Alaska lawmakers, legislative staff and gas-line consultants attended private meetings and signed confidentiality agreements about the Alaska Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project.
The private meetings were held Friday and lasted more than two hours, the Alaska Dispatch News reported (http://goo.gl/srGCJn).
The Anchorage meetings of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee also included a short public update from the administration outlining key steps Gov.-elect Bill Walker and the Legislature will be expected to take to keep the project on track next year.
The meetings came just three days before Walker will be sworn into office. Outgoing Gov. Sean Parnell had launched the Alaska LNG project.
In total, 40 people signed the confidentiality agreements, including 20 of the state’s 60 lawmakers. The confidential discussions included details about the state’s bargaining position relative to other partners in the project or potential gas buyers, according to those who attended the meeting.
During the public portion of the meeting, Balash said the state will have to make key decisions so the project can move to the next phase in early 2016, when the partners will decide to spend about $2 billion on detailed engineering and design studies, employing up to 1,500 in a process expected to be completed about 2018.
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