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- [00:00]
Rick Steves
Support for Alaska Public Media on Demand comes from Siri, an Alaska Native corporation with operations and investments spanning five continents, 45 states and two US territories.
- [00:19]
Representative Louise Stutes
This has been brought before the body, before both bodies and voted down.
- [00:25]
Wesley Early
Clearly the Alaska Legislature prepares to sue the governor over an executive order they argue is invalid. The From Alaska Public Media. This is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Monday, September 15th. Good evening. I'm Wesley Early. Also tonight, major upcoming North Slope oil projects are on track or even ahead of schedule.
- [00:43]
Senator Bill Wielikowski
Quite frankly, this is just the beginning. There's going to be probably a decade of buildout going on on the slope.
- [00:49]
Wesley Early
Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Night.
- [00:59]
Ellen Devine
Consider a gift of stock to Alaska Public Media. You may avoid paying capital gains tax and receive a deduction. Learn more@alaskapublic.org stock or contact your financial advisor.
- [01:12]
Wesley Early
Industry leaders say a renaissance is underway on the North Slope. Major projects are well on their way to production and oil companies say they're planning to expand even further. They say that'll help reverse a long running decline in production in the Arctic. It's welcome news for a state struggling to pay the bills. But will the state get its money worth? Alaska Public Media's Eric Stone reports there.
- [01:34]
Eric Stone
Is a lot going on north of the Brooks Range. Construction is well underway on high profile oil development projects like ConocoPhillips, Willow and Santos and Repsol's Picka. Both of those stand to substantially boost the amount of oil flowing south. At the Alaska Oil and Gas Association's annual conference last month, ConocoPhillips Donald Allen said Willow remains on track to start production in 2029.
- [01:55]
Brian Brettschneider
It's a super exciting time for Alaska.
- [01:57]
Wesley Early
We have big projects happening right now.
- [01:59]
Brian Brettschneider
We have a whole new play ramping.
- [02:01]
Wesley Early
Up and there's more to come with our exploration season and future projects.
- [02:05]
Eric Stone
Meanwhile, Santos VP Peter Laliberte shared the news that the pickup project is running months ahead of schedule and is more than 90% complete. He says it's on track to produce its first barrel of oil in the first quarter of next year.
- [02:16]
Brian Brettschneider
Once we start up, we'll ramp up. About mid year we'll ramp up to 80,000 barrels a day and by then you know we're going to be looking on for the next project.
- [02:26]
Eric Stone
An additional 80,000 barrels a day would boost North Slope production by nearly 20% from where it is right now.
- [02:32]
Senator Bill Wielikowski
I look at it as all positive.
- [02:35]
Eric Stone
Sitka Republican State Senator Bert Stedman, one of the top budgeters in the state legislature, says it's good news for Alaska's economy.
- [02:41]
Senator Bill Wielikowski
Quite frankly, this is just the beginning. There's going to be probably a decade of build out and going on on the slope.
- [02:47]
Eric Stone
And he says it'll provide some relief for the state's stretched budget. Picka, which importantly is on state owned land, is likely to yield more than $200 million for the state in its first year, according to an analysis from the state Revenue Department. Steadman says that's a significant, though not life changing chunk of change for the state. For comparison, the education funding boost lawmakers approved this session cost about $170 million.
- [03:10]
Senator Bill Wielikowski
It's not going to be, you know, you're in euphoria cause you got massive surpluses in your budget or anything like that. But it's definitely positive and you want to take multiple steps like this forward, then they all add up to definitely helping the state balance its budget.
- [03:29]
Eric Stone
Steadman says slightly higher than expected oil prices are also providing a lift. Senator Bill Wielikowski, an Anchorage Democrat, says the surge in North Slope activity is indeed good news, but not as good as it could be.
- [03:41]
Senator Bill Wielikowski
Yeah, absolutely, $200 million. Of course, happy to see it. It will help the budget, but when you compare it to what other jurisdictions are getting, it is nowhere near what we should be getting.
