Category: Alaska News

More than a half-century ago, Alaska Native leaders stood at a crossroads as they sought to reconcile two powerful forces – embracing Indigenous self-determination in a rapidly modernizing world and protecting our traditional way of life. 

Our early leaders had to bridge our perpetual connection to the lands and waters that sustained our people for centuries with the realities of a cash economy, recognizing that responsible resource and business development was the only way to safeguard our self-determination for future generations.

This dual need led to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, which vested ownership of the ancestral lands we retained through the settlement in 12 regional and over 200 village corporations, known as ANCs. However, ANCSA was never simply about settling land claims — it was a promise that we as Alaska Native people could protect our way of life while also building new institutions, some of which would include responsible resource development, to propel us into the world of modern capitalism.

More than 50 years later, ANCs have embraced self-determination through economic development for the benefit of their shareholders, Alaska and the entire nation. Today, honoring ANCSA’s vision means both recognizing the potential of our lands — specifically through projects like Donlin Gold — as well as embracing ANCs’ capabilities as experienced federal contractors.

Yet, despite decades of ANCs operating successfully at the top of their fields — while balancing being pillars of Alaska’s economy and stewards of our ancestral homelands — both of these avenues are now facing intense scrutiny. 

For Alaska Native communities, the successful development of Donlin Gold into one of the world’s largest open-pit gold mines represents a historic milestone, injecting hundreds of millions of dollars into village corporations across the state to fund dividends, scholarships and essential services. 

The Yukon-Kuskokwim region, specifically, will benefit from thousands of long-term, high-paying jobs and the infrastructure necessary to finally lower the staggering cost of energy and freight for local families.

Ultimately, this project has the potential to trigger significant revenue sharing, serving as a modern testament to an economic model that has channeled over $2 billion to Alaska Native communities since its inception.

Rightfully so, many have pointed out that potential is not enough, and proper stewardship of the land is equally important as the glitter of gold.

To earn trust, developers must prove that the economic security that Donlin Gold provides will not come at the expense of our environment. The salmon must still run, the water must remain pure and future generations must inherit land that remains worth stewarding.

Achieving this balance requires exhaustive environmental review and continuous integration of Indigenous knowledge. The record shows that the project’s landowners — the Alaska Native people themselves — are meeting that bar. Decades of studies and oversight show they have not taken this responsibility lightly. If Donlin Gold moves forward, it will do so under the watchful eye of those who carry generations of knowledge about these waters.

On the federal level, we must also defend the tools that allow ANCs to compete in the federal marketplace. We need to remain vigilant against efforts to dismantle the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development program, a cornerstone of Alaska Native economic self-determination that is currently facing misguided attacks by policymakers in Washington.

In 1992, Congress amended ANCSA to include ANCs in the 8(a) Small Business Act to advance Alaska Native self-determination. Far from being a mere “preference,” 8(a) is an essential efficiency tool that serves as an economic development tool for Alaska Native communities, while at the same time enabling the federal government to rapidly deploy mission-critical expertise at reduced cost to U.S. taxpayers.

To dismantle or disrupt this program is to intentionally create vulnerabilities in national security, public health, and the economic stability of families from Alaska to the Lower 48. It also threatens the more than 51,000 jobs that ANCs and ANC contractors create in all 50 states, including 23,740 jobs in Alaska, according to our research with the McKinley Group.

The success of this model proves that communal growth and corporate responsibility can go hand-in-hand — just as we have proven with stewardship and responsible resource development. By maintaining these protections, we ensure that the promise of ANCSA’s settlement remains a living reality for the next generation of Alaska Native leaders.

Emil Notti, one of the architects of the settlement, once observed that one of ANCSA’s key goals was “to get Native people involved in the economic system so that as Alaska grew, they wouldn’t be left out.”

That vision speaks to the foresight of those leaders, sustaining our traditions while opening doors to opportunity. Now, we must not allow anyone — whether in Alaska or Washington, D.C. — to close those doors by threatening our access to self-determination.

