The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority Board of Directors announced the appointment of Randy Ruaro as the new AIDEA executive director, effective Jan. 3, 2023.
“We are pleased to announce that Randy Ruaro has accepted the position of Executive Director,“ said AIDEA Board Chairman, Dana Pruhs. “Randy has extensive experience leading departments for the State of Alaska and we look forward to working with him and AIDEA’s talented executive team as we advance economic growth and diversification for Alaskans.”
Ruaro was recently Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s chief of staff and special assistant for statehood defense. in his role as chief of staff, he managed the Office of the Governor and provided administrative oversight to state agencies, agency leaders, and implemented policies supporting resource development, infrastructure, and job growth.
Ruaro served as chief of staff in both the Senate and House Finance Committees as well as numerous other legislative roles such as legislative Budget and Audit Committee aide. He has extensive executive leadership experience with state agencies and has worked in leadership roles for Govs. Palin, Parnell, and Murkowski.
Ruaro holds a law degree from Willamette University College of Law and is an attorney with 28 years of experience working on access issues, permitting, and state land rights for Alaska. He has supported and advanced AIDEA projects including the Ketchikan Shipyard, Skagway Ore Terminal, the Ambler Access Project, and 1002 leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
”I would like to acknowledge AlDEA’s Chief Investment Officer and Interim Executive Director, Morgan Nefi’, for his leadership during this transition and look forward to Randy working closely with the entire team to advance AIDEA’s mission,” said Pruhs.
The Alaska industrial Development and Export Authority is a public corporation of the State of Alaska. AIDEA’s purpose is to promote, develop, and advance the general prosperity and economic welfare of the people of Alaska.
Alaska, at the Northwest corner of the U.S., and hydrogen, at the top left of the periodic table, share more than a common location on their respective charts. Global energy consumption is forecast to grow 50% by 2050, and hydrogen from Alaska can provide solutions to the world’s energy and climate needs for decades.
Hydrogen demand is set to skyrocket. Alaska is in a great position to accelerate commercial-scale clean hydrogen production and capture an outsized portion of the market.
Hydrogen demand is driven by its energy and environmental advantages. Hydrogen is an abundant, energy-rich element with the highest energy mass of any fuel. We’ll never run out of hydrogen. Burning hydrogen to generate energy produces zero carbon and emits only harmless water and air.
Hydrogen energy is described more at this Department of Energy website.
Because of these advantages, policymakers are providing powerful incentives to spur the creation of a clean hydrogen energy industry. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, passed with the support of Alaska’s Congressional Delegation, includes up to $7 billion to establish six to 10 regional clean hydrogen hubs across America, and Alaska has everything going for it in this competition.
Expanding economies and populations in Asia are driving growing energy needs. Developed nations like Japan and South Korea are banking on hydrogen to meet 2050 net-zero carbon targets. These nations are our strongest allies in the region and have deep trade ties to Alaska due to our close proximity.
Japan’s long-term strategy is to create a complete, end-to-end hydrogen ecosystem, including “a global supply chain and constructing onsite storage facilities in Japan.” Mitsubishi Corporation and TOYO Engineering Corporation, two leading Japanese energy companies, are already working in Alaska with the state’s Alaska Gasline Development Corporation and Hilcorp to evaluate the commercial feasibility of producing clean hydrogen in the form of carbon-free ammonia. Similarly, South Korea is ramping up demand for hydrogen from 130,000 tons per year in 2018 to an estimated 5.26 million tons in 2040.
Hydrogen is effectively stored and used in fuel cells, which contain more power in comparable space than electric batteries, making hydrogen “suited for airplanes or ships that have to carry energy supplies long distances,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage is the second-largest air cargo hub in the world, strategically located between North America and Asia, positioning Alaska to have a major role in global decarbonization by fueling this vital supply route with hydrogen. Alaska is also home to strategic North Pacific military facilities, and the Defense Department, the world’s single largest institutional user of petroleum, is closely examining the long-term prospects for incorporating hydrogen fuel into military operations.
Alaska’s resources give us a major competitive advantage in the race to produce hydrogen. First, Alaska has an abundance of untapped natural gas. The North Slope reigns as one of the world’s great energy super basins in part because it contains 40 trillion cubic feet of developed and conventional, but stranded, natural gas.
Natural gas will not only enjoy decades of additional growth as a standalone clean energy source, but is also essential for producing clean hydrogen. The methane in natural gas is naturally rich in hydrogen, and natural gas accounts for 95% of U.S. hydrogen production today.
