Inside Alaska Business.

• Position: Inside Alaska Business

USGC

October 2017

US Coast Guardsmen and US Navy sailors conducted shipboard dive operations from Coast Guard Cutter Healy in the Arctic on July 29 for the first time since two Coast Guard divers perished in a subsurface accident almost eleven years ago.

Shipboard Arctic dive operations increase the Coast Guard's ability to assure year-round access for national security, sovereign presence, and increased maritime domain awareness in the region. The shipboard dive operations also highlighted the interoperability between joint Coast Guard and Navy dive teams.

Divers are the Coast Guard's primary resource for the service's subsurface capabilities and perform a full spectrum of Coast Guard missions, including maintenance and repair to aids to navigation, underwater inspections and maintenance on icebreakers and other cutters, surveying critically-endangered species habitats, assistance to marine casualty investigations, and supporting search and rescue operations.

Healy, home ported in Seattle, is a 420-foot long medium icebreaker with extensive scientific capabilities and is the nation's premier high-latitude research vessel. Healy's missions include scientific support, search and rescue, ship escort, environmental protection, and the enforcement of laws and treaties in the Polar Regions.

pacificarea.uscg.mil

ENI

After a comprehensive review and consideration of comments received from the public, stakeholders, and Federal and state partner agencies and tribes, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in July conditionally approved a Beaufort Sea exploration plan (EP) from Eni US Operating Co. Inc.

In its plan, Eni describes its intent to drill four exploration wells into the federal submerged lands of the Beaufort Sea from its Spy Island Drillsite, a pre-existing facility located in Alaska state waters. Drilling will be conducted during the winter months only and is scheduled to begin in December 2017. boem.gov/eni-ep-2017

AGDC

The US Internal Revenue Service has determined that the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC) qualifies as a tax-exempt political subdivision of the State of Alaska under new, more stringent proposed IRS regulations.

"This is great news for the corporation and the Alaska LNG project," stated AGDC President Keith Meyer. "Receiving a favorable tax ruling from the IRS was one of the expectations of the transition of the Alaska LNG project to state leadership. The favorable ruling from the IRS will provide significant maneuvering room as we shape the financial structure of the Alaska LNG project. This is our next great energy project as a state and important for America to move into a position of major energy supplier to our overseas trading partners."

As a political subdivision, AGDC will not be subject to federal income tax and can issue tax-exempt debt. The federal tax exemption can further reduce the cost of service on the system and can increase the competitiveness of the project while also improving overall returns to project stakeholders. agdc.us

KONA ICE

Bringing tropical tunes and cups of Hawaiian shaved ice everywhere it stops, Kona Ice pulled its first mobile truck into Alaska in August, introducing Anchorage to its distinctive blend of entertainment and gourmet frozen treats.

"Bringing Kona Ice into my home state makes me very excited," said Amanda Sato, the local resident and entrepreneur behind the new food truck franchise. "Despite the cooler climate, we...