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President Donald Trump, traveling aboard Air Force One on a trip to China, made a brief refueling stop at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Tuesday evening. 

Another stop, expected to last no more than three and a half hours, is planned for Friday morning starting at 5 a.m.

According to reporters traveling with the president, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang boarded Air Force One in Anchorage after Trump’s flight landed at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday evening. 

Also traveling with Trump were Elon Musk and conservative commentator Sean Hannity.

The flight departed at 6:48 p.m. without the president disembarking, as he has on some prior stopovers.

Neither Gov. Mike Dunleavy nor members of his administration met the president on this stop.

The flight landed in China about 3:50 a.m. Alaska time.  

Trump is expected to talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the Iran war, trade and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

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The Maritime Glory tanker arrived empty last week in Valdez, the mountain-flanked port town where the trans-Alaska pipeline comes to an end.

A day later, it departed, laden down with a cargo of some 700,000 barrels of Alaska North Slope crude worth, at last week’s prices, some $85 million — making it the second oil tanker to depart Valdez for Asia in less than a month.

The two cargoes represent only a tiny fraction of the crude produced by Alaska’s oil industry — about three days’ worth. And Valdez has sent far more Alaska oil to Asia in past years, including during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

But the two recent shipments do amount to a noticeable uptick that could be linked to the market disruptions caused by the war in Iran. Just two tankers brought Alaska oil to Asia in all of 2025, according to data provided by S&P Global Energy, a commodities information service.

The shipments come in the context not only of war, but also a market for Alaska crude that may be shifting more broadly amid refinery closures in California, where much of the oil shipped from Valdez is sent. Those shifts could have ramifications for the industry beyond any potential re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz, experts say.

But for now, refineries in Asia — which have traditionally depended on oil sources now locked up inside the Strait of Hormuz — need to find replacements for that crude, said Aaron Brady, S&P’s executive director for oil markets.

“It wouldn’t be surprising if the most recent (Alaska) shipments are the leading edge of a pickup in cargoes to Asia over the next few months, since Asian refiners have historically been so dependent on Middle Eastern crude,” Brady wrote in an email.

Oil companies are notoriously secretive about where and to whom they sell their crude.

But an array of public and private sources — which leverage data from ships and satellites — make it possible for analysts like Brady, as well as hobbyists, to keep tabs on where the oil is flowing.

Apps like MarineTraffic have become hugely popular as the Strait of Hormuz closure has wreaked global economic havoc, with users following the movements of individual ships as signals of the war’s direction. Comedian Steven Colbert calls Marine Traffic “the best app of all time.”

Ship tracking data show that in mid-April, the Washington was the first tanker to leave Valdez for Asia since the start of the war, with the 760,000-barrel vessel delivering a cargo of crude to the South Korea port of Daesan.

Historically, the Washington was owned by a subsidiary of North Slope oil producer ExxonMobil, before the tanker was sold to another company and chartered back to the ExxonMobil subsidiary in 2018. It’s now managed by a third company, Florida-based Fairwater, a representative of which declined to comment when reached by phone last week.

The Maritime Glory, meanwhile, is now headed to a port in Indonesia, according to navigation data it transmitted that’s available on ship-tracking apps.

That tanker’s registered owner is a company based in the Pacific Ocean nation of the Marshall Islands with the unrevealing name of GMF SNK No.10 S.A. (The “SNK” may be a reference to the vessel’s operator, a South Korean business called Sinokor Petrochemical.)

The tanker’s oil spill prevention permitting is also being handled by the same company, Fairwater, that manages the permitting for the Washington, the vessel historically used to move ExxonMobil’s Alaska oil, according to public documents.

An ExxonMobil spokesperson declined to comment when asked about the Maritime Glory’s movements.

A market in flux

Other tankers that carry Alaska crude have, since the start of the war, stuck to their usual refinery destinations along the U.S. West Coast — Los Angeles, Washington state, the San Francisco Bay Area.

Those tankers include a fleet of five vessels owned by a ConocoPhillips subsidiary, while another fleet of four vessels works primarily as chartered tankers for another large Alaska oil producer, Hilcorp.

