Suzanne Downing: Legislative delay of gasline is now code for ‘deny’

By SUZANNE DOWNING

July 8, 2026 – The newest argument against Alaska’s gasline may be the most ridiculous yet:

“There won’t be enough qualified Alaska workers to fill all the construction jobs. We’ll have to import workers.”

Yeah, read that again. Apparently, creating more jobs than we can immediately fill has become a reason not to build the largest energy project in Alaska’s history.

Oh brother. Back in January it was “there will be prostitution.” That was Sen. Cathy Giessel’s complaint about the proposed project.

For decades we’ve listened to politicians lament the “brain drain.” Young Alaskans leave because they can’t find opportunity here. Contractors leave because there’s not enough work. Families leave because there’s no opportunity.

Now we finally have a project that could reverse some of that, and the complaint is … there may be too many jobs. That’s what we used to call prosperity.

Nobody suggests canceling a new hospital because there aren’t enough nurses on opening day. Only a fool argues against building a new mine because every local heavy equipment operator is already employed. Workers relocate. Apprentices are trained. Alaskans come home. The private sector does what it has always done when opportunity exists.

That’s how economies grow.

But none of that happens if the project never gets built. And that’s where we are today.

Senate Majority Leader Giessel and Rules Chairman Bill Wielechowski are now talking about waiting until January, or perhaps another special session, to deal with the gasline.

That sounds reasonable until you understand how projects like this actually work: Delay is denial. And it’s denial without these lawmakers having to take the responsibility for it.

This isn’t a high school term paper that can be turned in whenever the Legislature gets around to it. Multi-billion-dollar projects run on financing schedules, engineering timelines, commercial agreements, labor contracts, and construction seasons. Miss those windows, and you don’t simply pick up where you left off. You start over.

Or worse, you never restart at all.

Every delay raises costs, spooks investors, creates uncertainty and gives us all reason to wonder whether Alaska is capable of making decisions. Every delay pushes us closer to importing foreign liquefied natural gas while sitting on trillions of cubic feet of our own.

Think about that. Alaska, the state with enormous North Slope gas reserves, could soon be buying imported LNG because politicians in Juneau would not approve a project that would deliver Alaska gas to Alaskans.

If that isn’t government failure, what is?

The special session ends July 19, and so we’re down to the final stretch.

Yet lawmakers have been absent for more than a week. No conference committee. No visible urgency. No sense that they’re racing a clock that everyone in the energy business knows is real.

Meanwhile, Alaska families are already paying the price.

Matanuska Electric Association customers have just been told their energy costs are going way up.

Golden Valley Electric Association customers have been warned about extraordinarily large increases because cheaper electricity from Southcentral is disappearing as Cook Inlet production declines.

ENSTAR President John Sims testified that Alaska LNG is the only project with the potential to reduce long-term energy costs.

Not one of several. The only one.

So while legislative leaders debate whether to wait until January, utilities are preparing for higher costs today.

Polling shows roughly three out of four Alaskans support the gasline. They understand what’s at stake. They understand that affordable energy isn’t a luxury—it’s the foundation of Alaska’s economy.

The Legislature appears to not be listening to the people who elected them.

At some point, Alaskans should stop asking whether legislators support the gasline and start asking a simpler question:

If you support it, why are you delaying it?

Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan.