The Alaska Gasline Development Corporation has opened an office in Tokyo, Japan to market the state’s wealth of natural gas.
And the State of Alaska has closed down another office — one that represented the trade interests of fishing families in Alaska.
While the Governor’s Office for many years had a seafood office in Japan’s capital, anyone who wants to talk fish now needs to go through the office devoted to talking nat-gas. The office being run by AGDC is a one-stop shop for any of Alaska’s resources, but the person in charge is a natural gas guy.
Oddly, the governor made no mention of the historic change in his State of the State Address on Wednesday, but an invitation to the opening of the new office was making its way around the small circle of media at the Capitol even while the governor spoke. It was dated January 12, six days before the governor’s speech.
Similarly, no mention was made in the governor’s State of the State speech about the Houston office that AGDC announced it would open back in July.
That office never materialized, and no public discussion has taken place about why, or about the need for the Tokyo office.
On Jan. 11, AGDC President Keith Meyer spoke about the gasline project in Kenai to a group of business and industry leaders, and also made no note of the office he had opened in Japan that week.
And at the most recent board meeting of AGDC took place on January 12 — the same day the Toyko Office opening was quietly introduced to industry — no mention was made.
That meeting was almost entirely held behind closed doors in an executive session, with no written notification before or after the executive session about any topics discussed.
Alaska’s seafood industry is the fourth-largest supplier of seafood imports to Japan, and has been for decades.
Masatoshi ‘Nick’ Shiratori
Now, with the fish trade expert gone, a former employee of Mitsubishi Corp. will be Alaska’s representative on all trade matters. He will work with the administration to secure long-term contracts for gas, as well as financing for the gasline project that may cost $65 billion. Masatoshi “Nick” Shiratori is anchoring the new office.
AGDC officially became the sole owner of the giant gas export project on the last day of 2016 after its private partners – Transcanada, BP, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil decided the massive project was not for them. AGDC is a public corporation owned by the State of Alaska.
Alaska seafood in Japan has been a declining market because of changing tastes among younger Japanese, according to the food blog Northwest Asian Weekly.
Not as many millennial Japanese are eating the kinds of seafood that come from Alaska waters, but instead are turning to chicken, pork and beef, the magazine said. Without a robust trade representative, Alaska’s Japanese market position could erode even more as the skills needed to handle and prepare seafood are lost.
The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute has worked to counter that trend by actually teaching the Japanese in Tokyo various time-saving tips, such as its “Cook It Frozen” campaign.
Read more by Nat Herz at the Alaska Dispatch News about the Tokyo office non-announcement.
At 8 am Alaska time, The Donald became the most underestimated president in modern times. Even the parade this afternoon is sparsely attended, compared to the past few presidential parades.
Sometimes it’s nice to be underestimated. Half of the public doesn’t seem to expect much of Donald J. Trump. Maybe that’s going to work to his benefit.
By comparison, Barack Obama had been practically anointed as the Inevitable One, a process that started with his stunningly “on-message” keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention back in July of 2004, four years before he ran for the presidency.
If anything, the quite effective orator Obama had been overestimated, which led to the deep disappointment that many Americans felt during his presidency. As it turned out, he was not a unifier. He divided the nation bitterly.
Not Trump. His was an uphill battle all the way to the late hours of Election Night, 2016. He’s never been one to be “on message.” Half of his supporters cringed even while they backed him, because he is not a man used to crafting every turn of a phrase. He is not, as is evident, politically correct enough for half of the voters. Those who voted for Hillary are not coming over. Ever.
Trump fought this battle alone much of his journey to the White House. He had to clear a crowded field of usual suspects. He did so with a blustery and blistering style that scared many mainstream Republicans, who were convinced he was the one candidate who could not win against Hillary Clinton. They, too, underestimated him.
Eighteen months ago, the media could barely contain its disdain when Trump announced his candidacy. They thought it was a joke. From the outset, they made a winking sport of their coverage, using dismissive phrases and code language. One could almost see them laughing into their sleeves.
A reporter in 2015 asked him: “You are not a nice person. How are you going to get people to vote for you?”
Trump’s answer was “I think I’m nice…But I think people want competence.”
That very day of his announced candidacy, the spokeswoman for the Democratic Party, Holly Schulman, poked fun at the entire Republican field: “Today, Donald Trump became the second major Republican candidate to announce for president in two days. He adds some much-needed seriousness that has previously been lacking from the GOP field, and we look forward to hearing more about his ideas for the nation.”
