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

0:38
Sheldon Whitehouse“Your IPAC database helps developers quickly determine if a project could affect a protected species. IPAC has received bipartisan praise, but in July of last year, you banned wind and solar projects from using the online IPAC system. Who does that help? Developers can once again access the system, but that thanks to a court order.”

Senate Environment and Public Works (Sullivan): Hearings to examine the President's proposed budget request for fiscal year 2027 for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. · Jun 10, 2026

0:40

Brian Nesvik

“The FY27 budget proposes an increase of $5.1 million for ESA Section 7 consultations for energy projects. With this funding, the service will be able to accelerate the review of priority energy projects, and we anticipate being able to reduce consultation timeframes from 30 to 14 days. The budget also reflects a commitment to the recovery of listed species. We are requesting a $2.6 million increase for work to support the development of recovery plans, 5-year status reviews, and rulemakings.”

Senate Environment and Public Works (Sullivan): Hearings to examine the President's proposed budget request for fiscal year 2027 for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. · Jun 10, 2026

0:56

Brian Nesvik

“specific to the ranking member's questions regarding clean energy projects, you know, I think that that folks are aware that this administration directed a review process for all energy projects, and part of that review process included initially a prohibition from those particular energy proponents from being able to submit their projects. That's— those reviews are ongoing, and I don't have much more on that.”

Senate Environment and Public Works (Sullivan): Hearings to examine the President's proposed budget request for fiscal year 2027 for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. · Jun 10, 2026

0:44
Shelley Capito“I was pleased to see that the Service is requesting an increase in funding for energy project reviews, including the development and use of programmatic tools to automate ESA compliance. Known as the Information for Planning and Consultation System, or IPAC. IPAC has been a game changer in our state for our projects, dramatically cutting down the timeframes for Section 7 consultations.”

Senate Environment and Public Works (Sullivan): Hearings to examine the President's proposed budget request for fiscal year 2027 for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. · Jun 10, 2026

0:38
Sheldon Whitehouse“Not cutting all funding for endangered species conservation, including iconic species such as elephants, rhinos, and great apes. Not cutting science support, which provides technical assistance to local communities. For wildlife and habitat conservation, not cutting state and tribal grants which help conserve fish and wildlife before they require protection under the Endangered Species Act.”

Senate Environment and Public Works (Sullivan): Hearings to examine the President's proposed budget request for fiscal year 2027 for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. · Jun 10, 2026

0:43
Grier Hopkins“The biggest impact we would see in terms of road usage would be our emergency medical services, our EMS services along the road. And that is something that we hear provide locally through our 5 fire service area contractors. We have a tax mill rate that covers almost the majority, almost the complete area of our Fairbanks North Star Borough plus the city of Fairbanks for those EMS services. And that's going to cover accidents along the highways and along the roads that is bound to happen when you're adding upwards of 1,000 trucks.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

0:58
Grier Hopkins“We're currently paying between $24 and $26 per MCF here in Fairbanks, which comes out to mid-$3.50 or so equivalent for diesel, if I remember correctly, for our BTU basis.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

1:10
Grier Hopkins“About 12 years ago, when the current route was selected, uh, the KPC and permitted, it was routed about 30 miles outside of, uh, what we'll call our city gate, our interior gas utility infrastructure. So we don't have any access to one molecule of gas off of this mainline without that spur line. And with only approximately 3,500 ratepayers to pay for that gas and to monetize, to pay the tariff for that spur line, it is essential that we would be seeing that a postage stamp rate across the whole gas line itself to pay for access for everybody along the rail belt who would be be able to get access to that natural gas.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

0:17
Chris Noel“We really support the mitigation fund. And I do have concerns about the way SB 2001 is written.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

0:54
Grier Hopkins“we here in the Fairbanks North Star Borough don't have road towers, but we have 103 different road service areas. So depending on where the developer and the contractors and the railroad agree to have an off— a pipe offload yard, it's going to be a big impact”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

0:40
Suzanne LaFrance“The Anchorage Community Development Authority, ACDA, commissioned a report from economist Jonathan King who analyzed the fiscal impacts on the municipality. The analysis shows that providing services to workers and to their families will cost more than locally generated revenues can support.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

1:12
Grier Hopkins“the— anywhere between the $180 million that was estimated 12 years ago and the $245 million that was put into the fiscal note instead of finance would be unaffordable for the community here.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

