President Trump to announce $54 billion investment in LNG pipeline, White House official says
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – President Donald Trump is set to announce a $54 billion investment in Alaska’s proposed LNG pipeline project on Wednesday, a White House official told Alaska News Source.
Watch the announcement live in the video player above.
“President Trump will announce significant investments in energy infrastructure that will deliver on his Day One promises to unleash America’s energy and unleash Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement.
The amount is enough to create the entire pipeline, according to figures announced in June by Glenfarne, the project’s main developer.
Officials said the investment represents only part of the $200 billion committed under the “U.S.-Korea Trade and Investment Initiative” announced in November.
The announcement is expected to be made in the Oval Office, according to the White House official. Dunleavy, Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich of Alaska will be among those participating in the announcement, along with several members of the Trump Cabinet.
Remains a rocky road
One critical issue focused on the Alaska state legislature remains unresolved: property taxes.
Glenfarne said the company needs property tax exemptions to make the project economical, an issue at the center of the entire legislative session and months of back-to-back special sessions called by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, R-Alaska. The majority lawmakers widely disputed that the company’s requested exemptions were too high and that they would not pay their fair share.
By the end of the second special session, about eight months into the legislative session, lawmakers were close to passing a plan. The bill included a desired property tax regime for the pipeline, but also provided for a contested corporate income tax for private oil and gas companies classified as S corporations.
Although the tax did not affect the pipeline, lawmakers from Dunleavy and the Republican Party called the S-Corp tax a “poison pill.” The Senate passed the bill 11-8, but the House failed by a single vote as House Majority Leader Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, defected from his caucus.
Even if this bill were passed, it would be doomed to disappear. The governor said in the middle of a debate on the House floor that he would veto the bill if it landed on his desk, and lawmakers didn’t have the votes for an override.
Alaska’s governor tried in another special session, but state lawmakers had had enough.
After eight years of tension between his administration and the Legislature, a record number of vetoes last session (including a veto created from a quid pro quo on the LNG issue: pass the property tax exemptions or lose the pension plan) and numerous special sessions preventing lawmakers from campaigning under state law, lawmakers said the governor had lost the goodwill for compromise — putting the issue back in the hands of the Legislature and the governor following.
“I feel like the circumstances only get more difficult from here and unless the governor and Hilcorp are willing to reconsider the package, I think there’s very little appetite to deal with this this year,” Rep. Calvin Schrage, NA-Anchorage and chairman of the final committee tasked with drafting a compromise plan, told Alaksa News Source in July. “It will have to be something to come back and sort out in January.”
Dunleavy said “politics” killed the tax breaks.
“The project faces a financial challenge,” Dunleavy said at a news conference in the final hours of the second special session. “Everyone admits it, but that’s not the obstacle.
“What gets in the way is politics. Pure politics, pure and simple.”
Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, said it’s the governor playing politics.
“The governor was willing to trade the pension bill for the pipeline, and we said no,” he said after the bill was dropped.
“It was politics. It was just politics and we just said no.”
This is a developing story. We will update with more information as it becomes available.
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