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.
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Thursday, Jul 2
A new federal water-testing rule could check rural Alaska for 'forever chemicals' — if it reaches us
An EPA rule would test drinking water for 30 contaminants, including the PFAS Alaska already has in its water. The catch: whether it reaches the state's small, rural systems.
by Alaska News4mo ago2 min read
Nome Airport Crossing Permit
A dull state permit reveals something distinctly Alaskan: a Nome resident wants to taxi his plane from his own yard onto the airport — the kind of access rural life runs on.
by Bill AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Wednesday, Jul 1
A federal cyber rule could lock small Alaska firms out of survey work
The Army Corps wants $9.5M in Alaska survey work — but a new federal cybersecurity mandate could disqualify the small, rural firms that would otherwise compete for it.
by Alaska News4mo ago2 min read
A gravel permit, and how North Slope oil is built on gravel
ConocoPhillips wants to expand a gravel pad at its Kuparuk field. It's a routine permit — but a small look at how North Slope oil is literally built on imported gravel.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 4mo ago1 min read
Sitka's Fourth of July party is back — just leave the car behind
Sitka's Fourth brings a parade, a Coast Guard rescue demo, and a firefighters-vs-Coast Guard water fight — but downtown streets close July 3–5, so plan to walk.
by Alaska News4mo ago1 min read
Alaska's minimum wage hits $14 — the raise voters ordered
Alaska's minimum wage rose to $14 on July 1 — step two of the raise voters passed in 2024, which also handed every worker in the state paid sick leave.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Crash closes New Seward Hwy southbound at Rabbit Creek Rd
Two people died Wednesday morning when three vehicles crashed into Potter Marsh on the Seward Highway south of Anchorage, closing the road for hours.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
America's taxi capital is a roadless Alaska town
Bethel, Alaska has more taxis per capita than anywhere in the U.S. — because in a roadless tundra town, cabs are the bus, and this week the city's weighing what a ride should cost.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
More from Economy & Business
One Bethel gym burns through $419,000 a year in energy. An audit says it doesn't have to.
A single Bethel fitness center spends $419,000 a year on energy, mostly heating oil at $5.77 a gallon. An audit found it could save $51,000 a year for almost nothing.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Murkowski previously questioned the Qatari Air Force One; Trump has now flown it
Trump took his first flight on the Qatar-donated Air Force One this week — a gift Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was among the Republicans to question when it surfaced.
by Alaska News4mo ago1 min read
Tuesday, Jun 30
At America's northernmost airport, the fuel is Iñupiat-owned
A dull fuel-lease notice at Utqiaġvik's airport hides a good story: the company keeping the northernmost airport supplied is an original ASRC business, built to serve the Iñupiat.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 4mo ago2 min read
A boat trip made Interior Alaska's needs visible. Who's responsible for them is the harder question.
A Tanana Chiefs boat trip showcased four remote villages' needs. Who's responsible for meeting them is a tangle of federal, state, corporate and tribal roles.
by Alaska News4mo ago3 min read
Nearly $350 million to replace one ferry — Alaska's lifeline to the Aleutians
Alaska's about to spend nearly $350 million to replace one ferry — the 60-year-old Tustumena. A genuine Aleutian lifeline, but the low bid went to a Louisiana yard.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Nome is becoming America's first deepwater port in the Arctic
After nearly 20 years, work is underway to make Nome the first deepwater port in the American Arctic — a ~$600M project deep enough for Coast Guard icebreakers.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Anchorage's airport is finally expanding its parking
Relief may be coming for one of Anchorage's everyday headaches: the airport is expanding its overflow parking lot, with the work due done by mid-November.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Two Alaska towns run on water — and want more of it
Wrangell and Petersburg run on hydropower from a remote mountain lake — and a planned third turbine would draw 12 more megawatts, meaning fewer days burning costly diesel.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago2 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
Why Washington's permitting overhaul lands harder in Alaska than almost anywhere
About 60% of Alaska is federal land, so Trump's NEPA permitting overhaul hits harder here. The complaint that reviews are too slow is bipartisan; how far to cut is the fight.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Sitka sets new ground rules for its cruise-season crush
Up to 7,000 cruise passengers a day hit a town of 8,000 — so Sitka rolled out new (voluntary) ground rules to keep the visitor boom from wearing on the people who live there.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
In Sitka, they're carrying your luggage by hand this summer
Sitka is running its biggest projects all at once — and at the torn-up airport, workers are hand-carrying travelers' bags to keep flights moving through tourist season.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
New federal money for small meat processors could help Alaska lean less on imported food
New federal money for small meat processors could nudge Alaska, which imports nearly all its food, toward processing more of its own — $60M in grants is due Aug. 7.
