Despite his stance on the Coastal Management Program, Governor Sean Parnell outlined an ambitious program to get the state’s economy moving at the annual meeting of the Resource Development Council in Anchorage on Tuesday.
Parnell wants to arrest oil decline and move one million barrels of oil a day through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System in the next decade.
The governor criticized the federal government for turning on the Strategic Oil Reserve tap.
Parnell’s plan to get domestic production rolling in Alaska is highlighted in a new “Secure Alaska’s Future Initiative – Oil “, which is setting its sights on five targets: among them boosting the state’s competitiveness and investment climate.
Other aspects of the program include facilitating the next phase of North Slope oil development, the governor said. Part of that is improving infrastructure access and lowering costs of resource development. He said the budget he’ll sign this week assures that.
Parnell also wants to reduce the backlog of water and land use permit applications by hiring more positions in the permitting area.
The governor also stressed the importance of forging national partnerships, to facilitate increased exploration and investment in oil in the state.
Parnell said more details on the program will be released shortly, promising that there are specific plans for each phase of the program.
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APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
