ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Edward Graham, grandson of famed evangelist Rev. Billy Graham, is set to speak at the Governor’s Prayer Breakfast in Anchorage on Saturday.

Graham is the Chief Operating Officer of the Christian organization Samaritan’s Purse, which provides disaster relief and other ministries in Alaska, the U.S., and around the world. Graham will be speaking at the breakfast on Saturday, on the theme “go and do likewise,” and leading prayer for Alaskan national, state and local leaders.

“I’ll be praying directly for the governor here, your senators, your congressmen and women, but also the local state leaders,” Graham said. “Good governance is so important. My prayer is that our men and women that serve this state are seeking godly wisdom and godly counsel.”

One of the ministries that Graham leads, “Operation Heal Our Patriots,” is based in Alaska, and Graham himself spent considerable time in the state growing up.

“I love it,” Graham said. “As a kid, I learned to fly up here. I mean, Alaska is about aviation. My father is a pilot. We have several planes that we keep here. We have an office at the airport in Soldotna where we keep and store aircraft that we use up here for ministry of various cargo planes and support aircraft float planes.”

Operation Heal Our Patriots operates out of a lodge near Denali National Park. Military and first responder couples from around the country spend time at the lodge while also receiving marriage counseling.

“That ministry has been going great,” Graham said. “It only continues to grow. We also started a first responder ministry. It started off with police, but this summer we’ll be doing firefighters as well from like the fires down in California, and we’ll bring them up to a place called Mystic Lake, Alaska.”

Graham, a U.S. Army Veteran and West Point Graduate himself, spends much of his time traveling as a part of the organization’s disaster relief.

“We have a massive volunteer army,” Graham said. ”Thousands of volunteers show up and work with Samaritan’s Purse — with our disaster relief and also Operation Christmas Child — which is a shoe box ministry where we go around the world sharing the gospel through gifts of toys.”

Graham said the organization can deploy a field hospital in 36 hours. Currently, Graham said they are standing by for permission to deploy a hospital in Myanmar after a devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake has left over 1,000 dead, with the death toll expected to rise.

“We want to meet their immediate needs,” Graham said. “But more importantly, we want to know that God loves them and has not forsaken them. It is very bad there, and I’m hearing horrible stories from the team on the ground.”

The quake that has affected several southeast Asian countries happened to fall on the 61st anniversary of the Good Friday Earthquake, a 9.2 magnitude earthquake in southcentral Alaska that killed 131 people in 1964.

“We know with disasters like this, and Alaska is no stranger to earthquakes, We know that’s (death toll) going to go up. We’ll stand ready once we get the approval, but we have to get approval to go in from the government to allow us to work there.”

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Alaska is facing a persistent budget deficit. The Anchorage Daily News recently reported that without additional revenue, the state could face a shortfall of over $650 million in the next two fiscal years. This isn’t a new problem; Alaska’s spending has exceeded its revenue almost every year since 2012. Alaska is also the only state that receives more funding from the federal government than it does from all of our internal revenue combined. Our legislators will have to choose between devastating cuts to education and other social services, imposing new taxes on Alaskans, repurposing PFD dividends, or fixing tax loopholes that benefit out-of-state billionaires.

The best choice is obvious. The Alaska Constitution instructs the Legislature to ensure that Alaskans get the “maximum benefit” from the development of our natural resources. Yet a special class of businesses — S corporations — has made billions from our public lands without paying state income taxes. The S corporation structure allows these companies to enjoy a single layer of tax through a personal income tax, like private businesses, while protecting themselves from liability, like a traditional corporation. In most states, S corporation owners pay a state personal income tax on their earnings. Other states without a personal income tax, like Texas, impose a franchise tax on S corporations. Alaska is one of only two states in the country that taxes traditional corporations but not S corporations (the other state, Florida, brings in revenue with a sales tax instead).

Fortunately, the Legislature appears poised to correct the S corporation tax loophole. Senate Bill 92 would impose an income tax on oil and gas S corporations operating in Alaska — traditional corporations already pay income taxes in Alaska. The bill would make a meaningful dent in our state budget deficit; the Department of Revenue estimated that SB 92 would bring more than $100 million per year through 2030. That money could fund public schools and critical infrastructure.

Instead, we are giving that revenue away to a billionaire in Texas. In 2020, affiliated S corporations, Hilcorp and Harvest Midstream, acquired all of British Petroleum’s Alaska assets — including its nearly 50% share of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. Tens of millions in annual corporate income tax revenue from BP disappeared. While we can’t recover that lost revenue, we can modernize Alaska’s tax code to accommodate the increasing proportion of S corporations in our oil and gas industry.

Alaskans should also be frustrated by the way that the S corporation loophole diverts tax revenue from the state to the federal government. S corporations, like anyone else, write off state income taxes on their federal tax returns. Alaska’s nonsensical tax code means that S corporations pay more income taxes to the federal government while the state gets no revenue at all.

Oil and gas interests have suggested that the state will somehow bring in more revenue by not taxing S corporations. This is a misguided argument that has been proven wrong throughout Alaska’s history. It is foolish to assume that a large company with operations across the country would reinvest extra profits in Alaska. That company is just as likely to transfer the capital to projects in the Lower 48 or simply enrich its billionaire owner. The Legislature can guarantee investment in Alaskans by taxing S corporations and using the revenue to fund public services.

It is equally silly to argue that imposing an income tax would be unfair to S corporations. It is unfair that traditional corporations pay state income taxes while S corporations don’t! Nearly every other state in the country — red or blue — creates a level playing field for business by taxing S corporations. Changing Alaska’s tax code to reflect the national consensus is foreseeable and common sense.

An overwhelming majority of Alaskans in every region of the state — 77% on average — want Hilcorp to pay a state income tax. This unusual consensus reflects the clear right choice on this issue. Do the state legislators representing you care about fiscal responsibility, tax parity, and addressing our budget deficit? Consider giving them a call to find out and to express your support for SB 92.

Catherine Rocchi is the regulatory lead for the Alaska Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College, a law degree from Stanford Law School and a master’s from the Stanford School of Earth. Before joining AKPIRG, she worked as a law clerk at the Alaska Supreme Court.

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The long-struggling, $44 billion Alaska LNG project has landed a private partner that will take over majority ownership of the company that seeks to deliver natural gas from the North Slope to Alaskans and the world.

The Glenfarne Group will also lead development of the project to construction and operation after the board of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. on Thursday agreed to a binding deal with the company, according to a statement from AGDC, a state agency.

“Glenfarne’s financial, project management, and commercial expertise is well matched to lead this vital project forward,” said Brendan Duval, Glenfarne’s founder. “Alaska LNG will provide desperately needed energy security and natural gas cost savings for Alaskans and give Glenfarne unmatched flexibility to simultaneously serve LNG markets in both Asia and Europe through our three LNG projects.”

The change in ownership is significant in part because the state corporation has run the project on its own for nearly a decade, after the major oil companies that were its original partners backed out in 2016.

Glenfarne, founded in 2011, is a New York company that develops, owns and operates energy and infrastructure projects. The company is the developer, owner and operator of Texas LNG, the most recent U.S. LNG project to fully sell its LNG volumes with a total market value over $60 billion, its founder Brendan Duval said in February.

“Alaska LNG will ensure a brighter future for generations of Alaskans and I look forward to working with Glenfarne as they lead Alaska LNG forward,” said Frank Richards, president of the AGDC.

“Today is a historic day for Alaska,” Gov. Mike Dunleavy said. “Alaska LNG will strengthen the U.S. geostrategic position in the North Pacific, provide vital energy security for our residents, our military bases, our businesses, and our Asian allies, and unlock billions in economic benefit at home and abroad.”

The project has seen renewed interest from Asian companies that might serve as investors or gas buyers, and President Donald Trump has touted the pipeline as a key project he’d like to see built.

Trump said in his speech to Congress this month that his administration is working on a “gigantic” natural gas pipeline, referring to Alaska LNG. The project’s gas exports to Asia could be so large that they could help alleviate trade imbalances.

The state gas line corporation declined to release the contract with Glenfarne.

The project envisions development of a roughly 800-mile pipeline delivering natural gas from the North Slope. The gas would be processed at a treatment plant on the North Slope and liquefied in Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula, then exported to Asian markets in oceangoing tankers.

Richards told the gasline board on Thursday that the deal calls for Glenfarne to assume 75% equity of 8 Star Alaska, the state agency’s project development company. The state gas line agency will hold the remaining ownership.

The state has the option to invest in individual facilities such as the gas treatment plant, he said.

“We’ve reserved the right for investment, for the state, of up to 25% in any of the subprojects or all,” Richards said. “And that will be an ongoing discussion with the Legislature and the administration on if that is an opportunity they would like to take or not.”

Glenfarne will cover the costs of the engineering and design work that needs to be completed before a final decision to build the project is made. Duval said the money will come from a consortium of private investors, but a federal loan guarantee could help support that effort, he said.

“They will fund and resource the Alaskan LNG project to final investment decision,” Richards said. “This covers the entire Alaska LNG project, and not just the initial phase of the pipeline.”

Duval said it’s possible a final investment decision could be made by the end of this year. LNG deliveries could begin in 2030 or 2031, he said.

It is unclear what investors, if any, would provide the large sums of money for construction of the project.

It’s also unclear where the natural gas would come from. The agency has signed a deal with a small oil and gas explorer in Alaska in an effort to provide gas for the first phase. Great Bear Pantheon, however, currently does not produce oil or gas. There’s no guarantee it will produce gas in Alaska.

Richards said the gas line agency is working on securing gas sales precedent agreements with other producers, including for gas at the Point Thomson and Prudhoe Bay fields.

Richards said the agreement with Glenfarne covers the entire Alaska LNG project, and not just the initial phase of the pipeline. “So gas treatment, pipeline and liquefaction (plant). But the priority is going to be the phase-one pipeline and gas for Alaskans,” Richards said.

The first phase of the project has been estimated to cost $11 billion. It calls for the construction of a 750-mile pipeline to deliver the gas from the North Slope to the Interior and Southcentral Alaska, where electric utilities are looking at importing natural gas as Cook Inlet gas dwindles.

After the first-phase construction, the larger project to export the gas can be built, according to the plan. That portion of the project includes the construction of a liquefaction facility.

Richards said he was calling into the meeting from Asia. He said he was on a trade mission with Glenfarne and Gov. Dunleavy to Asian countries, looking for companies that might commit to buying Alaska’s gas or investing in the project.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.