- [03:53]
Eric Stone
He points to oil producing states like Texas and North Dakota, which have substantially higher tax and royalty rates than Alaska.
- [03:59]
Senator Bill Wielikowski
We can't even afford to fund our schools. We've got schools falling in the ocean. We've got communities that still have honey buckets. We can't maintain our roads, we can't plow our roads. And so we have colossally mismanaged our oil wealth in the state of Alaska.
- [04:15]
Eric Stone
Of course, the fact that most of Alaska's oil comes from the remote North Slope, where costs are high, complicates that picture. But Wielikowski says lawmakers should make changes to the state's tax and royalty system to take advantage of the surge in activity. For one thing, he says he'd like to prevent companies from deducting investments on federal land like Willow from the state taxes they owe on other projects. State revenue officials recently cut the state's projected income from Willow by half.
- [04:39]
Senator Bill Wielikowski
Why should we subsidize that? Why should the state of Alaska be subsidizing hundreds of millions to billions of dollars for production, for exploration costs, drilling costs for which we get zero royalties, for which we get very little in production taxes.
- [04:54]
Eric Stone
Wielachowski has put forward a number of bills that would stiffen the state's taxes, but they have yet to advance to a final vote reporting in June. Now I'm Eric Stone.
- [05:02]
Wesley Early
The Alaska Legislature last week took a step towards suing governor Mike Dunleavy over an executive order he issued ahead of last month's special legislative sess. The order was Dunleavy's second attempt this year to create a cabinet level state agriculture department, and lawmakers say it violates the state constitution. Lawmakers approved the move at a Legislative council meeting held mostly over the phone last week. Kodiak Republican Representative Louise Stutes said the lawsuit is an effort to protect the Legislature's constitutional role.
- [05:31]
Representative Louise Stutes
This has been brought before the body, before both bodies and voted down clearly. And it's just a question to me of we said no. Don't you understand what no means?
- [05:45]
Wesley Early
The Alaska Constitution allows the governor to issue executive orders to reorganize the executive branch. But the constitution gives lawmakers 60 days to hold a vote disapproving the order, preventing it from going into effect. Lawmakers rejected the governor's first order in a 3,228 vote during the regular session this spring. They sent a letter to Dunleavy last month rejecting the second one as invalid, saying the constitution allow executive orders during special sessions. But Dunleavy has said the order would take effect unless lawmakers voted it down. Representative Mike Prox, a Republican from North Pole, voted against the suit. He said he was worried about possible unintended consequences.
- [06:24]
Representative Louise Stutes
I think we are too focused on a disagreement between this governor and this Legislature and not thinking enough about the possibility of prohibiting needed action by some other governor sometime in the future that might be more urgent than this by simply doing nothing.
- [06:48]
Wesley Early
Lawmakers on the legislative council voted 9 to 2 to prove spending up to $100,000 to prepare the lawsuit. Members of the Democrat heavy bipartisan majorities controlling both chambers voted in favor, with the exception of Anchorage Republican Representative Chuck Koppel. Lawmakers have also filed bills that would create an Agriculture department, but it has yet to advance to a final vote. Alaska Republican U.S. senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan joined fellow Senate Republicans last week in voting to set aside a budget amendment that would have compelled the U.S. department of justice to release files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epp Epstein. The Alaska Beacon reports that the vote to table the amendment, which stopped the Senate from considering it, was 51 to 49. All of the Senate's Democrats voted in favor of the amendment, as did Republican Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Murkowski told the Beacon last week that the amendment proposed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York came as a surprise, and she voted against it for procedural reasons, not because she opposes the idea of a release. In response to a request for comment, Sullivan's office issued a written statement that also criticized Schumer's amendment and defended his vote.
- [08:10]
Rick Steves
Hey, I'm Rick Steves. I've traveled all over the world and connected with so many fascinating people, and I'm looking forward to my visit to Alaska to share the lessons from my experience. Come see me at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium on October 16th for travel as a political act.