by Melinda Communities.News4mo ago2 min read
Alaska clears the way to bury carbon — over water-safety fears
Alaska's new rules let companies inject carbon dioxide underground for storage — with the whole fight hinging on whether it stays put or seeps into the water people drink.
by Alaska Newsadded 4mo ago2 min read
A federal royalty-rule change could shortchange the states and tribes it's owed to
A federal plan to simplify mineral royalties could shortchange states, tribes, and Native owners, as an audit finds the agency isn't collecting what it's owed.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Monday, Jun 29
The man who made the case for JBER's new water plant didn't live to see it open
JBER's new water plant now serves 40,000 people, replacing a system running since 1957. Mac Nason, who wrote the case that funded it, died in 2021 and never saw it built.
by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 4mo ago1 min read
Failed concrete keeps Fairbanks' Wescott Pool closed all summer, cost climbs
Bad concrete will keep Fairbanks' Wescott Pool closed all summer, pushing reopening to November — and the fix just cost another $837,000, over $12 million total.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Sitka confronts a child care shortage it can't fully fix alone
Sitka doesn't have enough child care — a problem hitting all of Alaska, driven partly by the real cost of the safety rules that make care expensive to provide.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
A huge North Pole fuel terminal's spill plan is up for renewal — and residents have reason to look
The spill plan for a 33-million-gallon North Pole jet fuel terminal is up for comment through July 29 — in a town that knows what fuel in its groundwater looks like.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
A remote Kodiak village tries tp fix its water
Karluk — a village 88 miles from Kodiak city, ringed by refuge — is replacing its failing water system, closing a gap most of America never has to think about.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Sunday, Jun 28
A Fairbanks lot split turns up permit and floodway snags
A routine lot-line change near Noyes Slough surfaced a few snags — an unpermitted garage, a too-close house, and a floodway where you can't dig without an engineer's OK.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 4mo ago1 min read
Gas-line developer warns Alaska's Senate terms could drive it off
Glenfarne told lawmakers the Senate's gas-line amendments — a 9.4% investor tax, an automatic state takeover clause, tough labor rules — could make it walk. Lawmakers say they're protecting the state.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
In a quiet Kenai neighborhood, a fight over how many homes is too many
A developer wants townhouses and a six-plex on a quiet Kenai dead-end — the most density the zone allows — and at least one neighbor isn't sold on the traffic.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Saturday, Jun 27
Kodiak eyes 3% marijuana tax
Kodiak Assembly members proposed a 3% marijuana tax that would raise roughly $135,000 to $150,000 yearly for health, housing, and childcare programs if voters approve it in October.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Murkowski backs bill to open banking to Alaska cannabis businesses
Alaska's weed shops are legal, licensed, taxed — and still can't get a bank account, running on cash since 2014. Murkowski wants to end the duffel-bag era.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
A fin whale's death near Seward reopens Alaska's vessel-speed debate
A pregnant fin whale that died of a vessel strike was found on a Royal Caribbean ship's bow near Seward. Investigators haven't said which vessel struck it.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
A widely felt quake rattled Southcentral Alaska on Saturday
A magnitude 4.2 quake near Hope shook Anchorage and the Kenai on Saturday night. Early estimates ran higher, but the reviewed magnitude is small, and no damage was reported.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
On the Kenai, a cabin tests the river's 50-foot buffer
As peak season packs the Kenai, a company wants to build a cabin inside the 50-foot buffer that keeps development off the river's salmon-bearing banks.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Decades-old rules cap buildings at a Tudor Road corner. The Assembly may start to lift them.
SCF spent nearly a year of review just to build a greenhouse. Now the Assembly weighs easing 40-year-old building limits at its Tudor and Patterson corner.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 4mo ago2 min read
Matanuska Electric offers free EV chargers to local businesses, but hosts pay install costs
MEA is giving away EV chargers to Mat-Su hosts — but only the box is free; the host pays to install it, and the co-op pockets three years of charging data.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Juneau harbor board considers $2.5M ADOT grant bids, insurance surcharge cut
Juneau's harbor board backed a $2.5 million state grant bid for two projects and recommended cutting the uninsured moorage surcharge to $1.00 per linear foot from $1.50.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
A federal rule could stick Alaskans with abandoned-well cleanup costs
The BLM wants to slash the cleanup bonds oil companies post before drilling on federal land — raising the odds taxpayers, not operators, foot the bill for abandoned Alaska wells.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 4mo ago2 min read
M4.2 earthquake shakes area west of Hope
Shake shake shake
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