While Asian refineries could be increasingly looking to replace lost Middle East oil with Alaska crude — and have already turned to supplies from the Gulf Coast and Canada — Alaska producers may also be seeing higher demand from those U.S. West Coast refineries, according to Brady, with S&P.

That’s because California refiners, Brady said, also imported “a decent amount of Middle Eastern crude.”

“So, they will also be competing to keep these (Alaska) cargos in the domestic market,” Brady added.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that West Coast states have also been importing refined fuels since mid-March from the U.S. Gulf Coast, through the Panama Canal. Alaska, which doesn’t have enough refinery capacity to produce all the fuel it uses, has even received some of the Gulf Coast shipments, too, the Journal said.

The rising Asian and West Coast demand for Alaska crude has been reflected, just like other types of oil, in the skyrocketing price since the start of the war: Last week, it reached $123 a barrel — twice as high as the price it commanded in January.

But the longer-term future for demand is less certain, according to Brad Keithley, a retired Alaska oil and gas attorney who now closely follows Valdez crude shipments and developments at West Coast refineries.

Two of the nine gasoline-producing refineries in California — a state that receives as much as half of Alaska’s oil shipments, according to public data — have closed in the past few months. Keithley said that has potential effects on the market for Alaska crude.

The question of what those effects could be is even more relevant, he added, given that Alaska’s crude production is expected to increase substantially over the next decade, as two enormous new oil fields, Pikka and Willow, enter production.

“The market seems to be in flux, and Alaska crude appears to be benefitting in the short term,” Keithley said. “If Hormuz reopens, the West Coast refineries continue to close and Alaska crude volumes increase, I can easily see a situation where the price starts reflecting a discount as it needs to increase flows to Asian markets.”

Nathaniel Herz welcomes tips at natherz@gmail.com or (907) 793-0312. This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Herz. Subscribe at this link.

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PALMER — A proposal to pay some Mat-Su teachers and school staff to carry handguns on campus could cost about $700,000 to roll out, even as the school district grapples with a major budget deficit heading into next year.

The proposed program is meant to boost school security by allowing certain trained staff to keep a handgun concealed on their body during the school day.

Costs for the program include about $133,000 in startup fees for a consultant, training development, and signage, according to Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District documents.

Running the program could cost about $562,000 annually for insurance, administration, and overhead for an estimated 150 participants, the documents state. Per-person costs are estimated at about $1,890, including a $500 training stipend and drug, health and psychological screening expenses.

Mat-Su School Board member Andrew Shane, who helped workshop and craft the weapons proposal over several months, said he plans to propose an amendment early next month that gives the board a path to approving the policy this year but allows the district to use it only if an outside entity covers the costs.

“We would submit the policy with an expectation that we cannot fund it all ourselves, but we want to make this policy available,” he said in an interview at a regular school board meeting this month.

He said he expects the program to cost less than its estimate because fewer than 150 staff members covered by the plan will take part as it gets started and because the district may be able to forgo a proposed dedicated program manager.

School board member Tom Bergey said he supports the policy but is concerned the price estimates are well below what is actually needed because of insurance increases and training costs.

“I think it’s going to cost a whole lot more than that by the time everything settles down and reality sets in,” he said.

The district is facing a $28 million funding deficit ahead of the 2026-27 school year, officials said during a budget presentation at the meeting, and plans to permanently close three schools next week as part of a sweeping set of cost-saving measures.

That shortfall estimate increased from $23 million late last month when the district received new information regarding upcoming staff health care costs, they said.

Shane and members of a joint Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly and school board committee discussed whether such funding could come through a taxpayer-funded grant from the borough, Assembly members Maxwell Sumner and Dmitri Fonov said.

But while both Fonov and Sumner said they support the policy itself, they also said they do not want to raise taxes to fund it.

“I’m not committed to anything right now, but I was always open to work with them if they get the program started,” Sumner said in an interview.