- [08:25]
Wesley Early
Tickets@alaskapublic.org Events the U.S. department of Education announced last week that it will cut millions in federal grants for its Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions programs. Many Alaska institutions, which have student bodies largely composed of Alaska Native and Indigenous people, depend on that funding to keep certain programs and services afloat. As Shelby Herbert reports for the Alaska Desk, the cuts will be felt on campuses across the state relative to the.
- [08:53]
Shelby Herbert
University of Alaska system's entire $250 million federal research portfolio. The potential loss of grants under what is commonly known as Title 3 is small, according to a University of Alaska spokesperson. But at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, administrators say they anticipate losing about $13 million in grant funding. All of that would have supported several UAF student support services and degree programs, some of which are based at satellite campuses in Nome, Kotzebue, Dillingham and Bethel. In an emailed statement, UAF Interim Chancellor Mike Srega said the cuts will likely impact the university's mission to support Alaska Native students, which make up over 20% student body, as well as Alaskans at large. Ryan Uher is UAF's interim vice chancellor of Rural Community and Native Education. He says serving Alaska Native students is deeply important to UAF's past and future.
- [09:50]
Representative Louise Stutes
It really is part of the blood and the history of the University of Alaska Fairbanks to serve this population. For that. I think a large thing that contributes to that high of a demographic is because we have what we call rural campuses in various locations across Alaska.
- [10:07]
Shelby Herbert
The grant program was deemed unconstitutional by the US Solicitor General back in July. Uhara says the university used that funding to develop many different technical degree programs which are now in jeopardy. A prospective student's race is not a barrier to enter those programs, which Uhares says offer training to meet a variety of rural workforce needs, from tribal governance to American Sign Language translation and other technical skills.
- [10:34]
Representative Louise Stutes
Developing a new private pilot ground school on supporting rural communities and rural residents due to that barrier of transportation and reliance on air travel, developing a new occupational endorsement and information technology.
- [10:47]
Shelby Herbert
The federal government is allowing up to a year for universities to close out the programs funded by the grants. UAF administrators say they're still assessing the scope of the financial impact, which does not directly fund student aid, and however, many of the grants are tied to personnel. The university has not yet made any decisions about staff cuts or layoffs, a UA spokesperson says. At the moment, University of Alaska Southeast administrators are still waiting for more information about the future of a Title 3 grant awarded to their Sitka campus, which manages relationships between faculty and students, particularly those who are non traditional, first generation and under supported outside of the University of Alaska system. Administrators at the Ilosakovic College, a tribal land grant Community College in Utqiagvik, say they're monitoring the Title 3 cuts but declined an interview. The U.S. department of Education also declined a request for comment. Reporting in Fairbanks, I'm Shelby Herbert.
- [11:45]
Wesley Early
An Anchorage based telecommunications company says an equipment fault led to an outage that took down local 911 services for more than 24 hours over the weekend. Alaska Communications says its team worked continuously to restore the issue as quickly as possible. The outage disrupted 911 calls in Anchorage from Friday evening until late Saturday, but Anchorage police spokeswoman Gina Romero emphasized that callers were still able to reach police through the Department's non emergency line 311 as well as its mainline. Both Alaska Communications and the Anchorage Police Department said today that they were still gathering more information on the outage, including its exact cause and an estimate of how many local 911 calls were affected. There were no reports of 911 related outages beyond Anchorage linked to the equipment failure. But historically, Alaska is no stranger to 911 issues. Back in 2023, a water leak onto network equipment at GCI led to an hours long outage months before a fiber optic cable cut in the Arctic Ocean caused 911 outages across northwest Alaska. And last year, AK 911 services were affected by a global technological meltdown. Meanwhile, Anchorage's Town Square park is the heart of downtown, but in recent years the area has been plagued by public safety concerns. The city's working on several upgrades to make the park safer. One effort this summer involved adding more community focused events to the Town square calendar. And as Alaska Public Media's Ava White reports, city officials say the positive activity is driving out the bad it was.