The Alaska LNG Project, with all major permits and authorizations in place, is poised to finally commercialize North Slope natural gas and is negotiating with developers and investors to complete engineering and begin construction.
Alaska LNG is already designed as one of the lowest-emissions LNG projects in the world. Further environmental benefits will be unlocked when Alaska LNG natural gas is used to produce hydrogen. By safely capturing and storing the carbon released in this process, the carbon intensity of hydrogen production is negligible. The Alaska LNG terminal will be located in Cook Inlet, which features geology capable of storing 50 gigatons of carbon, the highest capacity of any location on the U.S. West Coast according to scientists. For perspective, 50 gigatons is the equivalent of several decades of carbon emissions from the entire nation of Japan.
Establishing ourselves as an early dominant hydrogen provider ensures we will have the infrastructure, knowledge, and market acumen to also use renewables like hydropower, tidal, and wind to produce hydrogen as technology matures and scales. These resources are more plentiful in Alaska than any other region of the U.S., and tapping them gives Alaska the opportunity for a diversified, world-leading hydrogen portfolio.
But perhaps our most potent advantage in the shifting energy landscape is our people. Alaska is home to a highly trained energy workforce committed to some of the toughest environmental standards in the world. For generations, Alaskans have thrived by using our resources responsibly and sustainably.
Alaska has been an energy leader, fueling America’s economy for decades. Alaska has what it takes to become a global hydrogen powerhouse and lead the world into a new clean energy era.
Mike Dunleavy is Alaska’s 12th governor who began his first term of office in December 2018.
The report was commissioned by the Corps from the University of Pittsburgh in 2020 and completed in 2022. It says that half of the military services already have done away with gendered identifiers for training staff, the publication writes.
“The Army, Navy, and Coast Guard effectively de-emphasize gender in an integrated environment,” the report states. “Instead of saying ‘ma’am’ or ‘sir,’ recruits in these Services refer to their drill instructors using their ranks or roles followed by their last names. Gendered identifiers prime recruits to think about or visually search for a drill instructor’s gender first, before their rank or role.”
The proposal was under consideration by a Marine Corps leadership team assembled to guide service efforts to integrate boot camp, Col. Howard Hall, chief of staff for Marine Corps Training and Education Command, told the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services in December, according to the publication.
The dysfunction in the Bronson Administration at Anchorage City Hall came to a head last week, when the mayor fired City Manager Amy Demboski, after she sent him an email detailing her concerns about contracts she believes were executed in violation of code.
The press release from the Mayor’s Office announcing Demboski’s replacement was stone cold — it just said she had been replaced by Kent Kohlhase temporarily. It gave no reason, and the Mayor’s Office handled the rest in salacious leaks to certain websites.
Demboski has been with Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration from the outset and many observers recognize that she guided him through perilous straits during his early days as mayor, when he didn’t exactly know how governments operate. Demboski had already served on the Anchorage Assembly and in the administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, and has a history of administration in the private sector.
She was a strong city manager. When the hostile members of the Anchorage Assembly peppered the mayor with questions he could not answer, he deferred to her. But along the way, Demboski got cross-threaded with a senior manager in the Bronson administration who has close ties with the mayor. And, from Demboski’s side of the story, she was concerned that the administration was approving contracts that were illegal because they needed to go in front of the Assembly, due to their amounts and other considerations. Demboski said that some of the contracts appeared to be for overlapping work, and she was not able to get the purchasing director’s cooperation.
Demboski left her keys on the desk, and quietly left City Hall. She had no intention of making a big scene. But then, someone high in the Bronson Administration leaked select details of the events to a gossip blog, and it appears the leaks were from someone close to the mayor — I’ll not say who, but it’s someone who has leaked a lot of information to the gossip blogger in the past. On behalf of the mayor, operatives started a whisper campaign against Demboski that was clearly intended to damage the former city manager. She decided to give interviews to the Anchorage Daily News and KTUU in order to clear her name.
Demboski admits she used foul language in describing the purchasing director, but she said that incident happened in front of a tiny circle of senior leaders, and that the subject of her scorn was not in the room. She takes responsibility for her foul mouth.
All of this points to leadership failure in the Bronson Administration. Leaks to bloggers like this show a lack of discipline among the people running the government. Who will be the next target of a leak? People working in the administration are now in a state of distrust; they know the source of these leaks. They know who to fear.