The Democrats were pulling for him back then. They didn’t think he had a chance against Mrs. Clinton. He was the Democratic establishment’s favorite candidate.
Dismissed by the liberal intelligentsia, and hammered by the media as temperamentally unequipped to lead the nation, Trump motored on, tweeted on, and never once apologized for who he is.
Today, Trump’s inaugural address mirrored the remarks he made back on June 16, 2015.
He did not try to mend fences with the liberal establishment. He didn’t turn and throw a single compliment to his predecessor, but doubled down on his “take back our country” populist message.
It was the speech of a fighter who, for all his theatrics, is remarkably consistent in the platform that he ran on: American jobs, American schools, Americans’ safety and national security come first for him.
No more than one half hour after he became president, his Administration began to unwind some of 11th-hour moves of the Obama Administration:
He suspended a Department of Housing and Urban Development rule that Obama approved on Jan. 9, which lowered charges for borrows on risky mortgages backed by the the Federal Housing Administration. Conservatives have held that moving mortgage risk to the federal government and away from the private sector is bad policy; the federal government should not take over what the private sector should be doing.
CONFIRMATIONS BEGIN: In the U.S. Senate, lawmakers are expected to take up the confirmation votes for two of Trump’s cabinet as early as today:
Retired Marine Corps Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis, Trump’s nominee for Defense secretary, and retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, the president’s choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security are the first to be voted on.
Those two confirmation votes may be presided over by U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, Alaska, who is also a Marine.
RIOTERS AND PROTESTERS: A mass hysteria took hold among Trump opponents over the recent weeks since the election. The public grieving has devolved into violence as today, hundreds of lawless rioters are costing the nation millions of dollars as they break windows, start fights, and leave at least a few Trump supporters bloodied in the nation’s capital.
Tomorrow, women protestors take to the streets across the nation to express their displeasure with the president.
As they do so, Americans will watch football, attend basketball practices, go to work, pay bills, visit friends, and gather around the dinner tables of America from Nome to Nantucket.
In short, we will carry on with our lives, expressing love for family, love for country, and love for freedom that was expressed by this, the Most Underestimated president we have known.
Alaskans are making the most of the celebration under way in Washington, D.C., at events leading up to the swearing in of Donald J. Trump tomorrow. More photos from the Alaska celebration that continued late into the night. While much of Alaska is hunkered down for one of the coldest January’s in memory, ambassadors to the nation’s capital are having a cool time: The weather forecast for Friday in Washington is a high of 49 degrees and rainy.
The celebrating continues tonight in Washington, D.C., as Alaskans gather to ring in a new president who they hope will have a positive impact on the state and the nation. Some outtakes from the celebration under way, which included Alaska’s own mushing mortician, Scott Janssen, and a sled dog. The inauguration of Donald Trump as president is tomorrow, and tonight’s partiers will be lining up starting at 6 am to get good spots, if they don’t already have assigned seating. Come back for more photos.
The Alaska-themed Inaugural Celebration is under way in Washington, D.C. We’re posting photos that participants send to Must Read Alaska.
The celebration, with honorary cohosts Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, is at the Washington Plaza Hotel. It’s an Alaska extravaganza with Native dancing and drumming, Hobo Jim, Alaska beers and seafood, and historic photos and artifacts on display.
More photos from Alaskans in DC:
Bejean and Jay Page locate their seats for tomorrow’s swearing-in ceremony.
Rep. Don Young photo-bombs a constituent for the family scrapbook.
Alaskans attending the swearing-in festivities in the nation’s capital this week are sending photos of themselves and their friends at various historic events. We’re posting them throughout the rest of the week, and captioning the photos as names are available:
Kristie and Tuckerman Babock at the RNC meeting.Sen. Lisa Murkowski and constituents.Alaska Republican Party Treasurer Julie Tisdale and Sen. Dan Sullivan.Becky and former state Sen. Charlie Huggins Rep. Don Young and Sen. Frank Murkowski (ret.)Rep. Don Young and former Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, with George Lamoreaux.Rep. Don Young greets constituent.Sen. Dan Sullivan and Alaskan.Randy Ruedrich, on the left, Rep. Don Young on the right.Ryan McKee and Lauren Cusack ready for the Alaska Inaugural Ball.Charlie Huggins and daughter Hallie Huggins.Protestors vowing to “BRING DC TO A HALT!”
