It's time to fix ACES

By Paul Laird
Alaska Standard Contributor

Perhaps you remember “Network,” the 1976 Academy Award-winning film … Peter Finch, in the role of an irate TV anchorman, leading a chorus of tens of millions of Americans simultaneously shouting, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

If you aren’t mad as hell about what’s been done in Juneau to Alaska’s oil and gas industry the past few years – or at least as concerned as hell – you simply haven’t been paying close enough attention.

One of the main culprits has been “Alaska’s Clear & Equitable Share (ACES),” the oil and gas production tax law enacted in late 2007 and imposed retroactively.

It is neither clear nor equitable, and state government’s “share” has come at the expense of private sector growth – jobs and business opportunities for Alaskans. Read more