- [13:19]
Ellen Devine
A busy summer in Town Square. There were weekly kids events, a night market and concerts by some of the city's most beloved local artists and even a few national acts. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance says she could hear the action from a block away.
- [13:32]
Mayor Suzanne LaFrance
There are times when I have, like, heard the music from my office, and I'm like, oh, yeah, it's Thursday night and Live After 5 is starting up and, you know, tons of people are down there dancing and having a good time, especially with the nice summer that we've had.
- [13:49]
Ellen Devine
LaFrance says the area is the city's living room that was created to be a community cornerstone. But in recent years, the park has been the focus of public safety concerns. LaFrance says she's been hearing those concerns for a while.
- [14:02]
Mayor Suzanne LaFrance
Coming into this job, I heard a lot of negativity and, you know, people would say felt scared coming downtown.
- [14:12]
Ellen Devine
But there are early signs that increased activity is driving down crime. The Anchorage Police Department responded to about half the amount of incidents in the area compared to last summer, according to data from the department. But it's still higher than the earlier baseline levels. Ellen Devine is the city's Parks and Recreation Community engagement coordinator. She says there have been a lot of conversations about how to bring people into the city's core, and it's related to a bond passed by Anchorage voters in April.
- [14:39]
Mayor Suzanne LaFrance
That conversation kind of got it kicked off on what else we can do to bring people to downtown. So we're improving the space, like, physically, but we also want people to find community there. And so how does that work?
- [14:53]
Ellen Devine
Some of the events happening in the area have been around for a few years, like Live After Five each Thursday, which brings free concerts to the heart of the city, or Biker Buddies each Tuesday, which was formerly hosted at Kinkaid park during the spring. But the weekly night market was new, and hundreds of locals flocked to Town Square each Friday night to mingle with others, shop handcrafted goods from local vendors and dance to music performed by local artists. Devine says there's a growing sense of unity regarding the park.
- [15:21]
Mayor Suzanne LaFrance
What is great about all the programming we've been doing and how our Anchorage community works is like, we have more and more people who are like, this is our hometown. Like, let's get out there and show up. And so it allowed people to come back and be like, oh, it's not something that I need to be scared of.
- [15:40]
Ellen Devine
The municipality waived fees for events in the park this summer to encourage more activity. La France says the park upgrades and increased activity fits into the broader theme of revitalizing downtown Anchorage. The city's mobile crisis team increased outreach in the park this summer, and she says school resource officers patrolled the area. She agrees the park's reputation has changed to be more positive, but she says there's a lot more work to do.
- [16:05]
Mayor Suzanne LaFrance
Having a space that is safe and vibrant and welcoming for everyone lends itself to a healthier economy downtown and for our whole community, not just for visitors. And we want them to see all the great stuff we have and to really show off our community, but for people who live together here, too.
- [16:26]
Ellen Devine
City officials say events are likely to be more limited in the park next year due to the park upgrades, city officials say events are likely to be more limited in the park next year. In Anchorage, I'm Ava White.
- [16:37]
Wesley Early
Alaskans and really the rest of the world can expect a La Nina climate pattern this winter. That could mean a potentially cooler than average winter. According to the National Weather Service Climate Prediction center, there's a 71% chance of a La Nina setting in by October. The center updated its forecast Friday from essentially a coin flip chance to now saying a La Nina is more likely than not. Climate researcher Brian Brettschneider says what that means for Alaska is still unclear.
- [17:05]
Brian Brettschneider
It historically would generally mean cooler falls in Alaska in cooler winters. That hasn't worked out the last couple of times. And so I like to say that it puts the thumb on the scale, but sometimes that thumb slips off the scale and it just doesn't work out.
