By SUZANNE DOWNING
Oct. 11, 2026 – Alaska has spent decades trying to bring its North Slope natural gas to market. Now that the project has the attention of the president of the United States and prospective investment from South Korea, Larry Persily, the perennial negative nellie of the Left, and the Anchorage Daily News have arrived with buckets of cold water.
Reading their latest opinion pieces, I see an effort to discredit the people advancing Alaska LNG so thoroughly that the project itself becomes collateral damage.
History is full of people like Persily who just say no to everything. But the world wasn’t built by people who say no.
Persily opens with accusing President Donald Trump of lying, and dismisses the Sept. 30 Oval Office announcement as a political publicity stunt for Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich.
The ADN editorial board supplies its own sneering vocabulary: “sugar daddy,” “campaign theater,” and a sarcastic “Welp.”
That is quite a crap-covered welcome mat for prospective gasline investors to wipe their shoes on.
There are legitimate questions about the announcement. South Korean officials disputed the full description of a firm $54 billion commitment and said participation depends on commercial viability and their country’s legal procedures.
Those questions should be answered. But an investment proposal with conditions is normal. Negotiations are not rendered worthless because they have not yet produced a financial closing. And calling everyone involved a liar does nothing to help Alaskans understand the difference.
Persily’s political background deserves attention, too. He’s an operator.
President Barack Obama nominated him to serve as federal coordinator for Alaska natural gas transportation projects. He got nothing done. He later served as a senior policy adviser to Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, where he also got nothing done, and it’s Peltola who seeks to defeat Sullivan.
Readers can weigh all of that when deciding how much political disinterest to assign to his commentary.
Persily knows the history of Alaska’s gasline efforts. He makes himself out to be an expert, but he is far, far from the current negotiations.
He can question the people working on the deal, but his experience is decades old, and stale.
His pessimism is already reaching the country Alaska hopes will participate.
In an Oct. 5 interview published by South Korea’s Kyunghyang Shinmun, Persily argued that Alaska LNG carries excessive risk and explained why he doubts it will be built. His criticism is therefore circulating among Korean readers, beyond the pages of an Anchorage newspaper.
That does not prove a coordinated effort to drive South Korea away. It does show how an influential Alaskan’s public dismissal of the project can travel directly into the prospective investor’s information environment.
My concern is straightforward: Persily’s commentary gives people reasons to walk away while treating those trying to secure investment as political con artists.
The ADN editorial board adds an especially peculiar argument about taxes.
It reasons that if South Korea is providing the financing, Glenfarne should no longer need the proposed property tax changes.
They confuse the availability of capital with the economics required to attract it.
An investor’s willingness to consider financing a project does not mean the investor will accept any operating costs Alaska chooses to impose. Taxes affect cash flow, debt repayment and returns. Those calculations remain relevant regardless of who supplies the money.
Indeed, South Korea’s insistence on commercial viability makes the tax structure more relevant, not less.
Alaskans should certainly scrutinize the proposed terms. We should understand the consequences for affected communities. But the existence of a prospective investor does not magically erase the conditions that could make an investment workable.
The newspaper cannot sensibly demand proof of commercial viability while treating changes intended to establish that viability as unnecessary merely because financing is being discussed.
Then there is the political accusation.
Persily and the editorial board emphasize that Sen. Sullivan and Congressman Begich could benefit from the announcement before an election.
Of course elected officials may benefit politically when they advance something their constituents want. Should Alaska’s leaders stop pursuing investment during an election year? Should they decline presidential attention because Mary Peltola might prefer that Sullivan receive no credit?
Alaska’s development calendar is being organized around protecting Democratic candidates from their opponents’ accomplishments.
Partisan hostility is overwhelming the judgment on display in these opinion pieces. The contempt for President Trump, Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Sullivan, and Begich oozes from the ADN. The consequence is a message that tells Alaskans and potentially investors that the entire effort deserves ridicule.
There is more happening around Alaska LNG than I can discuss publicly. I will not present confidential information as proof of any completed deal. But I also will not accept a newspaper columnist’s assumption that the public record contains every negotiation and every development.
We need sound economics, responsible tax policy, and enforceable commitments. We also need leaders willing to do the difficult work of securing them.
If Persily and the ADN want the gasline built, they can explain what terms would satisfy them and judge the work against those standards. But they don’t. They just throw spit wads from the peanut gallery.
For now, their ridicule reads to me like an effort to defeat the project and the Republicans advancing it.
Alaskans should refuse to let the peanut gallery decide that our future is already canceled. Larry should take his saddle shoes and hightail it back to Chicago.
Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan (circa 1969, pre-pipeline).
