Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority still valuable to developing gas resources

JUNEAU – Today, House Democrats offered an amendment to the budget to re-instate funding for the voter-created authority that works on developing projects to market Alaska’s natural gas.

“The voters created ANGDA, and it still plays a valuable role in finding ways to get gas to Alaskans,” said Representative Scott Kawasaki (D-Fairbanks).

“ANGDA has served a number of purposes over the years,” said Rep. Bob Miller (D-Fairbanks). “I’m very uneasy with the fact that we would de-fund an organization created by the voters.”

Voters created the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority (ANGDA) by initiative in 2002 to work on getting North Slope natural gas to market through an all-Alaska gasline. Over the years, various governors changed ANGDA’s direction a number of times. Most recently, ANDGA extensively researched what it would take to build a gas line from Cook Inlet to Fairbanks, a proposal that is getting renewed attention with the resurgence of development in Cook Inlet.

“ANGDA was created by the voters and the voters should’ve had an opportunity to weigh in before it was rolled into another agency,” said Representative David Guttenberg (D-Fairbanks).

The amendment failed 11-26 with all votes in favor of the amendment coming from the House Democratic Caucus.