Suzanne Downing: Alaska, before you break up Alaska’s productive team, look at the gasline

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Sept. 30, 2026 – Alaska is standing at the threshold of the biggest economic opportunity of this generation. So before voters start rearranging the people who helped get us here, they ought to take a good look at the team.

President Donald Trump. Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Sen. Dan Sullivan. Congressman Nick Begich.

This is the team working together to move Alaska’s natural gas from a decades-old promise toward a project that could actually be built.

Trump plans to announce today a plan for approximately $54 billion in South Korean investment for Alaska LNG. Dunleavy, Sullivan, and Begich are expected at the White House for the 11:30 am announcement.

Fifty-four billion dollars. That is a serious financial foundation for a project Alaskans have been talking about for most of our lives.

The financing still must be finalized, and the developer still must make its investment decision. But anyone who understands the obstacles this project has faced knows what a potential investment of this magnitude means.

It means hope backed by something considerably more substantial than another consultant’s slide deck.

It also means that relationships are good between Alaska’s team and the Trump Administration. Teamwork makes the dream work, they say. Elections have consequences, they say. True that.

Gov. Dunleavy has kept the project at the center of his administration’s economic agenda, even when the Legislature made that work as difficult as possible.

Sen. Sullivan has spent years pushing Alaska LNG with administration officials and prospective Asian partners. He’s made many trips to Asia to help push the customer base along.

Congressman Nick Begich joined the team two years ago and quietly initiated some of the key conversations that moved this project along. Conversations that got the ball rolling.

Trump is using the pulpit of the presidency to bring investment to the table. South Korea would bring a major financial partnership. Glenfarne, primary owner of the project, has the job of turning the commercial and financial pieces into a buildable project.

This is the team that was able to attract Glenfarne, a private developer, to lead the project. The big boys walked away from the mess made when former Gov. Bill Walker tried to make the state the owner. Now, it’s new leaders of the LNG industry like Glenfarne who are making it happen, and put together all the pieces to make it happen.

So let’s give the people doing that work their due: It’s Donald, Mike, Dan, and Nick. And let’s include Glenfarne.

Notice, meanwhile, who is not named in Bloomberg’s reported Alaska lineup: Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

The political working relationships coming into view this week involve Trump, Dunleavy Sullivan, and Begich. No Lisa. She’s just trouble in any room these days. She works for Democrats to the extent that she works for anyone.

There is a practical advantage to having Alaska leaders who can work with this president. Our leaders do not have to love everything Trump does to recognize the advantages he brings for Alaska. They do have to decide whether producing results for Alaska is more important than maintaining a running argument with him. Lisa Murkowski picks a fight with the president at every turn.

Now imagine removing Sullivan and replacing him with Mary Peltola. Alaska would have Nick Begich in the House and Ragin’ Mary and TDS Lisa in the Senate.

Does anyone seriously believe that would strengthen the working relationship responsible for this opportunity?

I don’t.

Breaking: Trump poised to announce $54 billion Alaska LNG investment plan

My concern is the toxic political dynamic the Mary-Lisa pairing could produce: More Washington drama, more battles with Trump, and less of the cooperation Alaska needs to get an enormous project — the largest in North American history — across the finish line.

If Washington turns to another impeachment fight, would Alaska’s priorities get more attention or less? A Senate consumed by a trial would hardly improve the prospects for sustained attention to our gasline.

We are choosing a senator for six years. Peltola’s roughly two years in Congress gave voters an opportunity to judge her effectiveness. Alaskans saw little that would justify replacing Sullivan’s experience, persistence, and relationships. He’s a workhorse; she is a show horse.

Campaign promises about being “for Alaska” are easy. Putting together the relationships that can help finance a gasline is difficult.

Then consider the governor’s office.

What happens if Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins takes over in December? Would a Democrat governor sustain Dunleavy’s urgency, defend competitive project economics, and work constructively with Trump? Or would Alaska’s development agenda become another bargaining chip in the political fights that have already cost us years?

We have just watched what happened when gasline legislation entered a Legislature controlled by Democratic-led coalitions.

The original construction tax proposal had a straightforward purpose: Replace property taxes on qualifying project infrastructure with a tax tied to gas moving through the pipeline. Give investors a workable framework while they build, then collect revenue when the project is operating.

You cannot collect throughput taxes from a pipeline that never gets built. Nor can you make construction easier by treating a project with no operating revenue as a convenient source of spending money.

In May, the legislation stalled in the Senate Resources Committee chaired by Republican Cathy Giessel. During the special-session fight, the Senate added a new tax on oil and gas pass-through businesses to a bill intended to improve the gasline’s economics.

The House had passed a cleaner bill. The Senate complicated it. The resulting conference version failed in the House on a 19-19 vote in July.

Dunleavy kept calling lawmakers back and eventually offered a compromise accepting a lower, delayed S-corporation tax. He kept looking for a path forward. The Democrats refused to give Alaska a win under a Republican governor.

That is the record voters should remember when legislators try to claim credit for whatever happens next.

A major South Korean investment could give Alaska a much stronger chance of overcoming the financial obstacles. It does not automatically fix our state tax policy. Juneau still has work to do.

This all makes the November election more consequential. We need a governor who wants to build, legislators willing to make construction possible, and members of Congress who can work with the administration bringing investors to the table.

For once, Alaska has a chance to move beyond another round of gasline promises. Dan Sullivan, Nick Begich, and Mike Dunleavy deserve credit for staying at the task and working with President Trump.

Before voters break up that awesome team, they should consider what they would be putting in its place.

Six years is a long time to discover that you traded effectiveness for a “fishy freedom”  campaign slogan.

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