1     May 14, 2008 - 10:20am | rfn

Now that the dust has settled

and it has, once again, been proven that our national leadership cares not a fig for energy independence, it's time for Alaska to profit from that decision.

Here's how:

1. During the forthcoming special session arrange a plan that uses a good part of the petroleum tax surplus to keep energy affordable in Alaska for Alaskans. Use some of it to build a bullet-line to get gas to South Central and a little more to make LNG for shipment to coastal and river villages.

2. Hand the Point Thomson leases back to Exxon & friends with NO strings attached. That way the oil and gas there will be safely warehoused for another 30+years and there won't be any hassle. It's like having money in the bank! Of course that also preserves the option of firing up a reserves tax.

3. Structure a natural gas tax so that there can be no hanky-panky with cheap "transfer prices" to shift Alaska's resources to a foreign country to turn mud into oil to ship to China. Then we'll see how much the oil comanies really want a pipeline.

4. Determine how much Alsaka needs, each month, from the petroleum tax to keep the state operating and fund the energy subsidies in #1 above.

5. Once that point is reached, suspend all shipment of petroleum from Alaska. That's a little tickelish; might be possible to pop "surprise" inspections of ships or the pipeline. Surely something can be found, each month, to shut it down for good, sound reasons.

6. Let prices rise. The rest of the country wants high prices; let's do our part to help them get what they want.

End result: Alaska's resources will produce maximum benefit to Alaskans (love that Constitution!); prices will rise and, along with them, tax revenue (it IS price-escalating); America will have the energy shortage it so fondly desires; the life of Alaska's reserves will be increased astronomically.

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