Participating in the program would be voluntary, and included staff would be paid about a $500 stipend to help cover training costs, district officials said during the meeting. Applicants would provide their own weapon and would go through a set of equipment and safety screenings, including a psychological exam, they said.

If the measure is approved, it would be the first of its kind in Alaska.

The policy will pair with a district program pays the Wasilla and Palmer police departments to place armed school resource officers at most middle and high schools across the region. That effort costs the district about $800,000 annually, according to contract documents.

School board members said they expect several more rounds of revisions before a final vote on the proposal later this year.

Among those discussion points will be how the district should manage and regulate the program, administrators said. The proposed board policy will establish a legal framework, while operational details would be outlined separately, they said.

“It really provides the legal framework and the governing principles for the program,” Deputy Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District Superintendent Katie Gardner said during the meeting. “It does not provide the answer to every question, and it does not provide every detail that the administration would develop in making sure that the program is able to be implemented.”

The proposal generated significant public concern ahead of the meeting, but fewer than five members of the public attended to speak for or against it.

Justin LaCoss, who represents district teachers in the Mat-Su Education Association union, said a poll of members showed most oppose the proposal. He was also part of an approximately 20-member task force late last year that helped provide feedback on the policy while it was under development.

“About 79% of our members oppose this board policy as it’s written,” he said. “They want us to emphasize the safety of our schools — they know that’s the first charge of our district, to educate these kids in a safe environment, and they’ve been trained to do that. But being a concealed weapon carrier is not what they’ve been trained to do.”

He said the question went out to teachers at every school in the district but did not have details on how many members voted in the poll.

Kevin Guinn, a retired U.S. marshal who led firearms trainings, told the board he supports the program as long as the district has firm guidelines and training requirements.

“You need stable, thoughtful, experienced people if you can get them,” he said during public comment. “The simple mission in an active shooter, active threat is stop the killing. It’s that simple. Is this person willing to run past wounded individuals screaming for help to address the threat so that more don’t end up like that?”

The measure was inspired by a bill crafted by former Sen. Shelley Hughes, a Palmer Republican. Hughes resigned in November to run for governor. The school board has included support for such a measure in its annual state legislative priorities list for the past three years.

Research on whether armed school staff deter violence remains limited, according to a review released this year by the nonpartisan RAND Corporation. About 30 states, including Alaska, allow some form of armed staff on school campuses.

Correction: This story was updated May 13 to clarify that Justin LaCoss represents district teachers in the Mat Su Education Association union.

This story was originally published by the Mat-Su Sentinel. Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com.

The University of Alaska Southeast and Goldbelt Heritage Foundation signed a memorandum of agreement to develop coursework on Indigenous health and healing.

The agreement, completed Sunday, outlines a plan to deliver culturally grounded, for-credit learning opportunities at UAS that reflect Indigenous knowledge, values and approaches to wellness.

Elders, cultural specialists and Indigenous faculty will guide curriculum development and instruction, according to a press release.

They will work with faculty from the behavioral health program to create place-based courses that can grow into additional academic pathways, including an occupational endorsement or certificate.

“This is a critical opportunity to center Indigenous Science Concepts in health and wellness, honoring relationality, place, and cultural responsibility,” said Wendy K’ah Skáahluwaa Todd, a UAS term assistant professor of geoscience and member of the team building the pathway.

“Moving beyond the limits of Western medicine, it offers a meaningful path toward the development of truly culturally appropriate care grounded in Indigenous values, knowledges, and lived realities,” she said.

Courses will be offered through the Integrative Behavioral Health program and will be open to any student who wants to learn more about traditional knowledge systems, including dual-enrolled high school students.

The agreement aims to foster career opportunities for Alaska Native youth and provide additional training resources for all community members, grounded in traditional knowledge systems and Indigenous sciences.

“Goldbelt Heritage Foundation is committed to creating pathways for Alaska Native youth to enter healthcare professions while remaining grounded in Indigenous knowledge, language, and values,” said Neilg̱áa Koogéi Taija Revels, executive director of Goldbelt Heritage Foundation.