It was 50 minutes of oratorical mediocrity, but there have been worse in the history of State of the State Addresses.
Alaska Gov. Bill Walker tonight stammered his way through his Address to the people of Alaska — not tipsy, but with that lazy elocution that Alaskans have come to know as the Walker Dialect.
In the content department, however, it was like Gertrude Stein arriving in Oakland: When you get there, she said,”there is no there there.”
Walker struggled to read the teleprompter, rushing through the text and skipping over words, and there were many to skip over.
He was his most animated and endearing when he broke free from the script and told the story of his teenage years and a harrowing winter drive from Delta to Valdez in a car that only had a reverse gear and only made it part of the way home before giving up that gear too. It was reminiscent of a Jay Hammond moment. The crowd didn’t go wild, but at least returned to a waking state.
The moral of his story, he said, is to learn from the past. Another wag in Juneau noted: “Don’t get into a car with Walker. He’ll take you backwards and then it will break down.”
In the end, there really wasn’t anything that stood out in what was ultimately a nothing-burger, hold-the-relish performance, except his admonishment to the Legislature: If you don’t like my fiscal solution, bring one of your own, he said. But don’t bring it unless it balances.
“Gravest Fiscal Crisis in State History” was the title of Walker’s speech, and he spent at least some time reviewing the seriousness of the problem, which has not changed much since last year, except the options are clearly closing.
State revenues are down more than 80 percent from four years ago, he said. During that period, he said he has cut the budget 44 percent.
“But we still face a $3 billion fiscal gap,” he said.
Walker didn’t mention the spending cap that the Senate has proposed, nor the $750 million in cuts the Senate has also offered as a three-year plan. But he acknowledged that Alaskans said they want their government cut.
We learned that Walker is still pursuing the income tax: “In this vein, I maintain my support for a modest income tax and other revenue bills I introduced last year,” he said. “If all of these measures passed, with Alaskans receiving a PFD each year, we would still be the lowest taxed individuals in the nation.
“Before reintroducing those bills, I plan to work with you in this body to chart a path forward,” Walker said.
The translation is that he’s going to count votes before introducing any more taxes under his own name.
The governor also did not talk about how to stimulate the private sector economy, although he cheered the news that there are oil finds on the North Slope that will help the state. He’d like to see more of them, at least.
He revisited his request that all Alaskans shop at farmer’s markets in their area, as that circulates millions of dollars through communities: “If every Alaskan spent just $5 a week on Alaska-grown products, that would translate into $188 million circulating through the Alaska economy annually,” Walker said.
The governor said he would not pursue projects that “don’t pencil out,” referring to the cancellation of the Juneau Access project and Knik Arm Crossing. He said the gasline project “will be financed by long-term purchase commitments from LNG buyers, not from the Permanent Fund. It will not be pursued at all costs. It will only be pursued if it has long-term customers.”
Walker spoke at length about the gasline project that he’s pursued most of his adult life, but did not mention the fact that the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation has just opened up a Tokyo office.
The best speaking of the night came in the prerecorded response from a casual and unrehearsed Senate President Pete Kelly of Fairbanks, who let it be known that the Senate’s proposed $750 million in budget cuts over three years and the proposed spending cap would be every bit as essential as looking at the Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve Account. Kelly was articulate, spoke with conviction, and was, well, chill.
Importantly, Sen. Kelly focused on getting oil production ramped up, which implies he will not be friendly to any bills coming from the House of Representatives that further hobble an already struggling oil industry.
A source connected to President-elect Donald Trump expressed optimism today that the road between King Cove and Cold Bay will be a top priority early in the Trump Administration.
The source, who spoke to Must Read Alaska on the condition of anonymity, has spoken directly with Rep. Ryan Zinke, the Interior Secretary nominee, and received assurances that the life-saving road is one of Zinke’s top priorities.
The confirmation hearing for Zinke are underway in Washington, D.C., where he was intensely grilled by Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, chaired by Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Three years ago, current Secretary Sally Jewell rejected the road that would connect King Cove residents with the all-weather airport in Cold Bay. Many Alaskans saw it as evidence that the Obama Administration cares more about the birds of the Izembek Refuge than it does for the lives at risk in windy and foggy King Cove community.
