This weekend Alaskans wait to learn if the Biden Administration will allow two or three drill pads at the Willow Project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. But it was this weekend 54 years ago that oil was discovered at on the North Slope at Prudhoe Bay.
Just four years after the Great Alaska Earthquake, which occurred on March 27, 1964, Alaska was still in a rebuilding mode, with construction and reconstruction underway in Southcentral, which took the brunt of the magnitude 9.2 quake.
Up on the North Slope, the largest oil field ever discovered in North America was being drilled at Well #1. The well, drilled by Atlantic Richfield Company and Humble Oil and Refining Company, was confirmed the following year by BP Exploration. A frenzy of growth and development in Alaska ensued as other companies with leases on the North Slope raced to get ready for production. The Prudhoe Bay field became the 18th largest field discovered worldwide. At that time, Alaska’s population was only 285,000.
Prudhoe oil had to wait, however, until the Trans Alaska Pipeline was built to Valdez, which took another nine years. Oil finally flowed in 1977, and by 1979, about 1.5 million barrels were making their way down the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. That rate remained steady until about 1989, when the fields started to slow down.
By 2004, only about 475,000 barrels per day were being produced, and by 2020, the amount was down to 448,000 barrels per day, the lowest level of production since 1976.
25 billion barrels have come through the TAPS system from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, and the world market beyond. While in 1988 it took 4.5 days for oil to travel the 800-mile pipe, it now takes 18 days.
Fifty-four years after oil was discovered, Alaskans are waiting to see if the president will allow them to continue to send oil down the pipeline, or if he intends to shut it down by starving it of product.
On Friday, the White House leaked the news that President Biden would approve the ConocoPhillips project called Willow, which is on the edge of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. His press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, walked it back later that day and said no decision has been made, but that when an announcement comes, it will be from the Interior Department, not the White House.
Fun fact: Prudhoe Bay was named by British explorer Sir John Franklin after his classmate and friend Captain Algernon Percy, Baron Prudhoe.
Baron Prudhoe
Franklin traveled along the north coast in 1826 from the mouth of the Mackenzie River in Canada almost to Point Barrow in search of the Northwest Passage. There is no indication that Baron Prudhoe, 4th Duke of Northumberland, ever made the trip.
The municipal elections start Tuesday, when ballots are mailed out to all eligible voters. Tuesday is also the day when the drop boxes for those ballots are open. Ballots are due back in by 8 pm on April 4.
On the ballot, voters will decide among several Assembly seats, two School Board seats, and mind-numbing 15 ballot propositions, some of which will create more debt for the taxpayers:
+ Proposition 1: Capital Improvements for the Anchorage School District Bonds
+ Proposition 2: Areawide Public Safety and Transit Capital Improvement Bonds
+ Proposition 3: Anchorage Roads and Drainage Service Area Road and Storm Drainage Bonds
+ Proposition 4: Anchorage Fire Service Area Fire Protection Bonds
+ Proposition 5: Chugiak Fire Service Area Fire Protection Bonds
+ Proposition 6: Creation of the Chugach State Park Access Service Area
+ Proposition 7: Girdwood Valley Service Area Local Housing and Economic Stability Power
+ Proposition 8: Approving Annexation of Grandeur Subdivision Lot 1, Lot 2, Lot 3, Lot 4, and Lot 5, to the Rabbit Creek View and Rabbit Creek Heights Limited Road Service Area (LRSA) and Amending the Rabbit Creek View and Rabbit Creek Heights LRSA Boundaries in Anchorage Municipal Code Section 27.30.700, Effective Retroactive to January 1, 2023
+ Proposition 9: Approving Annexation of Spruce Terraces Subdivision to the South Goldenview Rural Road Service Area (RRSA) and Amending the South Goldenview RRSA Boundaries in Anchorage Municipal Code Section 27.30.700, Effective Retroactive to January 1, 2023
+ Proposition 10: Approving De-Annexation of Cromwell Heights Block 1, Lots 1 and 2 from the Lakehill Limited Road Service Area (LRSA) and Amending the Lakehill LRSA Boundaries in Anchorage Municipal Code Section 27.30.700, Effective Retroactive to January 1, 2023
+ Proposition 11: Amending Anchorage Charter Section 13.11 to Change Management Authority for the Municipality of Anchorage (MOA) Trust Fund from the Treasurer to a Fiduciary Board and Establishing Primary Fiduciary Duties and Responsibilities Associated with Board Management of the MOA Trust Fund
+ Proposition 12: Residential Real Propery Tax Exemption Increase
+ Proposition 13: Amending the Anchorage Municipal Charter Regarding Filling Vacancies on the Assembly and in the Office of the Mayor, and to Exclude the Costs for Special Elections for These Offices From the Tax Increase Limitation (“Tax Cap”)
+ Proposition 14: Amending the Anchorage Municipal Charter Regarding the Marijuana Retail Tax and Dedicating Tax Proceeds to Child Care and Early Education
+ Special Election Proposition No. A: Anchorage Parks and Recreation Service Area Capital Improvement Bonds
Method of voting
Anchorage is a vote-by-mail jurisdiction since the Assembly passed an ordinance to enact the method 2016. Vote by mail, drop boxes, and limited in-person voting started in 2017.
