Governor seeks more oversight of Alaska oil wells
Date: 14-Dec-01
Country: USA
Knowles said he wanted the state to hire more inspectors to review oil-field operations, to increase fire-safety inspection at the sites, to increase enforcement of regulations mandating electrical, occupational and health safety and to improve efforts to restore fish and wildlife habitat.
Better enforcement of the state's regulations is timely, the Democratic governor said, because new oil fields are being developed on the North Slope and in Cook Inlet and because the state is poised to start commercialisation of its vast North Slope natural gas reserves.
"We are on the verge of a new chapter of development, and a very positive one," Knowles said at a telephone news conference from Juneau. "We have to have a new level of safety in this area, environmental safety and worker safety."
Accomplishing the goals will cost $4.8 million, of which $1.1 million would be collected through existing fees imposed on the industry, Knowles said.
If funded, Knowles' initiative would mean a more than doubling of the now three-member inspector staff at the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, one of the state agencies that oversees oil operations, said Bob King, the governor's press secretary.
The initiative also envisions a new North Slope field office for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, with 13 staffers and nine contract workers, King said.
The state maintained such an office in the past, but budget cuts several years ago forced its closure.
King said the initiative would require no new laws, just an appropriation from the Republican-controlled state legislature.