A new report from Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, says the state should try to protect ongoing natural gas projects as it scrutinizes and modifies its $500 million annual oil and gas tax credit program.
The report was released Tuesday after a series of meetings by a study group that included other senators and several industry representatives.
It says that as the state adjusts the credit program, it should "try to protect the projects already under exploration and development" that are nearing production.
It also says lawmakers should tweak the minimum production tax for the state's big oil companies to make sure that it stays above a baseline level, even though oil taxes were not the subject of the report. And it recommends that the state develop a "stronger path to repayment" for Alaskan contractors and vendors if a company receiving tax credits goes out of business.
The lone Democratic senator on the study group, Bill Wielechowski of Anchorage, said in a prepared statement that the report "missed the mark" in many ways.
He said the group had paid too little attention to tax credits on oil production and missed a "golden opportunity to propose significant and meaningful reforms" to that program.