Alaska Senate Pulls Back Damaging Anti-Development, Anti-Investment Amendment

May 10, 2024

With less than 10 days to go in Alaska’s legislative session, the ‘controlled chaos’ typical for this time of the year began in earnest late last week.  As reported previously, a State Senator with an anti-oil history, Bill Wielechowski (D-Anchorage) tried to introduce an amendment to a bill that would have targeted Hilcorp’s S-Corporation tax status. 

The cost to Hilcorp would have been in the hundreds of millions of dollars a year, money they let the Legislature know would be met with cutbacks to its ongoing investment in the state’s oil and gas fields.

Although the amendment passed the Senate’s Resources committee, it was removed on Wednesday morning in the Senate Finance committee.  While that move may have angered Sen. Wielechowski (who was seen sulking around the Capitol throughout the day), it was clear that his bipartisan caucus wasn’t backing him, but rather, Hilcorp.

The Senator has vowed to keep up his fight against what he deems as an unfair advantage for Hilcorp, and may have additional opportunities to bring the amendment forward again.

Power The Future implores the Alaska Legislature to see through these shenanigans.  Hilcorp is responsible for delivering 90% of Cook Inlet’s gas supply to Southcentral Alaska, and is one of the largest employers in the state.  Targeting them is simply bad policy, and we applaud the Senate Finance committee for its actions on Wednesday.