13 thoughts on “Suzanne Downing: Persily and the ADN pour ice-cold water on Alaska’s future”
Is Persily gay, or in Mary Peltola speak, a faggot? I may need an older mentor in that capacity when I assume the governorship. My kind of faggot.
Shoutout to the Christians who spent the week defending livestreaming a public execution then got up this morning and went to church.
……and prayed together that radical Democrats and their non-Christian, Trump-hating, anti-American, mentally-ill brothers and sisters permanently depart and move to friendlier countries like China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, and Somalia. We’ll pass the collection plate and pay for their one way airfare.
Damon, how do you know they were Christians? They probably just Americans. But islsmist countries also do public executions and public brutality of those people they judged to be an offender to Sharia law.
There is nothing un-Christian about desiring justice. Executions are not just punishment for heinous crime, they are also a deterrent for future malfeasance. I’m quite sure it is the democrat faction of atheists that prefer to set criminals loose to wreak havoc on the public at their convenience. You might look to your own house before attacking strawmen you create in ours. And by the way, you always welcome to join us in Church on Sunday. You might hear the truth.
Thanks!
Military justice is obviously something you can’t live within. Stay home and let the real disciplined folks take care of you.
Don’t watch the execution. It’s not for you.
Has Sily-Pers ever DONE anything that is not merely opening his negative pie-hole?
He writes loud to spread more of his ill but most people will puke and will forget they ever read his drivel.
Yes, he needs to go back to Chicago where he will get a reader or two. Alaska doesn’t want you!
puss- silly is one of those No! Nothing any where anytime anyhow when it comes to energy and business not owned. By him. Little leftist control freak likes to be able to make people suffer, while he can get off on it.
ADN endorses JKT. A pretty solid assumption, JKT and the Democrat controlled state legislature will have no more new oil and gas built during their 4-8 years. For Alaskan business owners Alaskans’ spending power will decrease. Some Anchorage business owners I’ve talked to they like business being better but they are just making enough to stay open and pay their bills.
Whether or not Boomers, GenX, millennials, and GenZ like oil and gas development it’s what pay the bills.
ADN is a little commie rag run by the wealthy capitalist Binkley family. Inherited wealth. The riches were waiting for them before they were even born.
I have been wanting to write this about Larry for a long time. He says he is a expert but like ANWAR, the leftists continue to put together “facts” that they pick and choose. When ANWAR has only enough oil for the US for one year. Yes, that’s true if ANWAR was the only oil the US used for an entire year, then maybe it would only last a year.
On Alaksa LNG, Larry keeps putting out the fact that it needs to have a 15% Return on investment. That might have been true for a private company like Exxon to build it but now we are talking about governments who need steady reliable gas. A govt doesn’t need a ROI, they need the gas on a steady basis that terrorist countries cannot disrupt. Their are some countries that are running a large trade deficit that Republicans may retaliate against in the future. Gas purchases would bring that deficit tremendously. There are multiple needs a govt has that might trump a ROI or even a break even strategy. Federal guarantees help with construction. Larry thinks he knows it all but like the article says, he is far removed and never put forth a idea that works. He was happy to take all the pay that went with doing nothing however.
There are so many strategic reasons to build this for both the US and other countries. The US could control the gas market globally with this kind of leverage. It needs to be built and the State of Alaska needs to help with the construction.
Concerning Pussilly, my Mom told me that if I can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. I’m done.
Remember Jack Nicholson’s line from the film “An Officer and a Gentleman”? The line that goes, “The truth? You can’t handle the truth.” When it comes to the gas line, there is no shortage of Alaska politicians who try to deceive Alaskans into believing the line is just around the corner. And the more often Alaskans hear it, the less they believe it. That explains the reluctance to grant Glenfarne’s request for tax incentives at the expense of Alaska’s local governments. Dig deeper, and it also reveals skepticism over whether Glenfarne (who dat?) can be entrusted with the project, given its lack of a track record. Is it a pipeline builder, a promoter, or, worse, a speculator? The cherry on top is Trump’s unforced error in the Oval Office: bringing Dan and Nick to break open the champagne with the promise of a $54 billion investment from South Korea. It might have taken a day or two for Alaska media to catch up with South Korea’s denial, but any proficient Googler knew that was the case within hours of the White House announcement, which, by the way, made Dan Sullivan look like a fool. Hope is not a strategy. And hope will not build the pipeline. The ADN editorial, which I read this morning from DC, is spot-on. Alaskans are not fools. They can handle the truth. So quit trying to put lipstick on this pig, plagiarizing Sarah. The more pipeline proponents try to delude Alaskans for short term political gain, the more likely thoughtful Alaskans will internalize that this project is in fact a pig. It’s day will come. Let’s join together with humility and candor to make it happen. Not blame the real news media for reporting the truth.