- [17:23]
Wesley Early
Bret Schneider says that's not just because the Earth's climate is warmer now than it used to be. A La Nina only accounts for some of the variability across an entire winter. Other things like increased tropical cyclone activity, sea ice distribution or a polar vortex can overwhelm that. And even though La Nina winters tend to favor drier conditions, they sometimes produce more snow in Alaska. Here's Brett Schneider again.
- [17:47]
Brian Brettschneider
If you have the same amount of precipitation but it's colder, then you get more snow. You're converting more of the would be rain into snow. And then also generally when it's colder to a point, you get more efficient snow crystal production and so you get fluffier snow.
- [18:04]
Wesley Early
In Anchorage, one of the top three snowiest winters on record was a La Nina, while another was its counterpart El Nino, which tends to produce warmer, wetter winters. And Brettschneider says the warmest winter on record in Alaska was during La Nina. So the climate prediction can only point to what is likely to happen. The commercial salmon season in southeast Alaska is mostly done, and while managers say enough fish made it to most spawning grounds, commercial harvests were low for most species. Costalaska's Angela Denning reports that pink salmon, the bread and butter for some fishermen, were surprisingly low.
- [18:42]
Angela Denning
Pink salmon run on a two year life cycle, and odd years like this one normally see strong returns. But that's not what happened this year.
- [18:51]
Brian Brettschneider
Having a poor odd year like this is especially unexpected.
- [18:56]
Angela Denning
Troy Tines manages commercial salmon fishing in Southeast for the state Department of Fish and Game.
- [19:01]
Brian Brettschneider
As it turns out, this will likely be the lowest harvest in an odd year since, you know, the late 80s.
- [19:09]
Angela Denning
Pink salmon harvest numbers are down across the state this season compared to the last odd year. Fishermen like seiners and gillnetters rely on pink salmon, which return to the region in the millions. More are harvested than any other species. Nearly 59 million pinks were harvested in Southeast back in 2011, which was a record year. And this year, state managers projected a harvest of 29 million fish. But it's coming in at about 9 million short.
- [19:39]
Brian Brettschneider
It was a disappointing season.
- [19:41]
Angela Denning
Phil Dougherty is the executive director of the Southeast Alaska Seiners Association. He's also a former longtime biologist for the state.
- [19:49]
Brian Brettschneider
Without a doubt, everyone was hoping for, you know, a bigger return and bigger catches, but it just didn't happen. It looked as if when we got going in the season, there were some pretty good catches coming in early, but it was very spotty, and it continued to be spotty.
- [20:08]
Angela Denning
Most commercial fishermen sell to large processors and get paid at the end of the season. So it's still unknown how valuable the region's pink fishery will be. In recent years, pinks have brought about 35 cents per pound, but every year it depends on supply and demand.
- [20:24]
Brian Brettschneider
Obviously, that's kind of the bottom line. You know, how much money fishermen make. They certainly like to catch a lot of fish, but, you know, the bottom line is how much money did they make after this season?
- [20:37]
Angela Denning
Lots of variables affect salmon runs. Most of what scientists can track happens in freshwater systems, whereas the ocean is more of a mystery. Then there's the weather. Although Southeast is a rainforest, late August and early September saw below average rainfall for much of the region. Some areas had no rain at all for nearly three weeks. Low water prevents salmon from entering streams to spawn, and fish there already face a lack of oxygen if they're crowded. Doherty worries about that. So does Tiness, primarily.
- [21:10]
Brian Brettschneider
Right now, it's going to affect our pink salmon and then, possibly to a lesser extent, sockeye salmon. The sockeye in the region for the most part are inlet spawners, so they spawn in the inlet streams to lakes. Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do about that. But it's happened before. And it'll happen again.
- [21:31]
Angela Denning
But they're hoping that recent rainfall will make a difference. Another valuable fishery in southeast Alaska is chum salmon, mostly from hatcheries. And those harvests also fell short of expectations. There was a pulse early in the season, but it petered out. Fish and Game will release its final analysis of the salmon season this winter. Reporting for CoastalASKA in Petersburg, I'm Angela Denning.