0:46
Grier Hopkins“ensuring that we're able to get those impacts monetarily supported to be able to support our roads, our fire service areas, and the ancillary impacts is what's important. And so the— I don't— we were not able to exactly calculate what those impacts would be to our community. Because we're not able to say this is what, how many accidents we would have or what an estimate would be. But we are able to look at the, how we can handle our trash and solid waste disposals, which would increase substantially. We have an enterprise system here where we are, we pay for what you bring across our landfill waste stations.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

1:06
Chris Noel“We know the impacts are going to be immediate. And I think as written, the— excuse me— the bill, you know, it looks as though revenue wouldn't flow until the, the ABT is flowing to the state, which could be up to 5,000 or 5 million units of throughput or 5 years, and those impacts are going to be immediate. And so I would encourage you in your deliberations working with Glenfarm, see this as this mitigation and impacts as an investment in the overall project, an investment in the state, an investment in municipalities so that we're better suited to meet the needs of the project when they occur, the impacts as they occur, fire and EMS service, road impacts, the demand for housing and healthcare, things like that.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

1:15
Edna DeVries“The Borough Assembly has adopted a resolution that supports a volume tax, protects education funding— that's very important to us— by exempting the increased property values from new project infrastructure, ensures effective municipalities receive the associated tax revenue”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

1:00
Chris Noel“We support the Fairbanks spur line for many of the reasons the mayor mentioned, the primary one being this would That spur line would provide our utility, Golden Valley Electric Association, better access to gas to offset their diesel— what is likely their highest cost of power, which would be their diesel generation. So we strongly support this, the Fairbanks spur line.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

0:42
Jesse Kiehl“if we're talking about building the whole thing to have a viable project, why wouldn't the cost of a Fairbanks spur be spread across all purchasers of gas, including foreign LNG buyers?”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

1:07
Grier Hopkins“That postage stamp rate language in the legislation also requires it to be approved by the RCA, making it— with acute conditions, making it a decision that is not, you know, your cost payer, cost— or cost cause or cost payer, because we're not directly causing the impact of this furlough. It was out of our control that it was created there.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

0:33
Suzanne LaFrance“That's why we support the approach in this bill to provide a community impact fund as well as ADT revenue sharing on a per capita basis. Impact funds would help us prepare for increased service and housing demand. Revenue sharing would close the gap between our local tax revenues and the delivery of services.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

1:06
Grier Hopkins“my understanding, which is exceedingly limited, is FERC deals with interstate gas transmission. This being an intrastate line, they would not be dealing with it, but I'm no expert in that route. During our conversations in developing this language, we only had to stop the necessary— only thought it necessary to deal with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

1:13
Grier Hopkins“There was an estimate in House Finance, I believe, during the regular session that Ua Wai'a Consultant estimated that spurline tariff addition on top of the entire line would be a 2-cent increase. So we're looking at fractions of the the overall tariff.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

0:35
Grier Hopkins“I would support that. I was looking at it from where I am, as my main concern is making sure we can get that, um, the most affordable gas to Alaskans.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

0:49
Edna DeVries“However, we have concerns with proposal to redistribute tax revenues away from the jurisdictions directed impacted by the project infrastructure.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

0:51
Suzanne LaFrance“Over the 9-year project period, New service costs would exceed revenues by tens of millions of dollars. Since we rely on property taxes, we don't get new tax revenues from an influx of people until new homes and commercial properties are built and added to our tax rolls, and that takes years. But there will be immediate pressure on public safety, emergency response, transportation systems, parks, and other municipal services.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

0:33
Chris Noel“many of these are indirectly supported. We're a limited local government, so many of our critical services that our residents and visitors depend on are provided by local nonprofits with support, supplemental support from the borough. And so those include mission-critical fire and EMS services up and down the Parks Highway. Solid waste service is one of our responsibilities.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

1:24
Grier Hopkins“That language is currently in Senate Bill 2001 and has been agreed to between the Fairbanks North Star Borough and Glenfarm, the developer. We worked closely with them to come up with language that would not prohibit the project from moving forward, not create roadblocks, but at the same time be able to ensure that a spur line was going to get built.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 10, 2026 9:00am · Jun 10, 2026

0:25

Jim (Chair, Petersburg Borough Planning Commission)

“could we bring that over from the, uh, um, what we're requiring for, uh, in the cell tower code to some degree. I mean, some things would be limited, but we want to make sure they're putting it on a big enough parcel that it's not an issue, right? We could bring over the— what is it, 110% or something? 110% Of the height of the tower, unless there's a breakpoint, right?”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:40

Jim (Chair, Petersburg Borough Planning Commission)

“I like the idea of including that. That's my favorite part of the ordinance, I think, is the 110%. It just makes a lot of sense, and it seems to be a pretty repeated criticism that people in the community have of proposed designs is a short setback.”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:19
“the conditions of approval is, is that only what's listed on page 10? Home occupation permitted is a massage therapy business”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:59
“the main one that was important to them was there's a creek that they used to drink well water from. They don't anymore, but it's a good drinking water creek that gets muddied up with construction. Um, and so they are hoping to preserve that as much as possible and not include the rock pits in the overlay.”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:26

Jim (Chair, Petersburg Borough Planning Commission)

“consideration of an application from Suzanne Webb for conditional use permit for a home occupation at 500 Unimac Street”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:21

Jim (Chair, Petersburg Borough Planning Commission)

“recommendation of the Borough Assembly regarding an application from Brian Newman for a special use permit to fill a portion of of undeveloped Lake Street right-of-way for access to 1205 Lake Street”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:24
“I move to approve the Resolution 2026-601 to allow a home occupation at 500 Utamack Street, subject to conditions of approval”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:31

Jim (Chair, Petersburg Borough Planning Commission)

“Recommendation to the borough assembly regarding an application from Skylark Park to purchase borough property described as Government Lot 26, Section 33, Township 58 South, Range 79 East, and Government Lot 27”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:45
“I have a question, a comment that I solicited from residents in Scow Bay. My, um, my husband's parents live right in Scow Bay, right across from the bay, and so I asked them what their opinion is on the Scow Bay portions of the proposed overlay. Um, which would be the rock pit areas that we suggested. And, um, I, I, they are opposed to including it in the overlay.”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:31
“I move to recommend to the borough assembly to approve sale of borough-owned property described as government lot 26. Government Lot 27, Section 33-T-58-S-R-79-E, on the condition that the properties are rezoned to single-family mobile home”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:26
“Dave Omer's letter of support for this project. It's always nice to have neighbors saying they support it”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:24
“I move to recommend to the Borough Assembly to approve sale of borough-owned property at 1205 Lake Street”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:13
“We can do under Commissioner comments next time. That'll be after 2 readings, and then we'll be ready or not to move it as an action item in August.”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:12

Jim (Chair, Petersburg Borough Planning Commission)

“recommendation to the Borough Assembly regarding an application from Brian Newman to purchase borough property at 1205 Lake Street”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:17
“I move to recommend to the Borough Assembly to approve a special use permit for 10,000 square feet of the Lake Street right-of-way for access to 1205 Lake Street, subject to conditions of approval”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:44

Jim (Chair, Petersburg Borough Planning Commission)

“a slight change of subject, but it also occurs to me if we're going to put the, um, FCC compliance, that we can also put FAA compliance about, um, lighting and tower height.”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:27
“My impression of the reason why it's coming back on the agenda is, um, public requests, public outcry directed at active assembly members, probably primarily Member Muchi, um, you know, heard people being cross that it wasn't continuing and requested that it be put back on in a new form.”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:31
“I think there was— yeah, I don't have it in front of me either, but I'm remembering that there was like, um, maintenance and keeping it within FCC standards for emissions. It's kind of basic language, which is basically making sure they follow whatever the FCC standards are.”

Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026

0:35

Mike West

“The National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program, known as NEHRP, is one of the most successful pieces of hazards legislation ever, coming up on its 50th anniversary. It coordinates the efforts of 4 agencies: the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Science Foundation, FEMA, NIST.”

House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources (Begich): Leg Hrg on the following bills · May 20, 2025

0:35
Pete Stauber“NHERP established the ShakeAlert application, which provides earthquake early warnings to Americans living and working on the West Coast of the United States. NVIEWS monitors and warns communities near and around volcanoes when volcanic activity is imminent.”

House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources (Begich): Leg Hrg on the following bills · May 20, 2025

0:39
Pete Stauber“These bills would authorize important programs that help save lives and protect our communities, including the National Landslide Hazard Reduction Program, or NILHRP, the 3D Elevation Program, or 3DEP, the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program, or NEHRP, and the National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System, NVIEWS.”

House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources (Begich): Leg Hrg on the following bills · May 20, 2025

0:29

Mike West

“The problem is that most U.S. volcanoes aren't monitored like SPUR. Fully implementing NVIEWS would fix this.”

House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources (Begich): Leg Hrg on the following bills · May 20, 2025

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