In-person centers for voting will open on Seward’s Day, March 27.
You may also mail in your ballot. Every return ballot envelope must be signed by the voter, and each signature is validated based on official signatures already on file with the State of Alaska, such as the voter’s registration document, prior election ballot envelopes, motor vehicle transactions, PFD application, etc. Election officials who adjudicate signatures are trained with techniques used to identify matches and forgeries, according to the Municipal Clerk.
If for any reason your ballot is rejected, you have a limited opportunity to “cure” your ballot, between 10-17 days after Election Day. If you go on vacation or travel after Election Day and do not know your ballot has been rejected, you’re outta luck.
The AFL-CIO put out a statement today that called war veteran Rep. Laddie Shaw a coward. His offense? Putting House Bill 22, a return to defined benefits for some state workers, into a subcommittee for a full vetting.
Shaw, a retired Navy SEAL, was assigned to Vietnam, not once, but twice, during the Vietnam War, as a member of the Underwater Demolition Team 13 and SEAL Team 1.
He served in the Naval Reserve and the Alaska Army National Guard, and was an emergency response specialist for the Alaska State Troopers. He also served as the Alaska director of veterans affairs from 1999 to 2003. He has been an advocate for military members and veterans.
Why would the AFL-CIO call such a hero a coward? The union bosses are unhappy that the bill they want will be delayed. Of concern for many in the House majority is that the bill was raced through its first committee of referral and was voted out of committee without so much as the required fiscal note.
In the same statement, the union called House Speaker Cathy Tilton and Rules Chair Craig Johnson cowards. In fact, the AFL-CIO called the entire House Majority cowards.
On The View, actress/activist Jane Fonda said that one more step in the fight for abortion rights is plain old “murder.”
The hosts of the show quickly tried to walk that suggestion back by saying that Fonda must have been joking, but Fonda just stared, giving them no indication that she was, in fact, trying to be funny.
Her comment came after she had talked about the importance of women being able to control their own bodies, and “able to determine when and how many children they will have.” She said women will not go back to the era when abortions were limited.
“We’re not going back. I don’t care what the laws are,” Fonda said, and the audience applauded.
She was asked what else women could do besides protest.
“Well, there’s murder,” Fonda replied.
“What did you say?” said Lilly Tomlin.
“Murder,” Fonda repeated.
“She’s kidding,” said Joy Behar, trying to walk back the statement. But Fonda sat stony-faced, while the others around the table tried to brush it off and then say that surely that statement would be taken and run with by the conservatives.
Watch the entire exchange here:
Jane Fonda just went on The View and said Pro-Life politicians need to be "murdered"
If you want to kill a proposal in advance in Washington’s Beltway these days, you leak it to the media. It was done before the Supreme Court decision overturning the 1973 abortion ruling called Roe v. Wade last May, and it was done again on Friday, March 10, when unnamed sources leaked to Bloomberg News that a decision has been reached on Alaska’s Willow Project, which environmentalists have made into the new boogeyman.
In the case leaked on Roe v. Wade, the leak did not change the actual outcome of the ruling by the Supreme Court, however. It appears environmentalists may be hoping for a different outcome than the one Bloomberg is reporting.
Bloomberg writes, “The Biden administration has decided to authorize a mammoth ConocoPhillips oil project in northwest Alaska, rejecting arguments from environmental activists who insist it will push the world closer to climate catastrophe, according two people familiar with the matter.”
“After weeks of deliberations, senior advisers have signed off on the move, which represents one of the most momentous climate decisions yet for President Joe Biden.
“The approval is set to be released next week by the Interior Department, said the people, who asked not to be named because an announcement has not been made. Under the draft plan, ConocoPhillips would be permitted to drill from three locations across its Willow site in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, unlocking an estimated 600 million barrels of oil as well as some 280 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions tied to burning it.”