Revels said Goldbelt Heritage Foundation is excited to partner with the university to “expand behavioral health education and explore the development of future credential programs that can help meet critical community needs while supporting students in culturally grounded career pathways.”

UAS will offer new courses next spring, including “Haa Ḵusteeyí Yéi Ḵugax̱tusaneix̱, Our Way of Life will Heal People,” which “will explore Indigenous understandings of health and wellness as rooted in relationships with land, community, ancestors and spirit.”

A second course, “Dámaan agán hl ḵíng, Take Good Care of Yourselves,” will examine Indigenous health and well-being through the lens of subsistence practices, language, storytelling, plant knowledge and cultural arts.

Sarah Niecko, assistant professor of behavioral health and faculty lead for carrying out the agreement, said the “learning pathway” can broaden and deepen understanding of health.

“By lifting up Indigenous voices, traditions, sciences and ways of knowing, we hope to prepare healthcare providers, behavioral health professionals, educators and community leaders to serve Indigenous communities respectfully and effectively,” Niecko said. “It also enables students who are Alaska Native to learn more about their own knowledge system and how their culture is protective and heals.”

This story was originally published by the Juneau Independent.

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When Anchorage officials and outdoor recreation advocates gathered Saturday to ceremoniously mark the start of construction for a 1.3-mile section of trail near the city’s industrial port, they said they were taking a small step toward a big vision.

The connector will close a gap in the city’s existing network of paved bike trails and, supporters hope, eventually be part of what they call the “Alaska Long Trail,” an interlaced network spanning 500 miles from Fairbanks to Seward.

Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance characterized the Long Trail as a “dream trail connecting Seward to Fairbanks that will most definitely, most definitely, swing through downtown Anchorage.”

“Our parks and trails are the crown jewels of our community,” she said at the ceremony.

Supporters say trail expansions and improvements offer a big payoff to residents and to the economy, helping to diversify tourism activity that is otherwise highly dependent on the cruise ship industry.

The new trail connection is to include a plaza dedicated to Dena’ina heritage tied to Ship Creek, which in that Indigenous language is called Dgheyaytnu, meaning Stickleback Creek.

Farther south along the 500-mile corridor, another incremental step toward the Alaska Long Trail goal was completed last fall.

A new trail stretch at Moose Pass, a Kenai Peninsula community of about 225, offers a potentially unbroken hiking route down to Seward, about 30 miles to the south.

The work, funded by the U.S. Forest Service, includes six miles of new trail along what is the historic Iditarod Trail route that was used in Gold Rush and territorial days for travel between Seward and Nome.

The work also includes four miles of improved trail and two new bridges, said Jane Boer, the Alaska Long Trail officer at the nonprofit organization Alaska Trails.

Boer described the work in a progress report on the Alaska Long Trail that she delivered last Friday at the annual Statewide Trails conference held in Anchorage and hosted by Alaska Trails.

“I think it’s really exciting that there’s a new trail down there, new adventures to be had,” she said.

Economic aspects of trails

To supporters, the trails that wind through Anchorage and other communities enhance quality of life and, in the longer run, the economy.

State Rep. Zach Fields, D-Anchorage, who rode to the Saturday groundbreaking ceremony with his daughter Zara on an e-bike, is among the supporters.

“Trails are Anchorage’s competitive advantage,” Fields said at the event. “I think we all appreciate that they’re amazing for our quality of life because they’re the single most important thing we can do to become more competitive in a global economy.”

Trails also support an aspect of the tourism industry that is independent of cruise ship companies.

“It’s independent travelers who spend more money and stay longer,” said Haley Johnston, executive director of Alaska Trails.

The Alaska tourism industry’s dependence on cruise ships is evident in visitor statistics from the state’s national parks.

It took until last year for visitation to Alaska’s eight national parks to recover from big losses inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which in turn depressed cruise travel, according to a new report in Alaska Economic Trends, the monthly magazine of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

In 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic – and a year when summer cruise travel virtually stopped – visitor numbers at Alaska’s eight national parks nose-dived by 86% in 2020. That compared to a 28% average drop across the country for national park visitation, according to the analysis.

