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Anchorage’s first mail-in municipal election saw a surprisingly strong return of ballots with 50,506 or 23 percent of registered voters voting. Incumbent Mayor Ethan Berkowitz easily won reelection, which was expected. However, local voters do appear in an upbeat mood in approving all bond issues. These include $50.7 million for local school improvements; $33.9 million for road and storm drainage upgrades; $3.7 million for parks and trails; $2.6 million for re department facility improvements and $1.1 million for police facilities….

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Army Corps launches Pebble Mine regulatory process The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has kicked off a 30-day “scoping” process for the Pebble project Environmental Impact Statement, with the rst meeting set for April 9 in Naknek. Nine community meetings are planned, concluding in Anchorage April 19. The end of the scoping is set for April 30. Alaska corps officials said they have received no word from Washington, D.C. about an accelerated EIS schedule, which is being done by some…

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GCI invests in Kenai upgrades General Communications Inc. said it will spend $6.3 million over two years in upgrades to the company’s facilities on the Kenai Peninsula. Since GCI was founded 40 years ago it has invested $3 billion in Alaska telecommunications facilities, with $121 million of that on the Kenai Peninsula. *** Alaska employment was down 0.7 percent in February, or 2,300 jobs, compared with the same month of 2017. Petroleum jobs were down 800 and construction down 100….

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HEA votes down solar, for now Homer Electric Association directors voted down a proposed privately-owned solar project, a 975 kilowatt project planned by Lime Solar, of Anchorage. The board was split 4-4 with one member absent (a tie vote means disapproval). The project is likely to be reconsidered, however, when the full board is present. Lime Solar is prepared to move quickly to get the unit built. It would be the state’s largest solar installation. Golden Valley Electric Association of…

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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has told the state’s Alaska Gasoline Development Corp. that it will not begin the Alaska LNG Project’s Environmental Impact Statement until early 2019. Under the schedule a FERC Record of Decision would issue in early 2020, a year later than that schedule hoped for by Gov. Bill Walker and AGDC. How the delay will affect negotiations now underway with a Chinese group (the potential LNG customers and financiers) is unknown. One good sign is that…

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Legislature careens toward end-game; fiscal structure key issue The Legislature is careening toward an end- game of sorts, and it could happen fast. The state House got the operating budget to the Senate last week after delays – but now oil taxes have emerged as a factor. The House Finance Committee dusted off a part of last year’s oil tax package and is reintroducing it as a bill, and possibly a condition in accepting the Senate’s fiscal reform package. What’s…

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State still reviewing Pebble permit The state Department of Natural Resource is still reviewing Pebble Partnership’s application for a new Miscellaneous Land Use Permit to do work on state lands at the big Pebble minerals deposit near Iliamna. The current MLUP expires at the end of this month and PPL needs a new one to cover site activities including a summer program of eld work that is planned. DNR will ask the company to provide a bond, also. The U.S….

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Prince William Sound crabfishing Prince Williams Sound is seeing the start of a winter tanner crab fishery, its first in decades. Cordova sheries groups have pushed for the crab fishery for several years as a way to expand current harvesting, which is mostly seasonal. State fish and game biologists held off approving the fishery over concerns for the biological stock. Meanwhile, winter snow crab fishery in the Bering Sea is winding down. That got underway in mid-January. *** Sitka prepares…

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2nd growth sale on Gravina Island The U.S. Forest Service is moving ahead with a planned sale of 4.6 million board feet of second-growth timber on Gravina Island near Ketchikan. The harvest area encompasses 155 acres and will require 1.2 miles of new road access. The USFS completed an Environmental Assessment for the sale with a finding of no significant impact.

North Slope oil production is dropping North Slope oil production is running lower this year, according to state production data. For the state scal year-to-date through February daily production is down 1,876 barrels a day. When part of March is included and extrapolated to the end of the month, the decline increases to 2,535 barrels daily. The year-to-day average production average is 518,352 barrels/day. Legislators are building the state’s budget around a 526,000 b/d estimate made late last year. Production…

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