Unfortunately for the mayor, the statements that Demboski has now made to the press have given the Anchorage Assembly everything it needs to start impeachment processes — fairly or unfairly — against the mayor. The rest of their damage to him will be done in the court of public opinion.
And Demboski, through her own influence, will peel off conservative support that the mayor needs for his reelection. From her point of view, she sees the firing as retaliation for her bringing serious legal issues to the mayor’s attention. If she chooses, Demboski may have a retaliation claim for wrongful termination. The mayor will now be distracted from the running of the city while he tries to do damage control. Already, the trove of public records requests have begun, and documents are going to be made public that won’t make the Bronson Administration look good.
There aren’t any bad people working in the Bronson Administration, as far as this writer knows. There are a lot of good people. But Bronson is in trouble, and should take a look in the mirror and realize that with all the drama, the buck stops with the person he sees there.
As an aside, the other day I was wringing my hands because I had not been able to get any advance help for the state budget roll-out from the Gov. Mike Dunleavy administration. Looking back, I can now say that it’s a good sign that Dunleavy is running a tight ship, and that the leaks are few and far between to hostile forces. Let’s hope it stays that way.
As far as Bronson goes, the leaks he has been letting out are reflecting poorly on his ability to run a tight ship. He has very little time to get this situation under control and get the public on his side quickly. Can he move past the drama, and avoid ending up in court with Amy Demboski on the witness stand, during the same timeframe he is running for reelection?
This kerfuffle is not nearly as bad as the mess made by former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz. But Berkowitz had something that Bronson doesn’t have — a friendly press. The mainstream media knows blood when it sees it in the water, and has already begun to form the circle of sharks around Bronson.
And just like that, the Anchorage School District was able to reduce the former $68 million deficit by $20 million. Now the deficit for the next year’s operations is only $48 million.
How were they able to do this?
– The mayor and the Assembly majority agreed to fund the School Resource Officers at $2.3 million.
– The school district has a credit of $2,543,477 due to a decrease in one-time payments to the teacher’s union which was supposed to be used to recruit for hard-to-fill positions.
– $2.2 million comes from attrition of personnel.
– The district has an increased student count, so it expects an additional $3.1 million from the State and the municipality. This increase includes an additional 44 intensive needs students at $77,480 each. These intensive needs dollars are not earmarked for those specific students, however. They go into the general fund.
– Finally, the district uses $9 million of one-time federal Covid-19 money to reduce the deficit.
Here is the ASD chart showing the specific reductions in the fiscal gap:
Next year, the district also loses the “hold harmless” dollars it has received for the past three years. Those state dollars are given to the school district, which holds the district harmless for losing students. If a district loses more than 5% of its students, then it receives funding for 75% of those lost students in the following year. This decreases to 50% and then 25% over the next 2 years.
For the current school year, the district receives $6.44 million for the 722 students it no longer has. Despite the increase in student enrollment this year, the district still gets monies for students it previously lost.
The Anchorage School District spends about 86% of its general fund on salaries and benefits.
Those salaries and benefits are projected to increase by $52.5 million (15.97%) in the next fiscal year, 2024.
Most of that cost increase is due to school board-approved union contracts.
The district also has access to several fund balances—leftover money. It currently has a fund balance of $33.04 million above the State’s cap.
The district may use part of this fund balance, which is like a “rainy day” fund, to fill its budget gap this next fiscal year. It may also reduce the fund balance to a minimum 8% of expenditures level. That is $44.44 million extra money to use.
This would allow it to use $28.34 million to fill the budget gap as shown below.
The school board has dug this budget hole even deeper by using one-time federal Covid money to pay for recurring costs, in spite of being warned by the State to not do this.
The one-time money has been used to pay for 529 full-time equivalent positions at a cost of more than $60.7 million.
Here is the district’s chart showing these positions:
Whatever the school board decides, readers may recall that the State Department of Education and Early Development warned every district not to use one-time federal Covid money to pay for recurring costs.
Apparently, the Anchorage School Board either did not listen or did not heed the State’s advice.
Now it wants the State Legislature to pay for its choice to ignore the warning by increasing the per student funding—the Base Student Allocation.
And the Legislature, in its current makeup, may look at your Permanent Fund dividend, which the governor has proposed to be set statutorily about $4,000, to pay for a poorly performing school district.
David Boyle is the education writer for Must Read Alaska.
The Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC announced it will return the $3 million in donations from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and the former FTX head of engineering, Nishad Singh, according to the political action committee.