The contrast was striking, said Karinne Wiebold, the state economist who wrote the article.

In the Lower 48, where national parks are within driving distance for most visitors, those lands became something like havens for people who wanted to recreate safely.

“For people it became a really enjoyable way to travel and be outside,” Wiebold said. But that social distancing did not work for people trying to travel to Alaska. “But when you come to Alaska, you’re not in a bubble.”

Much of the statewide trend has been driven by visitation at Glacier Bay National Park, which is visited almost entirely by cruise ship, and Denali National Park, which is a major destination for cruise passengers who add train or bus trips to their itineraries.

While visitation has returned to pre-pandemic levels, National Park Service employment is now well below that, despite a rebound that started in 2021, according to the analysis.

Trump administration cuts brought National Park Service employment down to 784 in 2025 from 865 the year before. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, Alaska had 869 park service jobs. The jobs support operations in all of Alaska’s National Park Service units, which include national preserves, national monuments, historical parks and other protected areas as well as the eight national parks.

The administration is proposing more cuts to both funding and employment. The budget it has proposed for the coming fiscal year would cut National Park Service employment in 2027 by more than 30% from 2025 levels.

Mixed prospects for future trail funding

The most recent trail connections and improvements have been paid for by a combination of federal, state, local and private funds.

The Moose Pass-area projects, which are in the Chugach National Forest, were the beneficiary of about $12 million in federal appropriations secured over three fiscal years by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, according to Alaska Trails.

The Ship Creek project, tentatively estimated to cost $19 million, is being paid for by a variety of sources, including federal transportation funds, state funds and local park bonds approved in recent years by Anchorage voters.

Over three budget cycles, the state has put over $6.7 million into Alaska Long Trail projects, according to Alaska Trails.

The concept of a “world-class trail” on par with the Appalachian and Pacific Crest trails continues to have lawmakers’ support, said Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage.

“I can’t emphasize enough how excited we are about the Long Trail,” Wielechowski said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “Every year in the legislature we’ve been trying to put a little bit more, a little bit more, towards it to build that out.”

There are no projects specific to the Alaska Long Trail in the 2027 fiscal year capital budget currently pending in the legislature, though there are several individual trail-related items.

The pending operating budget does propose an increase in funding for the state Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation, which could benefit trail users. The budget passed by the legislature last year appropriated $23.9 million; after Dunleavy’s vetoes, the amount was whittled to $21.8 million. The new operating budget that lawmakers are now crafting for the coming fiscal year puts funding for the division at $27.7 million.

Along with the Forest Service, there are numerous sources of federal funds for Alaska trail projects, such as those available from the Department of the Interior under the Great American Outdoors Act. However, budget cuts may have closed off one of those federal opportunities.

Among the Trump administration cuts to the National Park Service was the elimination of the two positions administering the service’s Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program in Alaska.

The program assists locally led conservation and outdoor recreation projects, including trail construction and maintenance. In the past, the program supported projects around the state, from Prince of Wales Island in the southernmost part of Southeast to Nome on the Bering Sea coast.

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SEARHC plans to build an 8,000-square-foot medical services building to consolidate dental and behavioral health services into a single campus, anchored by the hospital.

“We’re calling it the Wrangell Campus,” Ryan Matej, the Sitka-based chief administrative officer for the health care provider, said in a phone interview on Friday, May 1.

SEARHC has been looking at how to consolidate its multiple service locations in town, he said.

The dental clinic currently operates out of a SEARHC-owned building at Front and McKinnon streets, about a mile from the hospital. Behavioral health services are housed in a SEARHC-owned building at Church and St. Michaels streets.

Matej said no decision has been made on the future use of the two buildings after they are vacated.

“It’s really in the infant beginning stages,” he said of the construction project next to the hospital. “We’ve broken some ground,” with no specific timeline for construction.

Contractors will work over the next several months on site prep, preparing for a foundation and roughing in utilities, he said, but no actual construction.