Zinke is being pressured by the Alaska DC delegation to commit to building the 11-mile emergency gravel road.
King Cove Mayor Henry Mack last month expressed hope for the Trump Administration coming to the aid of the community: “Unlike Secretary Jewell, we believe President-elect Donald Trump and Interior Secretary nominee Ryan Zinke value human lives as well as birds,” he told reporters. “We are confident they will take action because they understand that the lives of King Cove residents matter. We’re encouraged that we may finally get access to a small life-saving road corridor, and our dream of safe passage to the Cold Bay airport will become a reality.”
King Cove residents have lobbied for a road for two generations. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2013 decided the road could cause damage the wetlands and lagoons of the 150-square-mile Izembek Lagoon It is a seasonal home to various migratory birds.
Environmental groups remain opposed to the road, and Secretary Jewell agreed with them, and even refused a land swap that would have traded state land for federal land. The federal government would have received 97.5 square miles of state land and given up 3 square miles of federal land.
Governor Bill Walker rehearses his State of the State Address at the Governor’s Mansion.
Gov. Bill Walker will offer his third State of the State address at 7 p.m. tonight, Jan. 18.
State of the State day is typically filled with excitement and anticipation on the Third Floor of the Capitol, where the Governor’s Office is situated. This year there may be some hand wringing thrown in with that anticipation.
The governor is developing a track record, after all, and it’s concerning the public. Walker has seen the polling numbers and they’re not good as he heads into his third year: His approval rating dropped into the 30’s and his disapproval numbers are steadily climbing, according to a Walker-sympathetic pollster. The public’s confidence in the governor’s ability to manage his key initiatives is flagging.
Gov. Walker has a particular challenge this year. While a leader must express optimism and cast a vision that gives people hope, the economy of Alaska is encountering strong headwinds. That means he, as governor, is encountering headwinds as well.
In fact, a combination of low oil prices and high state budgets created a perfect storm under Walker’s watch. His method of dealing with it in the past two budget cycles was to immediately convene a “summer tax camp” (or feedback session, if you will), at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the summer of 2015, and begin the process of softening the target so he could tax Alaskans wage-earners and job-creators without making the budget cuts Alaskans wanted first.
2015 was a faux crisis compared with 2017.
Now, in Year 3 of his governorship, Walker has an actual economic meltdown on his hands because he didn’t want to do the heavy lifting for the two prior years.
The economy will be the elephant in the room, as Alaskans face the largest job loss since the economic crash of the 1980s: More than 14,000 jobs will disappear in just two years — most of them in the private sector.
Alaskans are reluctantly packing their trucks and leaving the state to look for opportunity elsewhere.
The governor desperately needs to articulate a plan for getting the state back on track. He cannot allow the economic downward spiral to continue. He is going to have to exude confidence tonight, but also substance. Most of all, his speechwriter must dissuade him from discussing the beer and carrot economy.
PIPE DREAM: Walker ran for office primarily on the gasline, and back in 2014, candidate Walker provided a clear and convincing vision for building that gasline, in contrast with Gov. Parnell, who had been proceeding more cautiously, allowing the private sector to set the pace.
Once in office, Walker spoke of the gasline project as his highest priority during his first State of the State Address in January of 2015.
Over the past 24 months, Walker hired his friends, like Rigdon Boykin, who he paid $120,000 a month, and Radoslav Shipkoff, who he paid $100,000 a month, as well as other special consultants to help him move the gasline forward. He blew up the board and leadership of the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, put in place his own appointees, and proceeded to burn through the cash.
He blew through two commissioners of Natural Resources, who could not support his gasline vision. He traveled to Asia multiple times to tout the gasline and tell the world that Alaska was on track.
In 2015, Walker stated this during his State of the State:
Under my administration, we will finally begin building the Alaska gas line to tidewater.
It will be done with Alaska hire to the maximum extent allowed under the law.
And it will comply with Alaska’s constitutional mandate that our resources be developed for the maximum use and benefit of Alaskans. I was honored to have the president of a major Japanese energy consortium travel from Tokyo to Juneau last month for our inauguration.
I met with this Japanese delegation the following morning as my first official meeting as your governor.
About 10 days later, they returned to Juneau with a memorandum of understanding.
Since signing that MOU, other significant LNG buyers in Asia have contacted me expressing similar interest.
