Gov. Bill Walker is asking the state legislature to take $10 million he originally wanted to spend exploring for signs of oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — and put it toward other things.
Walker sent a letter to the co-chairs of the House and Senate Finance committees on April 2, asking them to redirect more than $8.3 million toward a statewide 9-1-1 system. Walker originally allocated the funds for seismic exploratory work, in the budget he released in December.
Walker also wants to split $1.5 million between the Department of Revenue and the Department of Natural Resources to do legal and financial work on the Alaska LNG project.
Congress opened the Refuge to development in December, but there is not a lot of data about how much oil is actually in it.
In the letter, Walker says the funds are not needed for seismic exploration in the Refuge right now.
Both the House and the Senate will have to approve the budget before the money can be spent.
Rashah McChesney is a photojournalist turned radio journalist who has been telling stories in Alaska since 2012. Before joining Alaska's Energy Desk, she worked at Kenai's Peninsula Clarion and the Juneau bureau of the Associated Press. She is a graduate of Iowa State University's Greenlee Journalism School and has worked in public television, newspapers and now radio, all in the quest to become the Swiss Army knife of storytellers.