- [21:57]
Wesley Early
Unanga dance is having something of a renaissance in the Aleutians. This summer, dance groups from ATKA to Sand Point performed across the region, culminating at a regional dance festival in Unalaska. But just a few decades ago, Unanga dance was all but gone. The Alaska Desk's Theo Greenlee sat down with the man credited with bringing it back.
- [22:17]
Rick Steves
Mike Swetsoff grew up on St. George island in the Pribilofs in the 1950s. He remembers hunting for subsistence fishing and speaking Unangam tenu, the native language. But one thing was music.
- [22:31]
Brian Brettschneider
There was no dancing or anything. We didn't have anything.
- [22:37]
Rick Steves
Times have changed. Today, about half a dozen communities across the Aleutian chain hold culture camps where young people learn traditional knowledge from elders. And Unanga music and dancing are a big part of those camps, including at Sand Points Culture Camp in July. Sweatshoff was there, sitting at the front table to watch the big dance performance on the final night. This year's camp season culminated in August with the first ever Anagoganyungan festival in Onalaska. The event's planners say it's the first time there's ever been a regional dance celebration for communities across the chain. Mike's wife, Sally Swetsoff, grew up in Atka, an island with a similar history to St George. She met Mike in Anchorage, and they moved to her home island. She says part of the reason dance had largely disappeared from a nonga life was World War II. In 1942, the US government forcibly evacuated Atka and burned the village to the ground.
- [23:41]
Brian Brettschneider
Even the church. I mean, they burned the school, school, everything. And so after the war, when they came back in 1945, my mom said there wasn't any more dancing. Everything went to sleep.
- [24:01]
Rick Steves
Then, decades later, as president of the school board, Mike Swetsoff took a trip to Kamchatka in Russia's Far east. It's the closest place to the Aleutians on the Russian mainland. He saw traditional native dance performance there, and he had an idea. He would bring dance back to atka. Swetsoff asked the choreographer if she would come to ATKA to help them start a dance troupe. She agreed and stayed for a year.
- [24:28]
Brian Brettschneider
She knew dancing, and so we took what we could from her and created our own.
- [24:36]
Rick Steves
He started the Atka dancers in the mid-90s, and it soon grew. Students studied old wax cylinder song recordings, wrote new songs, and helped spread the dances they created across the illusions.
- [24:48]
Brian Brettschneider
It's just something that I wanted to start, and they took it by the horns and come a long ways.
- [24:59]
Rick Steves
Feel good when the dancing wraps up and the potluck is over at the Sandpoint performance, the Sweatsoffs remain at their table eating dried salmon and pasta salad. Sally says she's happy so many communities have embraced Unanga dance. Mike didn't ever perform with the Atka dancers. Now at 80 years old, he says he's just glad that Unanga Dance has become what it is today. Sally just told me that you're gonna go up and do a dance performance.
- [25:26]
Brian Brettschneider
Oh, yeah, I'm ready.
- [25:30]
Rick Steves
And that the tradition has taken root across the Aleutian chain. In the Aleutians, I'm Theo Greenlee.
- [25:37]
Brian Brettschneider
It was a dance that was made.
- [25:38]
Mayor Suzanne LaFrance
At dancing camp years ago by a.
- [25:43]
Wesley Early
Bunch of people from all around the region. And that's all for this edition of Alaska News Nightly. If you missed any of tonight's stories, we're online@alaskapublic.org and wherever you get your podcasts. We had reports tonight from Eric Stone in Juneau, Shelby Herbert in Fairbanks, Chris Clint, Casey Grove and Ava White in Anchorage, Angela Denning in Petersburg, and Theo Greenlee on the Aleutian chain. If you want to send us a news tip, question or comment, email us@newslaskapublic.org Our audio engineer is Chris Hyde. Madeline Rose is our producer. And I'm Wesley Early. Good night.