Public testimony opportunities for May 8-11 include carbon credit program

Among items up for public testimony this week in Juneau is the governor’s bill on carbon credits.

SB 48, subject to public testimony at 9 am on May 8 in Senate Finance, would allow the state to negotiate and lease land for “carbon management” and establish a carbon offset program for state land, authorizing the sale of carbon credits. Some people object to the plan because it is not actually developing natural resources. Others object because it allows the state to enter into no-bid contracts.

The British newspaper The Guardian has reported that more than 90% the forest carbon offsets approved by the world’s leading certifier, Verra, “are largely worthless and could make global heating worse.”

Another bill of interest to Alaskans is HB 4, a repeal of the ranked-choice general election and open primary. It would have Alaska go back to its previous election system before 2020’s Ballot Measure 2 passed narrowly. Recent polls show that the majority of Alaskans want to go back to the simple system they had before.

A bill sponsored by Sen. Scott Kawasaki changes election law by establishing a ballot tracking system and a ballot curing process. With SB 138, the ballot curing process requires the Division to notify voters if the signature on their ballot does not match the one on their registration. Other updates to the election system include tightening and clarifying residency requirements for voting in order to clean Alaska’s voter rolls and replacing the witness signature requirement with a signature verification system. The bill would also have the State of Alaska pre-pay postage on ballots that are mailed in.

Those and other bills subject to public hearings this week: