Economy & Business
RSSEconomy & Business in Alaska is the mix of government decisions, contracts, grants and private projects that shape the state's economy. It covers municipal budgets, infrastructure and airport planning, federal grants and contracts, employment trends, and energy development across Alaska.
Inside Economy & Business
Places and organizations in this news
Numbers are stories in the last 30 days.
Have a story about Economy & Business? Send a tip
Saturday, Jul 4
Alaska LNG tax bill advances as working draft, disputes unresolved
Alaska lawmakers advanced a working draft of HB 381, the tax framework for Alaska LNG, but disputes over the alternative volumetric tax remain unresolved.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 4mo ago3 min read
Juneau weighs what kind of cruise town it wants to be
Juneau's tourism task force is drafting criteria for whether its cruise-ship limits should ever change — with Goldbelt's proposed new docks adding pressure to the question.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Kenai weighs spending city money to develop a city-owned parcel
Kenai votes Wednesday on spending $54,219 to subdivide city land and partner with a developer — though the agenda doesn't say how many lots or what would go there.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Kenai moves to clear six pieces of public land for sale
Kenai's council votes Wednesday to strip "public purpose" status from six city parcels, the step before selling them — on a consent agenda, with no public hearing.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
An Anchorage shelter contract has grown from $1 million to nearly $5 million in a year
A homeless-shelter contract the Anchorage Assembly approved at $1 million a year ago has grown to nearly $5 million. It votes on another $500,000 increase Wednesday.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 4mo ago2 min read
Surgery Center of Wasilla discloses $2.65M in completed equity raises
Surgery Center of Wasilla raised $2.65 million in private equity through two closed offerings, joining a wave of corporate investment in Alaska's outpatient surgery centers.
by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 4mo ago1 min read
Alaska Airlines crews could lose state break protections
A federal proposal would strip state-guaranteed meal and rest breaks from airline crews, including Alaska Airlines flight attendants — leaving only the federal standard in place.
by Alaska News4mo ago1 min read
A fish truck rolled on the Seward Highway, cutting off the road into town before the Fourth
A fish truck rolled on the Seward Highway late Friday, scattering its load and closing the road into town for hours — just as crowds arrived for the Fourth and Mount Marathon.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
More from Economy & Business
A developer wants to build homes and shops on a city lot in Kodiak — if the city sells
A developer wants to build six apartments and six shops on a vacant Kodiak city lot — a $1.6M project. First the council has to decide whether to sell the land.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Friday, Jul 3
Anchorage Assembly to consider buying two wetland lots for under $30,000
Anchorage Assembly votes July 7 to buy two wetland lots in Laurel Acres for under $30,000 to generate credits that offset wetland damage from future development projects.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Where Alaska's gas-line tax deal stands, and what's still stuck
Lawmakers have a working Alaska LNG tax deal — a $16 ratepayer price cap, a required Fairbanks spur line, and two unresolved fights over legality and Kenai's school costs.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Trump pardons an Alaska diesel mechanic, reigniting a fight over emissions rules
Trump pardoned a Wasilla diesel mechanic who removed truck pollution controls — a cold-weather fix, Sullivan says; eroded clean-air enforcement, critics say.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Alaska raises unemployment benefits, updates travel insurance law
Alaska raised its maximum weekly unemployment benefit to $470, the first increase since 2009, and will adjust it annually going forward.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 4mo ago2 min read
One lane closed on the Alaska Highway at the Johnson River Bridge, through Sunday
One westbound lane of the Alaska Highway is closed at the Johnson River Bridge, about 42 miles south of Delta Junction, through Sunday evening. Expect single-lane traffic control.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Anchorage takes another run at 'missing middle' housing
Anchorage may let owners along transit corridors build duplexes and fourplexes on single-family lots — a narrower second try at a denser-housing idea that stalled last fall.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Nearly $1 million for Anchorage's safety net goes to an Assembly vote
Anchorage's Assembly votes July 7 on nearly $978,000 for nine nonprofits that feed the homeless, shelter abuse survivors, and help families and kids in crisis.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
About Economy & Business
Economy and business in Alaska is the mix of government decisions, contracts, grants and private projects that shape the state's economy. It is the broad subject that holds narrower topics such as business, energy, oil and gas, mining, aviation and tourism.
Much of it runs through public bodies, with municipal assemblies approving contracts and planning decisions, state agencies leasing land and selling gravel and rock, and AIDEA lending to industry. Recurring questions concern infrastructure such as harbors, airports, roads and water and sewer lines, along with housing and zoning rules, energy supply, labor contracts, federal grants and military construction.
Its decisions reach every part of the state, from Anchorage and the Mat-Su to Kodiak, Cordova, Haines and the North Slope. Federal and military spending, resource development and Alaska Native corporation ventures all feed into the economy.