It appears to be partially correct, in that the announcement is not being made this week, as many had hoped for. It would be economically life-changing for Alaska if the three drilling pads were approved, although other rumors say the Biden Administration will reduce the approval to two pads.
The news came out late in the afternoon on a Friday in Washington, D.C.
The project, while substantial for Alaska, is not massive, but could provide 188,000 barrels of oil a day into the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. ConocoPhillips would like to begin work this winter, but the days to actually do work in the Arctic are fewer now, as spring thaw will eventually take out the ice roads.
Sen. Dan Sullivan’s office declined to comment on the news report.
At the end of December, in a holiday news dump, the Biden Administration suddenly announced it would return to the old Obama-era interpretation of “Waters of the United States” — which drops of water can be regulated by the federal government.
The ruling, published in the Federal Register in January, means the government will have oversight not only of waters on federal lands, but waters that might someday flow into any waters. In other words, if it’s any significant amount of water, the federal government can choose to regulate it under the Clean Water Act.
The ruling means that the less-than 1 percent of privately held land in Alaska, in addition to that private land held by Native corporations, will be subject to EPA permits for something as minor as building a 10×10 hunting cabin or even a fish-drying shack.
Alaskans are mystified that Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola, their only member in the U.S. House, voted to return to colonialism. The EPA rule takes away the rights of Native corporations to use their lands for the betterment of their shareholders – the Natives of Alaska who were deeded these lands under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, which awarded Alaska Native corporations 45.5 million acres of land to create better economic conditions for Alaska’s indigenous people.
That’s not all the EPA rule does. A small neighborhood containment pond that occasionally slops over into a stormwater drain will come under EPA control, even if it’s on private land. Water that drains from rooftops and makes its way to that pond will be subject to at-whim permit requirements by the EPA. Golf course water hazards, already significantly regulated, would find themselves even further under the command of the Clean Water Act. A farm or ranch pond that occasionally overfills and spills over its swale will be subject to the Obama-era WOTUS interpretation.
It’s not theoretical. At the U.S. Supreme Court, a pending case from Idaho, Sackett vs. EPA, shows how just one American can be prevented from building a home if the federal government decides, as it did in 2008, that the property owner’s half-acre land was once upon a time a wetlands, until a road nearby changed the hydrology of the area. The case was the first to be heard by the court this session and a decision is expected within weeks.
Alaska’s Gov. Mike Dunleavy is not happy about the return to the Obama-era rule, and neither are two members of the Alaska delegation – Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski.
That is because Alaska, with its unique geographic and geologic characteristics, is disproportionately affected by the Obama-era EPA rule.
Alaska has a diverse climate, with some places getting less than five inches of rain per year, and other places getting 200 inches. Some land is permanently frozen, and other land, which drains into waterways, is suitable for farming. Alaska has more water – liquid and frozen – than all other states combined. It’s crisscrossed by 900,000 miles of navigable rivers and streams. The state has 22,000 square miles of lakes, 27,000 miles of coastline, and about 43% of the state is considered wetlands, compared to other states, which average 5%.
For Alaskans, this is a taking of the state’s land and the economy by the federal government. If it looks like colonialism, and walks like colonialism, it’s not going to be popular in the 49th state.
For these reasons, if the Biden Administration goes through with its expansion of federal authority over all ponds, streams, wetlands, and more – whether on federal, state, or private land – it will effectively finish off Alaska’s economy.
Alaska has struggled under the thumb of President Biden, who has made at least 45 executive orders shutting down various parts of the Alaska economy. The state is now near the bottom of the list for economic recovery from the Covid pandemic policies. The new WOTUS rule is the death blow.
Alaskans are disappointed that Rep. Mary Peltola, their only House member, voted to return to colonialism.
Peltola betrayed her state last week, putting partisan allegiance to Biden over the well-being of her fellow Alaskans.
Silicon Valley Bank, the prestigious venture capital bank for Big Tech and biotech growth companies, has been closed by federal and state banking regulators.
The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation closed down the bank on Friday, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
It was a classic bank run. Account holders had started pulling their money out, and the bank didn’t have the liquidity to cover all the withdrawals.
Silicon Valley Bank came to Alaska in 2019, with a group of cleantech investors and entrepreneurs to get to know the state as an investment opportunity, and to learn more about the startup tech group called Launch Alaska. The bank wrote about Alaska as an investment opportunity at its website.
FDIC said on Friday that insured deposits will be accessible no later than Monday morning, when the bank will reopen under federal control. The standard insurance from FDIC covers up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank. But SVB has massive accounts worth millions that belong to venture capital investors. Many of these accounts are greater than the insured ceiling.
