Gov. Bill Walker filed a motion to dismiss his citizen's lawsuit challenging his predecessor's settlement with ExxonMobil over development of a North Slope gas field, and he submitted legislation designed to ensure future settlements related to oil and gas are properly tailored.
Walker has alleged that Gov. Sean Parnell's 2012 settlement was "illegal" in part because it created a plan that eliminated public comment. State officials under Parnell had said the settlement was legal. The courts have not weighed in to settle the matter.
Walker, who beat Parnell last fall, was recently under pressure by Republicans in the House to drop the suit and file legislation to address his concerns. They said it sent the wrong message to have a governor suing the state and it threatened progress at the Point Thomson field.
Walker, an independent, said he acted on his own volition and had been seeking a resolution to the issue since before his first day in office on Dec. 1.
The motion to dismiss says with Walker now governor, he will continue to work to ensure that the field is developed to "maximize the benefit to all Alaskans."
The settlement essentially created a development plan that gave ExxonMobil various options -- and consequences -- after the company for decades had dragged its feet at the field. A first phase of development is expected to take place next year for the production of 10,000 barrels of condensate oil stripped from cycled natural gas.
The gas at Point Thomson, located next door to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska, is considered a foundation for the massive Alaska LNG project that would begin liquefying and exporting gas from the North Slope in about a decade -- that is, if the state and the energy companies involved in the project, including ExxonMobil, agree to pay the tens of billions of dollars it will take to build the pipeline and other facilities. That final investment decision may come in 2018.
Walker told the House Resources Committee earlier this week that he would seek to dismiss his lawsuit, now sitting before the Alaska Supreme Court.
The legislation requires the attorney general to determine that settlements related to oil and gas development are limited to issues needed to resolve the dispute, a statement from the governor's office said. Such agreements also could not settle unrelated matters or alter constitutional, statutory or regulatory procedures required by law.
"The state should never enter into a settlement that circumvents the public process," said Walker. "My goal with this legislation is to strengthen our statutes so future settlements related to oil and gas development on state land do not bypass our legal obligations to the people of Alaska."