Skip to main content

Video Clips

Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.

Clips from Commonwealth NorthClear
0:22

Brock Wilson

“Alaska did not see a large share of their workers cut. This is more so the case for places like D.C., Maryland, more capital-centric areas. Alaska did not experience a large cut to the workforce due to the RIFs or the probationary firings.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:46
Brett Watson“Just under $20 billion of federal spending in 2023. Let's compare that to the total size of the Alaskan economy in using gross domestic product as, as the denominator here. Alaska's gross domestic product in 2015 was $51 billion, and in 2023 that had grown to $68 billion. And so federal spending accounted for just under 30% of our 2023 total GDP.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:06

Bob Loeffler

“So we have 5 of our 12 were in the top 10 contractors for defense.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:40
Brett Watson“either way you calculate this contribution of the oil and gas industry, it's grown over this time period between $3 and $4.5 billion. Or less than half of the growth in federal spending over the same time period. What about for some of our other key basic sector industries like the hard rock mining industry or the fishing industry? Well, the fishing industry over this time period grew by about a quarter billion dollars while the hard rock mining industry grew by just under a billion dollars.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:09

Brock Wilson

“I think broadly the way I'm sort of characterizing this is like the Capital Area, and then Alaska, right? We are— we're particularly reliant for federal workers.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:27
Brett Watson“I was presenting data from 2023 because that's sort of the latest data that we have available to us to see what actually got spent”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:30

Brock Wilson

“between April 2024 to April 2026, we've seen across the entire nation a 14.8% decline in the headcount of the US federal civilian workforce. There's a large decline. Alaska specifically has seen a 15.8% decline. So we are seeing a larger decline than most other places.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:11
Brett Watson“federal spending over the last 10 years has grown by approximately $9 billion.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:42
Brett Watson“Federal spending grew by $8.7 billion from just, just under $11 billion in federal fiscal year 2015 to just under $19, just under $20 billion in federal fiscal year 2023.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:53

Brock Wilson

“I think for me, one of the frames that I carry is that I would think about the federal workforce as potentially a complement to our base, to our industry, rather than a substitute. For example, you know, cruise ships bring in people, those people go to Denali, and the complement being that if Denali no longer has park rangers, people don't go to Denali because there's no ability to get basic access”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:48
Brett Watson“between 2015, the start of the Alaska recession, and 2023, this is the most recent year that we have really good data for federal spending apportioned across states. Federal spending grew by about $8.7 billion in nominal terms”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:33

Brock Wilson

“we're talking about park rangers, biological science technicians, maintenance mechanics, forestry technicians. These are sort of the jobs that have, you know, direct implications for their particular field for what they were doing.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:54

Brock Wilson

“over $1.5 billion is federal civilian wages paid to Alaskan federal workers, and that's approximately $100,000 per job. So these are high-paying jobs. There's approximately 15,500 federal workers living in Alaska, and across all states, we're the third highest share of federal workers in a state's workforce.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:17

Brock Wilson

“this is me providing that information again across all states. We are third highest in reliance on the federal workforce. The only two above that are Maryland and Hawaii.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:21
Brett Watson“we're now— we have now a pretty good picture of what the federal workforce was up to. But that's only one important but small component of aggregate federal spending in the state.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:22

Bob Loeffler

“federal government is the most important industry, if you will, that brings money in.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:56

Brock Wilson

“when we look at the reduction in force, the probationary termination, and the buyouts collectively, at a national scale, by far the buyouts are what have caused the largest decline in the federal workforce. That is, we're talking about at a national level here— in one month, approximately almost 75,000 to 80,000 workers suddenly leaving”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:23
Brett Watson“if you think about the difference in our GDP between 2015 and 2023, our state's economy grew by $16.5 billion. Well, federal spending grew by just under $9 billion, meaning half of the growth in our total GDP, both our basic GDP and all of our non-basic GDP, all the money sloshing around in the bucket, not just the new money coming into the bucket.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:28
Brett Watson“Around half of the growth in our total GDP, half the water in the bucket was federal spending growth. And I think that that's, that's pretty significant, especially if you compare it to some of our other key basic sector industries. For example, oil and gas, which Bob mentioned, is kind of our second largest basic sector industry in the, in the state.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:34
Brett Watson“probably the biggest category of growth though across all of these spending categories grew 150%, uh, was federal spending in contracts. So contracts are spending that the various federal agencies engage in. The largest federal agency that spends money in the state of Alaska is the Department of Department of Defense.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:19

Brock Wilson

“prior, there's some, you know, baseline workers that are being hired in the offseason. And we can see that that offseason hiring has declined significantly. But also we're seeing lower peaks for the seasonal workers that we're bringing in.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:29

Bob Loeffler

“if you look at the employees from federal facilities, if you will, Denali National Park, Glacier Bay National Park, people around the bases, they may have a different— some of them may be leaving Alaska. We don't know.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:40

Brock Wilson

“by and large, the set of people that have left have come from the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, the Department of Transportation. Those are the set of agencies that are seeing workers leave. When we look at the type of jobs for those people, they are in biological sciences, they're in maintenance, they're in physical sciences. So these are jobs that are not in administrative roles but are generally more in field jobs.”

