April-Issue-4 2012

The $2.94 billion state capital budget for fiscal year 2013 approved in the closing hours of the 2012 legislative session is chock-full of projects. The good news, however, is that the spending total is within the range that Gov. Sean Parnell and legislative leaders agreed on, and Parnell says he will make minimal vetoes from the bill.

The University of Alaska has been on a mission to increase its engineering students for several years now. That mission got a big push in the final hours of the legislative session, when the House passed the Senate’s capital budget that include more than $100 million for new engineering buildings at two campuses.

Twelve environmental groups and two Alaska Native organizations have appealed an Alaska U.S. District Court judge’s decision to reaffirm a 2008 sale of Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea. Appeals were filed in the Alaska federal district court.

Natural gas is now being injected into a new gas storage facility on the Kenai Peninsula, Enstar Natural Gas says.

The $2.94 billion state capital budget for fiscal year 2013 approved in the closing hours of the 2012 legislative session is chock-full of projects. The good news, however, is that the spending total is within the range that Gov. Sean Parnell and legislative leaders agreed on, and Parnell says he will make minimal vetoes from the bill.

The operating budget passed April 15 by the state Legislature includes $20 million in spending to fund three new loan pools designed to benefit local fishing economies in Alaska.

The University of Alaska has been on a mission to increase its engineering students for several years now. That mission got a big push in the final hours of the legislative session, when the House passed the Senate’s capital budget that include more than $100 million for new engineering buildings at two campuses.

It’s no surprise to learn that the Obama administration’s decision to postpone approval of the Keystone XL pipeline between oil sands deposits in western Canada and refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast has brought forth a worthy competitor to get the crude moving.

The operating budget passed April 15 by the state Legislature includes $20 million in spending to fund three new loan pools designed to benefit local fishing economies in Alaska.