The PAC spent at least $160 million supporting Democrat candidates for Senate in 2022, and a few select Republicans.
“Following the serious allegations against FTX, Senate Majority PAC previously set aside the contribution amounts from Sam Bankman-Fried and Nishad Singh with the intention of returning the funds once we receive proper direction from federal law enforcement officials based on their legal proceedings,” a PAC spokeswoman told CNBC on Tuesday.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who received the maximum contribution to her campaign from a disgraced cryptocurrency crook, will not return the funds so they can be redistributed to investors in FTX. Instead, she has donated those funds to a Homer nonprofit, Storyknife Writers Retreat in Homer. Murkowski received about $14,000 from Sam Bankman-Fried, his brother, and another executive at FTX.
FTX bilked thousands of investors out of their cryptocurrency investments, and used those funds to get Democrats elected into office.
Murkowski’s campaign told Anchorage Daily News reporters she donated $14,200 to the nonprofit as soon after the news of the cryptocurrency fraud was made public.
“FTX entered bankruptcy filings on Nov. 11, and Murkowski made a donation of $14,100 to Storyknife Writers Retreat in Homer on Nov. 22, according to Federal Elections Commissions records. The donation was made weeks before Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas earlier this week,” the ADN reported. Bankman-Fried was arrested three weeks after Murkowski handed over the money to a retreat for women writers, where there is a cabin sponsored by a family member associated with the senator.
The Storyknife Writers Retreat has a Murkowski family connection. One of the cabins is named for the senator’s sister, Carol Murkowski Sturgulewski, as a naming opportunity sponsored by the late State Sen. Arliss Sturgulewski, who served in the Legislature from 1979 to 1993. Naming rights for cabins at the retreat went for about $50,000.
But the bankruptcy court says it will claw back that type of re-distribution of those funds, which belong to debtors.
FTX is trying to get the payments made to politicians back and “intends to commence actions before the bankruptcy court to require the return of such payments, with interest accruing from the date any action is commenced”, the company said. Recipients of the ill-gotten gains can voluntarily return the money and avoid court action by contacting [email protected].
“Recipients are cautioned that making a payment or donation to a third party (including a charity) in the amount of any payment received from a FTX contributor does not prevent the FTX debtors from seeking recovery from the recipient or any subsequent transferee,” FTX said in a statement.
“FTX Trading Ltd. (d.b.a. FTX.com), and its affiliated debtors (together, the ‘FTX Debtors’), today announced the FTX Debtors have been approached by a number of recipients of contributions or other payments that were made by or at the direction of the FTX Debtors, Samuel Bankman-Fried or other officers or principals of the FTX Debtors (collectively, the ‘FTX Contributors’). These recipients have requested directions for the return of such funds to the FTX Debtors. The FTX Debtors are working with these recipients to secure the prompt return of such funds to the FTX Estates for the benefit of customers and creditors,” the press release reads.
“The FTX Debtors invite all recipients of such payments to contact the FTX Debtors at ([email protected]) to make arrangements for the return of such payments. To the extent such payments are not returned voluntarily, the FTX Debtors intend to commence actions before the Bankruptcy Court to require the return of such payments, with interest accruing from the date any action is commenced. Recipients are cautioned that making a payment or donation to a third party (including a charity) in the amount of any payment received from a FTX Contributor does not prevent the FTX Debtors from seeking recovery from the recipient or any subsequent transferee,” the company said.
A bipartisan coalition of 37 attorneys general, including Alaska AG Treg Taylor, are requesting the U.S. Department of Transportation improve protections for airline customers.
The coalition, led by Democratic Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, sent a letter on Monday urging Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to adopt proposed rules for airline ticket refunds and other protections. It stated appreciation for the department’s efforts to address the problems of flight cancellations and significant delays, but the eight-page letter emphasized proposed regulations must be strengthened.
“We are aware of the frustrations experienced by countless consumers whose flights have been cancelled or delayed and the inadequate remedies that have been offered to them,” the letter stated. “In fact, our offices have repeatedly brought to the USDOT’s attention complaints from airline passengers impacted by the airlines’ cancellation or significant delay of their flights.”
The letter highlighted Weiser’s September 2020 complaint to former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao concerning Denver-based Frontier Airlines’ alleged unfair or deceptive practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Weiser claimed the airline’s flight-change policies and customer service practices violated federal law.
