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Freedom More to being healthy than just what you eat Community/C-1
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CLARION P E N I N S U L A
FEBRUARY 23, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 123
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Panel unveils pipeline measure
History in the making
By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
JUNEAU — The Senate Resources Committee on Friday unveiled a version of a gas pipeline bill that largely remained true to what Gov. Sean Parnell proposed, with some clarifications. The draft said confidential information related to contract negotiations shall be shared with the Legislature in executive session or under confidentiality agreements. The original version said “may.” Chairwoman Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, said she wanted to make sure lawmakers were involved. The draft also said the fixed royalty rate for gas cannot fall below 12.5 percent, and it incorporated an idea proposed by Sen. Lesil McGuire, RAnchorage, that a plan be developed that would recommend how Alaskans could invest in the pipeline with their Permanent Fund dividends. The committee rejected four proposed amendments from the panel’s lone minority member, Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage. One of his
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See GAS, page A-5
Changes to oil tax Trio recreates proposed
Above: Alan Perry stands near a freight sled that he is helping to build in Kasilof on Thursday. Perry and two companions are building the sled as a replica of those originally used to run freight along the Iditarod Trail. Top: Alan Perry lashes a portion of the sled. Right: Rod Perry does a bit of filing to fit a piece onto the sled. The sled is much larger than any in use today.
freight sled
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hree life-long friends, joined together by dog mushing, are in the midst of a massive project set to pay homage to the history of the sport while showcasing a dying craft. Brothers Rod and Alan Perry along with Cliff Sisson have spent hundreds of hours over the past four months crammed inside Sisson’s workshop in Kasilof, a space just large enough to hold their creation, a freight dog sled. It is 16 feet long and made entirely out of solid white oak. The men are working around the clock to complete the sled in time for the ceremonial start of Iditarod XLII on March 1 in downtown Anchorage See SLED, page A-2
Story by Dan Balmer v Photos by Rashah McChesney
Inside today Lots of sun 35/9 For complete weather, see page A-12
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By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
JUNEAU — A Sitka senator proposed adjustments to Alaska’s oil tax system Friday that he said are aimed at making it fairer to the state. Republican Sen. Bert Stedman said his bill, SB192, is aimed at the already-producing legacy fields, long the mainstay of Alaska’s oil industry. The bill would keep the base tax rate at 35 percent but would adjust the sliding scale, per-barrel credit for those fields. Beginning in 2015, the highest credit would be $4 a barrel when the average gross value at the point of production was less than $80 a barrel. It would decrease to zero when the average gross value at the point of production was at least $150 a barrel. See TAX, page A-5
Fish board meetings not accessible to all By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
The fate of many sport, commercial, and personal use fisheries in the Upper Cook Inlet was up for debate during a twoweek Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting in Anchorage and many Cook Inlet stakeholders said it was too great of a financial burden to stay in the city and participate in the process. During the first four days of the triennial Cook Inlet meeting at the William A. Egan Civic and Convention Center, more than 100 members of the public sat in for public comments and board deliberations on fishing issues. But attendance dropped sharply as the meeting progressed. While the board received more than 470 public comments before the meeting and an additional 270 public comments
submitted as record copies during the meeting, relatively few people were on hand to lend their perspectives in person. Just over 200 people testified during the first days of the meeting. At each break in deliberations, board members spoke to stakeholders in the audience, about 30 of whom were consistently present each day during the last week of the meeting. William Faulkner, an Eagle River resident who commercial fishes as a setnetter out of Clam Gulch, was one of about 20 people left to testify after the first weekend of the meeting as the Super Bowl Sunday meeting was adjourned in the early afternoon. “I’m fixing to run out of money for a hotel room,” he said just before the board broke from taking public testimony and took an afternoon off.
Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion
By the last few days of the Upper Cook Inlet Board of Fisheries meetings, very few members of the public were on hand to discuss fishing policy with board members.
Faulkner, who said he was appointed that he would not be hoping to sit on at least one able to do so. committee before having to get “I was hoping they would back to work, said he was dis- not take a Super Bowl break,” C
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Faulkner said. “I don’t think that was very prudent.” Board chairman Karl Johnstone, appointed in 2008, said it could be a burden to fishers and stakeholders to attend meetings outside of their service areas but he thought there was ample opportunity given to weigh-in during the board process. “I’m not sure that other methods could be used,” he said. “We give the public the opportunity to provide public comments and we had over 500 public comments and I think all board members try to read them and then I’ve been contacted personally. I’ve talked to many of the people personally here in the meeting hall and they’ve given me their perspectives. They’ve gotten to testify, they have a (record copy) process which is yet another way See BOARD, page A-5