ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – President Donald Trump on Monday invoked the Defense Production Act to support expansion of the nation’s natural gas and liquefied natural gas capacity, declaring that pipeline, processing, storage and export infrastructure are essential to national defense.
In a presidential determination released by the White House, Trump said ensuring sufficient natural gas and LNG capacity is critical to sustaining U.S. defense operations and allied energy security. The memorandum says inadequate pipelines, processing, storage, or export capacity would leave the United States and its partners “dangerously exposed in times of crisis.”
The order applies to a broad swath of infrastructure, including gathering and transmission pipelines, compression, processing plants, underground storage, LNG liquefaction, storage and marine loading, export facilities and other critical distribution systems. Trump said those capabilities are industrial resources, materials or critical technology items “essential to the national defense.”
Trump also determined that, without presidential action, private industry could not reasonably be expected to provide that capacity quickly enough because of financing constraints, long-lead equipment and construction schedules, permitting delays and infrastructure bottlenecks. He authorized the Energy secretary to implement the determination, including through purchases, commitments and financial instruments, and waived statutory requirements under Section 303 of the Defense Production Act to expand that capability.
The memorandum arrives as Alaska lawmakers are devoting the final stretch of the legislative session to a closely watched proposal tied to the long-discussed Alaska LNG project. With lawmakers racing toward the May 20 end of session, they were spending weeks scrutinizing legislation that supporters, including Gov. Mike Dunleavy, say could help clear the way for the gas line.
According to that report, the bills — HB 381 and SB 280 — would exempt the proposed gas line from property taxes for up to 10 years or until it produces 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day. The legislation would later replace certain state and local taxes on the line with an alternative volumetric tax that begins at 6 cents and increases 1% annually.
The Department of Revenue projected the state would receive $8.4 billion in taxes from the pipeline by 2042 under current law, compared with $829 million under the governor’s proposal. Local governments, the report said, would receive about $5.7 billion under current law, versus $728 million under the bill.
The same report said Glenfarne, which owns 75% of the project, backs the governor’s bill and argues property taxes would slow momentum to build the line. But the company has repeatedly declined lawmakers’ requests to publicly share detailed financial data, citing confidentiality concerns, according to the report.
A final investment decision on the project has not yet been reached, despite what lawmakers described as a series of missed self-imposed deadlines.
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