It’s a crisis caused, in part, by the Federal Reserve, which is the most powerful economic institution in the world. The Fed has raised interest rates so high that investors and companies are taking money out of banks accounts and putting them into higher-yield U.S. Treasuries and T bills.
The collapse of SVB is a reminder of what happened during and after the real estate bubble of 2007-2010, when the five largest U.S. investment banks, with combined liabilities or debts of $4 trillion, either went bankrupt or were taken over by other institutions. Some of the largest were bailed out by the U.S. government. For example, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, while Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were bailed out. Washington Mutual Savings and Loan became largest bank failure in U.S. history; it had $188.3 billion in deposits when it collapsed.
Silicon Valley Bank has assets of $212 billion and market capitalization of $26.65 billion.
Silicon Valley Bank is also one of the banks used by FTX, the crytocurrency exchange run by the now-indicted Sam Bankman-Fried.
Silicon Valley Bank, Santa Clara, California, was closed today by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect insured depositors, the FDIC created the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara (DINB). At the time of closing, the FDIC as receiver immediately transferred to the DINB all insured deposits of Silicon Valley Bank.
All insured depositors will have full access to their insured deposits no later than Monday morning, March 13, 2023. The FDIC will pay uninsured depositors an advance dividend within the next week. Uninsured depositors will receive a receivership certificate for the remaining amount of their uninsured funds. As the FDIC sells the assets of Silicon Valley Bank, future dividend payments may be made to uninsured depositors.
Silicon Valley Bank had 17 branches in California and Massachusetts. The main office and all branches of Silicon Valley Bank will reopen on Monday, March 13, 2023. The DINB will maintain Silicon Valley Bank’s normal business hours. Banking activities will resume no later than Monday, March 13, including on-line banking and other services. Silicon Valley Bank’s official checks will continue to clear. Under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, the FDIC may create a DINB to ensure that customers have continued access to their insured funds.
As of December 31, 2022, Silicon Valley Bank had approximately $209.0 billion in total assets and about $175.4 billion in total deposits. At the time of closing, the amount of deposits in excess of the insurance limits was undetermined. The amount of uninsured deposits will be determined once the FDIC obtains additional information from the bank and customers.
Customers with accounts in excess of $250,000 should contact the FDIC toll-free at 1-866-799-0959.
The FDIC as receiver will retain all the assets from Silicon Valley Bank for later disposition. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.
Silicon Valley Bank is the first FDIC-insured institution to fail this year. The last FDIC-insured institution to close was Almena State Bank, Almena, Kansas, on October 23, 2020.
In a vote on the House floor on Thursday, Rep. Mary Peltola continued her war on Alaska’s economy and private property owners of America.
The vote was to disapprove the Biden Administration declaration that all waters in United States fall under the control of government. Ponds in farm fields. Rain that drains into streams that drain into rivers. All water on Native Corporation land in Alaska would be impacted. Peltola voted to keep the Biden rule intact.
The rule Peltola voted to preserve sounds complicated because it is complicated. Simply put, Biden Administration has revised the definition of “Waters of the United States” to include nearly all waters.
The vote in the U.S. House on Thursday was to disapprove that rule, and it went 227 to disapprove, and 198 to not disapprove, with 9 not voting. Peltola voted with the Democrats to not cancel the rule and to therefore put all waters under federal authority, something that the State of Alaska has fought for years.
How much water the federal government would take under this rule would be up to interpretation by the Environmental Protection Agency and the courts, and would change year after year, through litigation.
“When upstream waters significantly affect the integrity of waters for which the Federal interest is indisputable—the traditional navigable waters, the territorial seas, and interstate waters—this rule ensures that Clean Water Act programs apply to protect those paragraph (a)(1) waters by including such upstream waters within the scope of the ‘waters of the United States.’ Where waters do not significantly affect the integrity of waters for which the Federal interest is indisputable, this rule leaves regulation exclusively to the Tribes and States.Additionally, it is important to note that the fact that a water is one of the “waters of the United States” does not mean that no activity can occur in that water; rather, it means that activities must comply with the Clean Water Act’s permitting programs, and those programs include numerous statutory exemptions and regulatory exclusions.
Essentially, what happened when the Clean Water Act was applied to State of Alaska-owned land at the Pebble deposit in Western Alaska will now be applied to all private land in the United States, including places like private land in Texas, where oil and gas leases occur on land that is occasionally prone to flooding.
