JUNEAU -- The oil industry has launched a $100,000 ad campaign aimed at convincing the Legislature that Alaska needs to roll back its oil taxes.

The advertising offensive by the Alliance, a trade group for Alaska oil and mining contractors, comes with the Legislature divided over oil taxes in the second week of its 90-day session.

House Republicans have introduced a bill that could lower oil taxes by a billion dollars, and Gov. Sean Parnell wants tax rebates for companies that drill in Alaska. There's much less interest in the Senate in tax changes, though, and the result could be a stalemate. Alliance general manager Paul Laird said it's too soon to say.

"At the very least we'll raise the consciousness that a change needs be made and if doesn't get done this year we won't be back at ground zero next year," said Laird, a former official with BP Alaska.

The TV ads are running on commercial stations and public television's Gavel to Gavel, which broadcasts the legislative session and is constantly playing in Capitol offices. The ad has a foreboding sound of tolling bells and the words "Real Alaskans, Real Casualties of Alaska's Oil Tax Policies," followed by a series of black and white portraits. It ends with the statement that Alaska's oil tax is costing jobs and must be fixed.

Some legislators said it reminds them of the 2007 debate over raising oil taxes when the industry ran advertisements showing a shark taking a bite out of the pipeline in an unsuccessful effort to stop the push led by Sarah Palin to raise state taxes on company profits.

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, an Anchorage Democrat, said Monday the Legislature has to deal in facts and not industry ads. Undisputed figures show the companies make huge profits in Alaska, he said.

Alaska had some of the lowest oil taxes in the world until a few years ago, Wielechowski said, and the industry investment in the state still dropped over time with the companies taking their money abroad to countries such as Libya and Venezuela.

Wielechowski said it would be difficult, but not impossible, to get an oil tax change through the Senate. He said he and others won't support it unless there's proof it would bring more Alaskan jobs and production that wouldn't have happened otherwise. Sitka Republican Sen. Bert Stedman said he thinks its chances depend on exactly what the tax change looks like. He said his Senate Finance Committee will start today reviewing the oil tax and plan to continue for weeks.

House Speaker Mike Chenault said he doesn't see enough support for a big overhaul in the Senate, but many House members want to give it a fight.

The Nikiski Republican said representatives are looking at the economic indicators and talking about a need to push ahead now. He said they're worried about waiting so long that the industry is down to the point that "we're in the toilet."

Chenault said the Alaska Oil and Gas Association will soon be making a trip to the Capitol and legislators will be bombarded with their view.

The Alliance ad campaign is called "Faces of Aces," a play on the name of the state's oil tax system. It's called Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share, or ACES. The advertisements feature stories of a half-dozen people who say they lost their jobs recently or whose business has suffered.

One of them, Jimmy Methven, said in a phone interview he lost his job as a heavy equipment operator on the North Slope for Cruz Construction. Methven, who lives in the Mat-Su area, said he was told it was because of less oil industry activity. He said there could be more involved in that than just state taxes but that higher taxes make it tougher on the industry.

The Alliance "Faces of Aces" Web site says Alaska has the highest energy taxes of any state, with a total government take of 70 percent (which includes federal taxes, local taxes, royalties, etc.) The Alliance said capital spending by Alaska's major oil producers is declining and a disproportionate share is going to maintenance projects that don't generate new oil production.

Revenue Commissioner Pat Galvin responded last week that Alaska's system compares well to oil provinces of similar size in the world and rewards companies who invest in the state. Galvin said industry jobs and investment gone up since the tax increase passed in 2007 and the company taxpayer reports don't indicate a disproportionate share of it is for maintenance projects.