More from Economy & Business
Buried under the Kenai refuge: seismic data on a stranded Cook Inlet gas find is about to go public
As Southcentral eyes a gas shortage, old seismic data on Shadura — an undeveloped Cook Inlet gas find near Nikiski, stuck under the Kenai refuge — is set to go public.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
An Alaska village will own its solar power — and sell it back to the utility
A state grant puts village-owned solar and batteries in Allakaket, letting it sell power to its utility instead of buying diesel. A second grant expands a hydro project.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Thursday, Jul 2
Juneau isn't changing its cruise caps — it's deciding how to decide
Juneau's tourism task force isn't touching its cruise ship limits yet — it's building the criteria future officials would use to change them, with new docks looming as the pressure point.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
A Fairbanks clinic wants to expand. Staff recommend denying the rezone it's seeking.
A Fairbanks clinic wants a rezone to expand its medical building. Staff recommend denial over reduced protections for nearby homes; the commission decides July 14.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Anchorage weighs selling a fire-damaged lot below market to a housing nonprofit
Anchorage votes July 7 on a below-market sale of a fire-damaged lot to a housing nonprofit: a blight fix to some, a fairness question to others after the bid failed.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
A new tower roof could eat half of Juneau airport's reserve, as pilots push for more
Juneau's airport board may spend nearly half its small reserve on a new tower roof — as 50+ pilots dispute a master plan that claims no unmet demand for fuel.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
On the roadless North Slope, the villages' winter road is made of snow
On the roadless North Slope, a snow trail is how cut-off villages get winter fuel. A Native-owned company builds it — across fragile tundra and caribou country.
by Bill AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
A new power line is proposed through a historic Delta park
A utility wants to run a new power line through Big Delta State Historical Park to reach a nearby boat launch — open for public comment through July 31.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
The public can't sit in as the Railbelt reworks your power costs
The body redrawing how Railbelt transmission costs get split is meeting behind closed doors this week — legal under its own bylaws, though the binding decisions still face public review.
by Melinda Communities.News4mo ago1 min read
One corner of Homer pays an extra tax to keep the water moving
In one waterside corner of Homer, owners pay an extra 1-mill tax the rest of the city doesn't — to fund their own storm drains. The council just voted to keep charging it.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 4mo ago1 min read
The FAA wants to end the 50-year ban on supersonic flight — and Alaska has the sky for it
Supersonic flight over the U.S. has been banned since 1973. The FAA wants to lift it — and few states have more empty sky for boomless supersonic jets than Alaska.
by Alaska News4mo ago2 min read
A washout severs a Delta Junction road — again
A washout closed Cummings Road in Delta Junction, cutting off a stretch residents partly maintain themselves — the kind of weather hit Interior roads keep taking.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Job and training help for western Alaska's storm-displaced residents
Months after last October's storms displaced western Alaska residents, the state has gathered job and training help for them, part of a still-growing recovery effort.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Anchorage planners count 21 stalled projects as Assembly weighs housing overlay
Anchorage votes July 7 on a zoning change to let "missing middle" housing — duplexes, townhomes, smaller-lot homes — rise along its transit corridors.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Alaska's best shot at a new federal fertilizer grant is an idle Nikiski plant — if it can get the gas
A new $500M federal program funds fertilizer plants. Alaska's one real candidate — the idled Nikiski plant — is stuck on Cook Inlet's gas shortage, not on money.
by Melinda Communities.News4mo ago2 min read
Kipnuk is being pieced back together, one boardwalk at a time
Alaska closes its federal disaster recovery updates as Typhoon Halong rebuilding continues in Kipnuk, with over 12,000 feet of boardwalk restored but federal funding delays still slowing the work.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
A landslide has closed the Dalton Highway, the main road to the North Slope
A rain-triggered landslide closed the Dalton Highway north of Coldfoot on Monday — blocking the main road to the North Slope and the freight bound for the oil fields.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
When the Coast Guard searches, Sitka's sky can close
A Coast Guard search shut a patch of low airspace over Sitka for two days — a small disruption elsewhere, but real in a roadbound town that flies for a living.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
After decades, King Cove's road may finally be coming
Decades of fighting for a road to Cold Bay's all-weather airport — a lifeline in emergencies. Now $18 million in construction money puts it closer than ever.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Alaska's development bank meets behind closed doors on the Arctic Refuge, a mining road, and a port
Alaska's state investment bank meets privately July 8 on its biggest bets — Arctic Refuge oil, the Ambler mining road, Port MacKenzie — with public money on the line.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago3 min read
The road rebuild behind Spenard's makeover
Anchorage is planning to rebuild Chugach Way — the road running through the heart of Spenard's revival, where old strip clubs and gas stations are becoming new housing.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
A new federal complaint line for Alaska's rural producers
Alaska farmers and ranchers fed up with federal enforcement have a new complaint portal — though in a state where Washington controls the land, it's a new ear, not a remedy.
by Melinda Communities.News4mo ago2 min read
ConocoPhillips is finding new oil in the Kuparuk field, in rock decades of drilling missed
The Kuparuk field has fallen 80% since its 1992 peak, but ConocoPhillips is reviving it by tapping Coyote and other reservoirs that older drilling technology overlooked.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 4mo ago2 min read
A Knik Arm bridge easement survives — and so does the debate
Anchorage kept a Knik Arm Crossing easement on a port plat — a small vote that keeps alive a long-debated bridge backers call vital resiliency and skeptics call unfunded.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
