In
, I spoke about the Arctic Citizens Advisory Council, a concept proposed by Sen. Mark Begich that's sparked debate. This
though it was not circulated publicly in Alaska until I provided a link to the bill at my
.
As part of his five "Arctic Climate Change Initiatives," Sen. Begich has proposed adding a new layer of regulatory complexity to the already demanding federal regulatory system. The draft bill would establish, "an Arctic Regional Citizens' Advisory Council (RCAC) to encourage citizen engagement and oversight of the effective and safe development of Arctic energy resources."
Sound reasonable? It's not.
Alaska has other advisory councils, created at different times for different purposes with different missions (See OPA 1990), as the Daily News noted in its Sunday editorial. Alaskan urban and rural citizens already have ample due process and voice in the leasing and permitting processes. Not creating yet another expensive bureaucracy does not mean that citizens' voices will not be heard. It would be ludicrous for anyone to think that rural or urban voices are not heard when, as we know, a $3 billion investment by Royal Dutch Shell to explore for oil and gas in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas has been all but snuffed by the courts after outcries of Alaskan and Outside legal voices.
This particular advisory council, as proposed, could delay Alaska prosperity, worsen the existing regulatory structure, and increase costs to consumers and taxpayers. Instead of creating another layer of complication, let's consider adopting legislation that expedites the permitting and legal processes, as Congress did in the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act of 2004. There, judicial review is reasonably limited and a federal coordinator is named to improve efficiency of the regulatory process.
Dave Harbour is a retired commissioner of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska and the publisher of Northern Gas Pipelines, a blog devoted to developments in the state's quest to land a natural-gas pipeline.