The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026

0:41
Matthew Kissinger“pursuing the loan guarantees with the federal government, getting lower gas prices and addressing the property tax imbalance”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:38
Matthew Kissinger“this is a marginal project, and we don't need more studies to tell us that. We know this is a marginal project simply by the fact that Despite our need for it, despite this enormous amount of gas, we so far haven't been able to get it done.”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:26
Cathy Giessel“The Senate Resources Committee, since March 20th, had 36 hearings in less than 2 months on this”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:31
Brett Watson“over the last 10 years, Pacific LNG prices, which is the market that we would be purchasing gas from, have ranged between about $5 to $15 per thousand cubic feet in what I would call sort of normal time periods.”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:35
Peter Micciche“This is a condensed facility that will receive every borough service at a very large proportion to the neighboring neighbor, to the neighbor next door who's going to be paying $9,000. Okay, first bill is $2,000, quarter of what the neighbor's paying”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:31
John Sims“Because of the cold temperatures, NStar was short on gas. And so we reached out to Hilcorp and luckily they were able to deliver an additional half BCF of gas during the month of March. That came at a cost of $16 per MCF.”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:39
Matthew Kissinger“even with relief, we'll still be sort of 5 times higher than LNG Canada in our property taxes”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:27
Peter Micciche“please wrap up Phase 2 ASAP with Phase 1. That divorce has made us very nervous”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:41
Brett Watson“In 2033, when all of NStar's contracts have expired,, we're probably facing around $15 per MCF gas.”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:26
Matthew Kissinger“Cook Inlet gas resources are declining. We are getting to a point, as I believe Mr. Sims can agree, to where it's becoming quite critical, and we have to move the project forward”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:27
Cathy Giessel“What if it stops with only Phase 1? We want a limit on how long the tax abatement the forgiveness, the elimination of those property taxes go”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:46
John Sims“Well, they didn't do 185 wells, they did 192 wells, and they've spent over $1.5 billion over that time frame, again, to make sure that Cook Inlet customers, both on the natural gas side, on the electric side, had energy.”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:50
Cathy Giessel“right now Glenfarn is a limited liability corporation. That means they're a pass-through entity, which means they pay no corporate tax to the state of Alaska on their profits”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:43
John Sims“The biggest difference between no project and Phase 1 is really the volatility that you'll see on the LNG import market. So, you know, you can look at JKM futures and get sort of an indication as to what the market thinks they may be. But the reality is, when you look at those futures versus what they actually were, there's an enormous amount of volatility that happens on the LNG market”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:16
Cathy Giessel“We were given the legislation for this project on March 20th. That's 2 and a half months ago”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:45
John Sims“Looking over a much shorter time frame from 2010 to 2026, you can see that that's dropped from about 350 million cubic feet a day down to right around 200 million a day. Again, how this relates to NSTAR in the wintertime when we need it the most, NSTAR's annual— or excuse me, daily peak is right around 320 for gas that we have to make sure that we have available to our customers.”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:31
John Sims“All of the green that represents the Hillcorp contract. So in 2033, that green is going away and we need to have another solution in place so that we can meet our customers' needs.”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:34
Cathy Giessel“we looked at capping the price of gas to consumers. We looked at not allowing any cost overruns to be put on taxpayers, onto consumers, Alaska consumers”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:29
Brett Watson“that yellow line is the trajectory for Phase 1 prices. Those start at $16 per MCF and would escalate by 2% or inflation per year, whatever's lower, um, uh, until Phase 2 is achieved, and that's that blue line where prices would drop to $5 and then escalate by 2% or inflation, whichever is lower.”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:49
John Sims“The predominant activity is from Hilcorp, which is one of the reasons why NStar is so concerned about them kind of slowing down production and moving their investments other— other places is because there's no one else in Cook Inlet that has the balance sheet to be drilling 192 wells over a 10-year period.”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:54
John Sims“What PRA said is that in order to meet demand starting in 2010 through 2020, up to 185 wells would need to be drilled over that timeframe. That requires an estimated $1.8 to $2.8 billion and would need about an average of 13.6 wells completed per year.”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:17
Matthew Kissinger“we were sort of 10 times order of magnitude higher than any of these other jurisdictions”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:24
John Sims“The Hillcorp contract is down there at $8.36. There is an annual inflator, so it's not going to stay at that rate for the entirety of the contract. We expected about a 1.5% increase over the duration of that contract.”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:45
Brett Watson“estimates from NSTAR suggest that in addition to the purchasing the commodity on the spot market, we'd need to pay an additional dollar or so per MCF to ship that gas an additional $3 to $5 on top of that to build the infrastructure to receive that gas and regasify it from its LNG form. So kind of all-in costs from this no-project case represent gas prices somewhere in the neighborhood of $9 to $21.”

Taxes and the Alaska Gas Line: The Fiscal Questions Behind AK's Energy Future · Jun 9, 2026

0:45

Emil Noddy

“In 1953, the Small Business Administration created the program created by Congress to assist socially and economically disadvantaged individuals to participate in the program. Over time, laws and regulations were modified and broadened to include economically disadvantaged communities. That's where AFN came in, where ANCs came in.”

Alaska's 8(a) Economy - What's at Stake · May 26, 2026

← NewerOlder →