In fact, on our way to church on Christmas Eve, I received such a call from a major Japanese company.
The gas is available. The market is responding. And as we know, Alaska is the crossroads of the world. It’s time we engage those markets, diversify our economy, create long-term fiscal stability and job growth.
If Walker pushes forward with the same gasline message tonight, viewers may be reminded of the old Hans Christian Anderson story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”
MEDICAID EXPANSION: While the gasline is a messaging hurdle for Walker, touting his Obamacare Medicaid expansion is a tough sell as well.
The health insurance experiment under President Obama has led to all but one insurance company leaving the Alaska market, and there’s no telling what the future of the program will be under a Trump Administration.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports that Medicaid expansion enrollees in Alaska cost about 49 percent higher than had been estimated. Looking ahead, Alaska will soon pick up at least 10 percent of the cost of the Medicaid expansion population, which grows by the year as more and more people lose their jobs and fall under the income threshhold for mandatory insurance. While the Legislature passed some significant reforms, cost drivers are continuing to grow.
Last year the Legislature approved $55 million in extra funding to bail out the last remaining insurer, Premera, and prevent Obamacare from altogether collapsing in Alaska. There was no help from the federal government — or did Walker seek help in fixing what the federal government had created as a monopolistic problem that plagues many states?
PERMANENT FUND DIVIDEND: By 2016, Gov. Walker and his then-Chief of Staff Jim Whitaker, had developed such sour relations with lawmakers that Walker abandoned working with the Legislature and simply garnished half of every Alaskan’s Permanent Fund dividend.
That didn’t help solve the budget crisis because he does not have appropriation authority over it, but that $600 million is now sitting in reserve, waiting to be spent to patch a budgetary hole somewhere. To his credit, he had to know that taking half of the Permanent Fund dividends would be deeply unpopular and that he would pay a political price for it. Therefore, his move was probably not a cunning political maneuver, but an actual attempt to preserve some options for this year’s budget dialogue.
BUDGET THAT CAN’T BE CUT: If polls can be believed, Alaskans are not entirely impressed with a governor who has had to be dragged kicking and screaming into budget discipline. Alaskans think government has not yet been trimmed to its true fighting weight.
The Senate Majority this year is looking for another $300 million in cuts and has stated they’ll come from Transportation, Education, and Health and Social Services, as well as other portions of state government. The House, now controlled by Democrats, is instead lining up a host of taxes.
The majorities of two governmental bodies are far apart, which is where a truly nonpartisan governor might have a shot at success.
But the governor is not nonpartisan. Through his agent Bruce Botelho, Walker has populated key positions up and down the bureaucratic column with Democrats who are there to protect state jobs. Unless he cleans house, Republicans in the Legislature will remain mistrustful.
Walker’s move to hire Scott Kendall as his chief of staff was a step in the right direction. Jim Whitaker, who is one of Walker’s closest allies, was so toxic to the governor that he finally had to be moved aside, but the damage to the relationship between the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch has been bloody.
Retaining Darwin Peterson as governor’s legislative director was a solid move on Walker’s part. Peterson has had his bumps dealing with legislators, but they know him and basically trust him, or at least understand that he has certain water to carry for the governor. That relationship goes a long ways. The rumors of Peterson’s demise were greatly exaggerated, but Chief of Staff Kendall has done damage control.
THE ECONOMY: The one thing Walker can do is to focus the bulk of his attention on getting more oil into the pipeline. He needs to stop listening to the inner-circle fatalists who whisper in his ear that we are in a post-oil era. We’re only in that era if he makes us so. Walker needs to believe in oil again.
Judging from the massive finds announced lately, such as the Smith Bay discovery by Caelus Energy, the Pikka field by Armstrong Oil, and the Willow discovery by ConocoPhillips-Alaska, there’s plenty of oil to put in the pipeline. SB-21, the tax reform bill, is bringing all that oil into play, but it will remain in the ground if the governor monkeys around with taxes again.
There’s an old saying: “It’s not enough to work hard. You have to work on the right things.” Work on oil, Governor, and jobs will return, taxes and royalties will flow, and the working men and women of Alaska will have their faith in government restored.
Alaska Gov. Bill Walker tonight stammered his way through his Address to the people of Alaska — not tipsy, but with that lazy elocution that Alaskans have come to know as the Walker Dialect.
