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

Sept. 16, 1981

Congressmen oppose state oil swap plan

Times Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Leaders on ocean and shipping issues in both the House and Senate have urged Interior Secretary James G. Watt to reject proposals to allow the export of Alaska oil.

In a letter to Watt, the representatives say the proposal would have "serious adverse consequences for the United States merchant marine and an undesirable impact on our national security, international relations and, possibly, the federal budget."

A bill pending in Congress would overturn the existing federal ban on exporting domestic oil.

The new law would allow for a three-nation oil swap that would cut the cost of transporting domestic oil to the eastern United States and benefit the Alaska state treasury.

Under the proposal, Alaska oil would go to Japan instead of through the Panama Canal. In exchange, the United States would import more oil from Mexico.

Anchorage Times

Sept. 17, 1981

Hovercraft fly across bay in six minutes

By Bill White

Times Writer

The modern magic carpet slides down a mud flat and flies across Knik Arm in six minutes flat.

At Point MacKenzie, all is silent. Across the water, the Anchorage skyline looks small against the Chugach Range.

As the carpet, in this case a hovercraft, skims across the water for the return trip to the Port of Anchorage, a rip tide chops across the arm, but is hardly noticeable.

Jack Barr said he is looking to the future with his newly opened Alaska Hovertravel, located at the end of Tidewater Road at the port.

In his vision, Hovercraft will serve as a transit link between Anchorage and bedroom communities across Knik Arm. The commuters will drive to a landing at Point MacKenzie, board his Hovercraft and be scooted over to a People Mover bus at the port, he said.

10 years ago this week

Alaska Journal of Commerce

Sept. 18, 1991

First Wishbone Hill coal may be mined in 1995

By the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Construction of a surface coal mine at Wishbone Hill, 45 miles northeast of Anchorage, may begin in early 1994, with the first coal produced by mid-1995, says a top official with Idemitsu Alaska Inc.

"We feel it is important for Idemitsu Alaska Inc. and important for the people of Alaska that Wishbone Hill be developed as expeditiously as possible," said Jiro Hayashi, president of Idemitsu Alaska, a subsidiary of Idemitsu Kosan Co. Ltd. of Japan.

Hayashi also said in a statement released Friday that his company is examining possible cost reductions on all project components, including mining, transportation and port handling costs.

The state Department of Natural Resources, Division of Mining, earlier this month issued a surface mining permit to Idemitsu, Alaska, clearing the way for Alaska's second producing coal mine.

Alaska Journal of Commerce

Sept. 16, 1991

The Orbital Express: Headed for Poker Flat?

By Margaret Bauman

Alaska Journal of Commerce

A four-stage solid-fuel rocket system called the Orbital Express may be launching microsatellites northeast of Fairbanks by 1993.

The Orbital Express was designed for MicroSat Launch Systems, of Herndon, Va., in conjunction with three major international aerospace corporations. It is the first of the micro-class of launch vehicles designed to provide rapid, low-cost and dedicated launches of microsatellites into low-Earth orbit, MicroSat officials said.

A $120,000 preliminary economic feasibility study on the new launch pad that would be needed for the launchings at the University of Alaska's Poker Flat Research Range is due in about mid-November, said Riley Snell of Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.

-- Compiled by Ed Bennett.