitalism has failed.
So Governor Walker has traveled to communist China for the financing of our gas pipeline through their public bank, energy corporation as well as their public investment corporation.
Will we ever learn?
In 2010 I asked Bill Walker why he was running for governor? He told me he was tired of hearing promises from politicians to bring the gas pipeline to fruition in Alaska.
I supported him then and during his successful run for the governorship in 2014. Now he has become a governor he detested. Changing from statesman to politician. Following the economic box Wall Street has placed us in. Looking for money elsewhere when we could create credit ourselves.
According to the Attached our governor has gone to China for the financing of our gas-line.
Finding money from the Public Bank of China. I have observed China evolve over the last ten years. Taking our dollars for goods they produce and, in turn, investing in infrastructure projects around the world. Now its Alaska’s turn. And creating thousands of jobs. But for who? China’s infrastructure projects also bring Chinese workers. Just look at their projects around the world.
For years now I have expressed the issue of creating a Public Bank of Alaska. Sharing my knowledge with Governor Walker along with our state legislators including my very own Senator Peter Micciche. It falls on deaf ears. Or just plain ignorance.
So rather than using our Permanent Fund to create a public Bank of Alaska we send our money to support the Public Bank of China. Just over $26 Million.
And almost a million dollars from our Permanent Fund invested in the oil company in China (Sinopec) who in turn will help us build what we could do ourselves.
Unlike the Public Bank of China, a Public Bank of Alaska would never need to spend a dime of the seed money used to create it. A Public Bank of Alaska could create the credit needed for infrastructure projects.
Our Permanent Fund investments are never directed towards Alaskan Infrastructure projects. So Governor Walker has gone to China’s Permanent Fund (China Investment Corporation) to find the dollars needed.
Will we ever learn? Successful economies are always based on infrastructure. Unlike the entanglements of foreign investments in our infrastructure we must find another way outside the foolishness of Wall Street economics.
Create the credit needed for infrastructure through a Public Bank of Alaska and watch Alaska prosper.
Ray Southwell
Nikiski
Yes, I agree with the concept of a Citizens Bank, Ray.
Why does the Governor have all the say so about this. Do the rest of the AK leaders agree? And if not, is there any way to stop him. Him and the oil and PFD. .??
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