“In our experience, the USDOT has yet to develop the ability to respond quickly enough to or coordinate effectively with our offices,” the letter stated. “That is why a bipartisan coalition of 37 attorneys general have twice urged Congress to take meaningful action and pass legislation that would authorize state attorneys general to enforce state and federal consumer protection laws governing the airline industry.”
The attorneys general warned about possible abuse of a proposed rule requiring refunds when there’s a significant change in flight itinerary.
“Because some currently published airline refund policies are more protective of consumers – providing refunds after a 120-minute delay, for example – USDOT should take steps to ensure that setting a floor does not cause some airlines to loosen their standards to the detriment of consumers,” the letter stated.
Other suggestions include:
– Requirements for airlines to advertise and sell flights only if they have adequate staff to fly and support the flight;
audits to ensure compliance with regulations and impose fines when airlines fail to meet regulations;
– Fines for cancellations and extended delays not related to weather;
– Partial refunds when a rescheduled flight, accepted by the passenger, is later, longer or otherwise less valuable than the original purchased flight;
– Prohibit flight cancellation while upselling consumers for more expensive alternative flights to the same destinations;
– Ensure credits or vouchers for cancelled flights can be used easily without inappropriate limitations;
– Additional compensation to consumers paying additional costs for meals, hotel stays, flights on other airlines, rental cars and gasoline due to flight delays or cancellations.
“Coloradans tell our office often about airlines over-complicating refunds, not adhering to their cancellation policies, and generally making travel challenging and costly,” Weiser said in a statement.
Other states and territories signing onto the letter are Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy joined 24 other governors in sending a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to end the federal public health emergency in April, saying Medicaid costs are costing their states millions.
States received more money for Medicaid during the PHE but cannot remove anyone from the program’s rolls until either one month before the public health emergency ends, the month it ends, or the month after it ends, according to Medicaid.gov.
Biden extended the public health emergency to January and has not indicated when it will end. The governors said they assume the public health emergency will continue at least until April.
The governors asked Biden for an indication as to when he would end the public health emergency. Twenty million people have joined the Medicaid program since the public health emergency began nearly three years ago, and the states are faced with additional costs, they said.
“While the enhanced federal match provides some assistance to blunt the increasing costs due to higher enrollment numbers in our Medicaid programs, states are required to increase our non-federal match to adequately cover all enrollees and cannot disenroll members from the program unless they do so voluntarily,” the governors said in their letter. “Making the situation worse, we know that a considerable number of individuals have returned to employer sponsored coverage or are receiving coverage through the individual market, and yet states still must still account and pay for their Medicaid enrollment in our non-federal share.”
The governors said they have the “tools and information” to protect their citizens against COVID-19.
“You recognized this yourself in a 60 Minutes interview in September when you said, ‘The pandemic is over,'” the governors said. “Additionally, the United States Senate passed a bipartisan resolution, 61-37, to terminate the national emergency on November 15, 2022. We agree with both your statement and the Senate’s resolution – it is time we move on from the pandemic and get back to life as normal.”
The letter was signed by the governors of New Hampshire, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
Kim Jarrett’s career spans over 30 years with stops in radio, print and television. She has won awards from both the Georgia Press Association and the Georgia Association of Broadcasters.
The Department of Justice has found reasonable cause to believe the State of Alaska violates the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to provide community-based services to children with behavioral health disabilities, relying instead on segregated, institutional settings — specifically, psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric residential treatment facilities.
The finding concludes of the department’s investigation into whether Alaska subjects children with behavioral health disabilities to unnecessary institutionalization in violation of Title II of the ADA.
“Each year, hundreds of children, including Alaska Native children in significant number, are isolated in institutional settings often far from their communities,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“Most of these children could remain in family homes if provided appropriate community-based services. We look forward to working with Alaska to bring the State into compliance with federal law and prevent the unnecessary institutionalization of children,” Clarke said.
Children who are segregated in psychiatric residential treatment facilities commonly stay there longer than six months, and some of them are sent to states as distant as Texas and Missouri, thousands of miles from their families.
The department’s investigation found that Alaska’s system of care is heavily reliant on institutions and that key community-based services and supports needed to serve children with behavioral health disabilities in family homes, such as home-based family treatment, crisis services and therapeutic treatment home services, are often unavailable. As a result, many children with behavioral health disabilities, including a substantial number of Alaska Native children, are forced to endure unnecessary and unduly long admissions to psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric residential treatment facilities both within Alaska and in states across the country.
The Alaska Department of Law is reviewing the findings.
