Editor's note: "This Week in Alaska Business History" revisits events that shaped our past.
"Those who cannot
remember the past are
condemned to repeat it."
-- George Santayana, 1863-1952
20 years ago this week
Anchorage Times
Feb. 18, 1981
Share-the-wealth plan aired
By Dave Carpenter
Times Juneau Bureau
JUNEAU -- The Hammond administration and former House Speaker Terry Gardiner have begun to push the Legislature to adopt a new share-the-wealth plan that would make every Alaskan a part-owner of the vast Prudhoe Bay oil and gas stores and other state riches.
Gardiner, D-Ketchikan, and a top Hammond aide told House lawmakers Tuesday night that their Portfolio of Alaska Citizen Enterprises program -- called PACE -- would transfer Alaska's wealth to its rightful owner -- residents.
And that, they said, will make Alaskans less dependent on government to properly handle the state's oil billions.
Anchorage Times
Feb. 21, 1981
Gas line work still set for 1982
By Dave Carpenter
Times Juneau Bureau
JUNEAU -- In-state construction on the Alaska Highway natural gas pipeline still is scheduled to begin in the summer of 1982 with completion targeted for the winter of 1985-1986, a federal pipeline official said Friday.
Mo Mathews, deputy federal inspector for the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System, told the Senate Resources Committee that the key to the fate of the pipeline is "on Wall Street, where the financing plan is." He said he didn't know how the plan was faring.
"You know as well as I do the difficulties of financing a multibillion dollar project in a year of 12-20 percent inflation," he told the panel.
Construction of the Alaska segment of the line, being handled by the Northwest Alaska Pipeline Co., has been estimated at $7.9 billion.
10 years ago this week
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Feb. 18, 1991
UPS agreement comes at right time for airport
By Ray Tyson
For the Journal of Commerce
With international passenger flights in Anchorage down by 20 percent, a new interim agreement allowing United Parcel Service and two Japanese carriers to begin all-cargo operations between the United States and Japan couldn't have come at a better time.
The agreement, effective Feb. 13 to March 2, is boosting weekly refueling stops at Anchorage International Airport by 20 a week and potentially 28 if disagreements between the two countries can be resolved.
"This is the biggest new injection of business we've had in a long time. It's absolutely needed right now," said Anders Westman, marketing director for the Alaska International Airport System.
Under a landmark trade agreement, UPS in October was selected for an all-cargo route into Tokyo's Narita Airport, while Japan Air Lines and Nippon Air Cargo were given landing rights in Chicago.
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Feb. 18, 1991
1991 looks good -- probably
Alaska Journal of Commerce
With millions of dollars in projects planned or under way, employment prospects for Western Alaska appear to be shaping up fairly nicely for 1991. The deciding factors, though, will be the fishing season and summer tourism.
"Last year was good and there is no reason to believe this year will be any different," said Neal Fried, labor economist with the Alaska Department of Labor. "But we never know what the price of fish will be like, or what the volume will be."
One of the largest ongoing projects for Western Alaska is the Red Dog Mine, a partnership of Cominco Alaska Inc. and NANA Regional Corp., which employs more than 300 people, 60 percent of them NANA shareholders, according to Willie Hensley, president of NANA Development Corp.
-- Compiled by Ed Bennett.
