A plan to let Alaskans invest in the gas pipeline has stalled

A plan to let ordinary Alaskans buy a stake in the state's gas pipeline has quietly stalled — for want of $2.5 million to run it, according to a report presented to the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation's board this month.

The idea, laid out to the same board in June, was an unusual one. AGDC would offer Alaskans a chance to invest in the Phase 1 pipeline, with a set 8 percent annual return paid ahead of ordinary owners and, the corporation said, no exposure to the project's risk. Eligible buyers ranged from big institutions — the Permanent Fund Corporation, AIDEA, Alaska Native corporations — down to individual residents, whose eligibility would be verified through MyAlaska, with a possible tie to letting people invest their Permanent Fund dividend. First payouts were targeted for 2029. In June the board voted unanimously to set up a subsidiary to run it, Alaska Gas Pipeline Investment, LLC.

By this month, most of that had gone quiet. The September report lists what the program would cost to operate — about $2.5 million, spread across legal work, financial advisors, a platform provider, IT and communications — under a single line: "Major elements of program on hold until funds are acquired." Gone from the update is any mention of the tokens, the 8 percent, the MyAlaska tie-in, or the subsidiary by name. The corporation still lists letting "Alaskans invest" among its goals, but the timeline for that piece of the pipeline slipped from 2026-2027 to 2027.

The investment plan isn't the only thing that stalled in Juneau. Across three special legislative sessions this summer, no bill made it through both chambers — including one the project has pushed for, a cut to Alaska's oil-and-gas property tax. The state's rate, unchanged since 1974, is what AGDC calls an order of magnitude higher than the places successfully building LNG projects, and the corporation warns plainly that without relief, the project's schedule slips and its costs rise. The tax bill, House Bill 381, passed both chambers in different forms and went to a conference committee, but died on the session's final day when the House deadlocked on the compromise, 19-19. A related request — about $3 million in state operating money for AGDC — wasn't in the governor's budget.

The pipeline project itself, meanwhile, kept moving. AGDC, a 25 percent minority owner of the venture behind it, credits the developer, Glenfarne, with steady progress: advance commitments to buy Phase 1 gas from Pantheon Resources, ExxonMobil and Hilcorp, and letters of intent from Enstar, Chugach Electric and Donlin Gold. The detailed engineering for Phase 1 is finished, and pipe-supply and construction agreements are lining up. The pipeline is moving forward; the plan to let Alaskans own a piece of it is the part waiting on money that hasn't come.

One note from the meeting itself: unlike June, when the board held no closed-door session, this month's agenda listed an executive session with no subject given. State law requires boards to say specifically why they're going behind closed doors. The September minutes haven't been published.