At about 8,000 square feet, the medical services building will be about one-fifth the size of the Wrangell Medical Center, which SEARHC opened in 2021 with a hospital and long-term care unit.

The next phase, Matej said, will be the design work.

The health care provider has not yet applied for a building permit.

The new building also will include space for one or two optometry bays, he said, providing a dedicated area for visiting optometrists who currently work out of the hospital building.

SEARHC last month dedicated a new $300 million hospital and medical center on its Sitka campus. Charles Clement, who has served as president the past 14 years, talked about plans for Wrangell in a newspaper interview after the opening. “We have multiple facilities all over town, and we have enough land there to bring it all into a medical campus.”

SEARHC is the largest employer in Wrangell, with about 170 full-time equivalent employees and direct contractors in 2025, according to a Rain Coast Data economic report for the borough last fall.

The report said the health care payroll in Wrangell in 2024, at $15.2 million, exceeded all other industries in town.

SEARHC is the largest health care provider in Southeast, with facilities in 15 communities and traveling services for 13 more towns across the region.

This story was originally published by the Wrangell Sentinel.

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The first month of the U.S. war against Iran caused crude oil prices to skyrocket around the world, and the price of Alaska’s oil has risen particularly far.

That rise is making tens of millions of dollars, maybe a few hundred million dollars if high prices persist, available for state services and the Permanent Fund dividend, even as it squeezes the finances of individual Alaskans.

In figures newly compiled by the Alaska Department of Revenue, the average price of a barrel of Alaska North Slope (ANS) crude was $111.17 in April.

That’s $8.70 higher than the average price of a barrel of Brent crude, a benchmark price for Europe’s North Sea oil. It was also $13.11 per barrel higher than the average price of West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for oil from America’s second-largest state.

“The differential is the largest monthly value since the year 2000 and may be the highest value in history,” said the Department of Revenue, referring to the gap between Brent and North Slope crude.

“The large premium is due to a tightness in the Pacific basin oil market, where ANS is traded,” the department said.

Alaska crude goes to refineries in Washington state and California, with a small volume delivered to a refinery in Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula.

In addition to Alaska oil, U.S. West Coast refineries obtain their crude from Canada, North Dakota and California oil fields, and a substantial volume from overseas suppliers.

“Uncertainty about shipping and delivery is incentivizing refiners to pay a premium for available crude that does not transit areas with substantial security risks. Crude grades from the Americas are the safest option. Brent primarily trades in the Atlantic basin, where the impacts from the Iran war are not quite as pronounced on a barrel-for-barrel basis.”

The premium now being paid for Alaska crude will have a significant impact on the state treasury if it continues for months.

Each $1 increase in the average price of a barrel of ANS crude for a full year is worth roughly $30 million to $50, depending on the price.

While more than half of the state’s general-purpose revenue now comes from the Alaska Permanent Fund’s investments, oil is still the No. 2 source of flexible spending money for the state, and prices — combined with production — cause the amount of available money to flex up and down each year.

Legislative budgeters write the state spending plan with an average crude price in mind for an entire fiscal year, from July 1 through June 30 of the following year.

In the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, the Department of Revenue expects prices to average $75.26 per barrel.

Thanks in part to the Alaska premium, the average through May 5 was $75.71. Every day that prices stay above that level, the more unexpected money the state will receive.

The state Senate already has a plan for that extra money.

The first $96 million would go to an “energy relief” payment that increases the amount of the 2026 Permanent Fund dividend by $150 per Alaskan. The next $111 million would be distributed to public schools, and anything above that would go into the state’s principal savings account, the Constitutional Budget Reserve.

While Alaska’s state treasury is receiving a boon from the high prices, legislators don’t expect it to last. In the fiscal year that starts July 1, they’re anticipating significantly lower average North Slope oil prices.

“The Senate operating budget, when combined with spending agreements for the capital budget, balances the budget on $73/barrel oil, with some money left over,” said Bethel Sen. Lyman Hoffman, co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, speaking about the Senate’s budget proposal on May 6.

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