By DAVE NORTON
May 14, 2026 – I attended Wednesday’s Senate Resources Committee hearing on the tax structure bill for the Alaska LNG project and registered to speak. But the hearing was truncated before the announced 11 am conclusion and I was not afforded two minutes to speak. Here is my testimony as a private citizen:
I arrived in Alaska in 1974 to work as an engineer on TAPS construction, planning to stay for only a few years. Ultimately, I have stayed for over 50 years and raised a family and built a business on Alaska’s resources.
I have been a commissioner on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, appointed by Gov Knowles. I was engineering manager for the Alaska Gas Development Corporation’s ASAP project. I was manager of engineering for TAPS, and consultant on several pipeline and infrastructure operations, among other boards and projects.
Gasline legislation appears stuck in committee, but is there a deal being struck involving state pensions?
Wednesday’s hearing indicated to me that care is being taken by the committee to craft legislation that will afford Alaskans maximum return on the value of its gas resource when extracted. Thank you.
However, some of the late-session discussion appeared to me to be over distinctions without a difference. The concept that “the perfect is the enemy of the good” seems at play here.
The Legislature and the executive should conclude this debate as soon as possible. Glenfarne should have this clarity of the rent and taking of Alaska’s share so that it can make a “go or no-go” Final Investment Decision on the largest privately financed project since TAPS. Please do not delay.
Dave Norton is a professional engineer who lives in Anchorage and is a longtime Alaskan.
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7 thoughts on “Dave Norton: Legislature needs to stop delaying gasline legislation”
1974 Alaskans were Independent and less government dependent than today’s legislative years since 1995. Government was smaller and Alaskans were fiscal conservatives and had to have a tax because it was before the billions from an oil pipeline. Norton came here in another time who is of the generation who did raise up the next generation in GenXers, Millennials to be government dependent either by one’s passivity or teaching the misinformation of what is the government’s role.
Today’s Alaskans (literally) believe government produces money when it does not and Never has! Government dependent employees believe their taxpayer funded jobs are financially secure and safe like the money will always be there. Because of God’s blessings on America Babyboomers, GenXers, GenY millennials, GenZ adults, GenAlpha and GenBeta are the generations who never lived to experience Governments not having the money to pay for employees and services. There are more Americans who desire a job that’s funded by taxpayers because of they been brought up to think its secure and pays more than the Americans who are starting up a business or buying a business from a senior owner wanting to retire and he can’t find a buyer.
And it was really smart of Gov Hammond and Attorney General Avrum Gross to had created the Permanent Fund Corporation; they are an example of the fiscal conservative generation who were already here before Norton arrived. To use a modern example of their conservative approach to save billions from what was new money for a rainy day like Great Depression is any of us after a car lien is paid off; you pay yourself by putting the monthly you were forced to give to a lending institution and you’ll be surprised how much you invested or saved in one year by continuing to make monthly payments but into an savings account of your choice. Some drivers were paying 700 dollars a month to an auto monthly payment. Imagine them disciplining themselves without a bank and putting away 700 dollars a month in a type of savings account. This was the type of Alaskans of Gov Hammond and his attorney general. That’s why they could rest, reflect, and volunteer in their senior years because of their independence, a smaller government expense, and fiscal conservative lifestyle to know how not to overspend.
Tina, you are windier than a truck load of assholes. Could you try to tone it down to less than a whole chapter in a book? Please. Thank you. Thank you very much. And I mean no disrespect.
It’s pretty obvious, again, that the legislature is getting in the way because most of them haven’t received enough assurance of their pet projects and boondoggles.
Dave, it’s a good and proper pitch, but a) in Juneau, this falls on (willfully) deaf ears, b) but for the Ding-a-ling and his Kitten, you’re preaching to the choir here at TAS, c) you need a broader audience if you are to make an impact.
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Glad to hear you’re still around. It has been a while. Take care,
Dave, maybe you can help…
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Suspicion’s out there because whoever’s selling the project hasn’t answered what’s been asked several times about it.
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1. How much will Alaskans’ heating and electric bills increase following pipeline construction?
2. Will product be sold directly or indirectly to Communist China?
3. If supply or demand issues arise, are Asian buyers prioritized over Alaskan customers?
4. Are Communist Chinese entities involved in project financing, insurance, or construction?
5. Is a contingency plan in place if Democrat-controlled administrations revoke permits or local governments demand more taxes?
6. Recall Palin’s $500M giveaway to TransCanada, what prevents a similar giveaway or debt trap from happening?
7. What assures pipeline-control gear will be CISA vetted? (https://www.cisa.gov/)
8. When LNG development is actually over, will AGDC be disbanded?
9. What assures Alaskans and the Permanent Fund won’t be on the hook for up-front costs, contractor fraud, and losses if Glenfarne can’t get, or later loses, binding financial commitments from Asian companies and governments?
(https://ptop.substack.com/p/guide-to-uncovering-contractor-fraud?)
10. What makes Polar LNG -not- better positioned to move natural gas by leveraging existing Prudhoe Bay infrastructure, minimizing new onshore development, and delivering a more efficient and lower-impact path to market …at a quarter of the cost?
(https://polarlng.com/project/)
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On June 25, 2025, AGDC released an updated $38.7 billion cost estimate for the Alaska LNG Project.
(https://agdc.us/updated-38-7-billion-project-construction-cost/)
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Now Glenfarne wants $44 billion-plus.
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Then there’s this: “The latest evidence that no one knows what the gas will cost comes from an independent report by Rapidan Energy Group, which says the likely cost of the pipeline project is far higher than the $44 billion estimate still in circulation …Add in the cost of the so-called first phase—building a pipeline from the North Slope to Anchorage without compression and export facilities and the total project cost would exceed $70 billion.”
(https://www.dermotcole.com/reportingfromalaska/2025/6/24/glenfarnes-latest-deceptive-press-release-about-alaska-lng-project)
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Who’s on the hook when project cost runs up to, say, $90 billion, or reaches a point at which it doesn’t seem worth building because financial, geopolitical, legal, and physical risks outweigh benefits, making it unlikely to turn a profit during the lifetime of anyone alive today?
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Is Senator Giessel responding out of concern for what the Rapidan analysis shows, which the Dunleavy administration, AGDC, and Glenfarne analyses apparently don’t show?
(https://www.rapidanenergy.com/about)
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Doesn’t seem anti-development for Alaskans to want answers because: (a) they don’t trust government officials or the business community who bought the lobbyists who make up the biggest half of Alaska’s lobbyist-legislator team, and (b) they don’t want to be left holding the bag, again, when another epic screw up goes down.
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Maybe it’s all good. Or not. Bottom line is we don’t know, nobody’s saying, and in this climate of uncertainty and corruption, it seems only prudent to know more than we’re being told.
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Thank you, Dave, for your attention to this matter.
Dunleavy Gone! What a difference that will make!