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200 Rally to Voice Oil Concerns: OWNER STATE: Speakers Want Oil Tax Changes to Wait Until Gas Line Deal is Revealed.

Posted on: Saturday, 6 May 2006, 15:00 CDT

By Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

May 6--Politicians and activists got rock star treatment Friday outside the state headquarters building downtown, as they delivered a populist, "us before the oil companies" message.

"Please, ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for Gov. Walter Hickel!" said master of ceremonies Bob Lester, the Bob half of the "Bob and Mark" radio team, who announces Alaska Aces games in his spare time.

"WALLY! WALLY! WALLY!"

Looking fit and maybe a little tan, the former governor talked about Alaska as an "owner state." In other words, its oil and gas belongs to Alaskans, he said, and the state's leaders ought to make deals that are better for residents than for industry.

It's not a new idea, but one that rally organizers hoped to turn into a movement as legislators in Juneau prepare to change the way Alaska taxes oil companies.

The stakes are high.

Gov. Frank Murkowski spent the past two years negotiating a multibillion-dollar pipeline deal with those companies and has told lawmakers that if they raise oil taxes too much the deal could fall apart.

Murkowski has said he'll unveil the pipeline deal Wednesday. A version of the revamped oil taxes has already passed the state Senate.

Speakers at Friday's rally urged legislators to hold off on reworking oil taxes until they know what exactly is in the pipeline contract.

Tom Irwin was Murkowski's natural resources commissioner until he wrote a memo critical of the gas line negotiations and was forced out of his job. He dialed into the conference call Friday as he traveled to visit his mother-in-law in Idaho.

"It's truly looking like a secret process. Maybe even an orchestrated and manipulated process," Irwin said, his voice sometimes drowned out by a metallic buzz.

A similar rally is planned for noon today in downtown Fairbanks, said All Alaska Alliance director Lori Backes, who organized the Anchorage event.

Backes' group favors a gas pipeline route that stays in Alaska rather than going through Canada. So did many of the speakers Friday.

That's different from the route Murkowski and the oil companies have focused on.

The governor's spokeswoman, Becky Hultberg, said Thursday that the rally would be more about political theater than good policy.

Earlier this week, Alaska Support Industry Alliance general manager Paul Laird sent an e-mail to his group's members, calling the rally a publicity stunt and urging members to send lawmakers a different pipeline message: No delays.

"Tell them we've waited long enough," Laird wrote.

The group's communications manager, Hillary McIntosh, said the Alliance disagrees with some of the rally organizers who want to freeze the pipeline effort until Murkowski is replaced.

"Alaskans should have the opportunity to decide for themselves whether the upcoming (gas line) fiscal contract is good or bad," she said.

That's what many people at the rally wanted too -- a look at the pipeline contract the governor negotiated in private.

"The door should be open when they do state business," said Donna Grant, who stood near the front of the crowd. She heard about the rally from a friend.

People squinted into the sun as they listened with arms folded or stood leaning on signs that said things like "Pass the petroleum: We're getting screwed" and "The deal's too Murky." A woman in pigtails held a pole with a placard that read: "What would J. Hammond do?"

The rally alternately resembled a revival, a civics lecture and a giant conference call.

Rep. Ethan Berkowitz, an Anchorage Democrat and candidate for governor, dialed in from Juneau to address the crowd. Berkowitz's fellow Democrat and opponent in the governor's race primary, Rep. Eric Croft, spoke in person.

Berkowitz said he stayed at the Capitol to work, calling it his first responsibility as House minority leader. Croft said putting public pressure on the Legislature to pass better oil reform was more important than waiting in Juneau.

As for some of the other candidates, Sarah Palin, a Mat-Su Republican attended and spoke. Fairbanks Republican John Binkley had held a press conference on the gas line the day before, and Anchorage Republican Andrew Halcro, who is running as an independent, did not attend.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

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Source: Anchorage Daily News

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