House Joint Resolution 27, sponsored by Missouri Rep. Sam Graves, must now pass the Senate, and then must be signed by the president. It is likely to pass the Senate, because Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is not amused by the federal overreach, but that vote will depend on whether Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell returns from the hospital, where he has been treated for a fall, and whether Democrat Sen. John Fetterman returns from psychiatric care at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he is being treated for depression.
In any case, President Joe Biden is likely to veto it when it comes to his desk.
In December, when the rule was announced, Sen. Dan Sullivan blasted the Biden Administration:
“The Biden administration today announced its ‘final’ Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Rule, resuscitating the burdensome and overreaching Obama-era ‘final’ interpretation of the Clean Water Act and giving the EPA vast authority over lands across the country, particularly in Alaska, which has more wetlands than any other state in the country by far,” Sullivan said in December. “Remarkably, the Biden administration refused to pause issuing this WOTUS Rule just a few months until the Supreme Court rules in a case (Sackett vs. EPA II) that will determine the scope of the agency’s authority under the Clean Water Act. As a result, millions of hard-working Americans and Alaskans are left in regulatory limbo.”
“Under this rule, land owners face the potential for thousands of dollars in litigation and months of bureaucratic back-and-forth just to fill a ditch or build a structure on their own property. This rule abandons the balanced, bipartisan and statutorily-based implementation of the Clean Water Act that we had achieved working with the Trump administration, through multiple court victories, and through multiple field hearings I chaired as a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee—including in Alaska.
“The truth is, all Americans want clean water, and we have some of the country’s cleanest water right here in Alaska. But the federal government should not take authority from states and run rough shod over the law, good-paying jobs, and our economy—which is on the verge of a recession—to achieve that goal. I will do everything I can to fight this illegal federal power grab, and I look forward to the Supreme Court once again reining in this out-of-control federal agency.”
It’s the third change in 10 years to the definition of WOTUS, even as a landmark decision from the U.S. Supreme Court is expected within weeks, which could require another significant revision and further regulatory changes, the groups noted. December’s announcement contains literally thousands of pages of documents, which Alaskans have worked to understand.
Last year, trade groups in Alaska also voiced their criticism of the Biden Administration’s return to draconian water rules.
The Alaska Chamber, the Associated General Contractors of Alaska, the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, the Alaska Miners Association, the Alaska Support Industry Alliance, the Council of Alaska Producers, and the Resource Development Council for Alaska expressed dismay at the newest WOTUS Rule.
“RDC is disappointed to see this massive final rule released on the last business day of the year,” said Leila Kimbrell, Resource Development Council for Alaska’s executive director in December. “While we are still in the process of reviewing the hundreds of pages of the new final rule, we have significant concerns over our initial assessment that this rule unnecessarily expands federal jurisdiction over state waters and brings further uncertainty to federal permitting requirements. The definition of WOTUS is of utmost importance to RDC and its membership because Alaska is uniquely vulnerable when it comes to EPA regulation and federal overreach. This new rule will result in disproportionate impacts to Alaska and RDC’s members, from oil and gas, to maritime, fishing, tourism, timber, as well as Alaska Native corporations, and rural communities. While we continue to review the final document released today, RDC is committed to working with our federal and state partners to ensure a workable solution for Alaska’s unique needs.”
Rep. Mary Peltola is considered to be at risk for the 2024 election cycle, so the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee has put her on a list for special attention, and a lot of money. The list is known as the DCCC Frontline program to help Democrat incumbents in competitive seats. The committee will make sure these incumbents, who are now in the minority in Congress, have the campaign funds they need to retain their seats.
The Democrats are already working hard to save Peltola, placing two glowing stories in one week about her in the Politico online publication that is focused on national politics. They will use their prodigious fundraising machine Act Blue to raise millions in small-donor contributions from across the country. Peltola ended 2022 with over $691,000 cash on hand to seed the ground for her 2024 campaign.
The DCCC has set up a page devoted to Peltola on its website and has provided a link where people can donate to her. In its description of Alaska’s lone representative, it reminds people that Peltola spent over $7 million to win the seat in a state where former President Donald Trump won by 10 points in 2020.
“Mary has already accomplished so much for Alaskans. She has introduced eight bills already, one being The Food Security for all Veterans Act that was passed out of the House in her first three weeks in office. The Cook Political Report has labeled this district as “Lean Democrat,” but the GOP isn’t giving up just yet. Trump won this state by 10 points in 2020, and the GOP is eager to take back this longtime Republican stronghold. In 2022, Mary spent over $7 million to win this seat. We must ensure Rep. Peltola has the resources needed to keep AK-AL blue,” the DCCC said.
During the 2024 election cycle, there are 29 incumbent members that made the at-risk-seats Frontline list:
