Targeted by new Gov. Bill Walker as he looks to cut costs and increase transparency, the state corporation working on two megaprojects dramatically downshifted spending plans and took steps to find a way forward if new appointees don’t sign the confidentiality pledge the governor opposes.
The board of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., in charge of advancing the $10 billion Alaska Standalone Pipeline, met Thursday in Anchorage with three empty chairs after Walker this week removed Al Bolea, Dick Rabinow and Drue Pearce. The AGDC board also got two new faces Thursday, with new Walker labor commissioner Heidi Drygas in attendance at the Anchorage meeting and his new acting commissioner of commerce, community and economic development, Fred Parady, phoning into the meeting. The two have been instructed by the governor not to sign the confidentiality pledge that other AGDC officials have signed.
AGDC president Dan Fauske said the pledge is needed because information is shared between the two gas line projects to reduce costs. As a result, the state and oil companies might provide proprietary details to each other that should be kept confidential, such as the best pipeline components, the composition of the gas or facility costs, he said.
“The companies say, ‘You can have our data, but we want to make sure it’s protected,’” he said. “You use that data to come out in a public hearing and provide good information, because you used that data to back up the assumptions you made during your analysis.”
At the meeting, the board’s chair, John Burns, who also served as board chair under former Gov. Sean Parnell, said he has asked the corporation’s legal counsel and the state’s attorney general for an analysis of what it will mean if the new board members don’t sign the pledge.
“The governor has made it clear he wants an open and transparent process when it comes to developing Alaska’s resources and developing its natural gas,” Heidi Drygas said. “It does put us in a bit of a predicament, but I’m confident there will be a way forward, and I know those conversations are taking place, so we can engage fully as board members.”
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