In 2026, Cook Inletkeeper is advocating for state legislation to expand solar energy access, protect Bristol Bay salmon runs from mining threats, and repair the financial foundations of education and other state services. We also oppose tax breaks for developers of the disastrous Alaska LNG project at the expense of our towns and boroughs. Read below to learn what we’re championing and what we’re blocking, and how you can be part of our work.
We are fighting for:
Closing the tax loophole for private oil and gas corporations
Senate Bill 92: A loophole in Alaska’s tax law means that privately owned corporations (“S-Corporations” under the U.S. tax code) pay no income tax on their earnings in our state, while publicly traded “C-Corporations” do. Recently, the loophole has had a devastating impact on our finances because it means Hilcorp, a private corporation that’s now one of the state’s most significant drillers, pays no income tax thanks solely to its incorporation structure, while its C-Corp peers do.
Closing the S-Corp tax loophole is an essential first step to repairing the systemic budget deficits that have left our schools struggling and our state services in decay.
Read more:
- How to Keep Alaska’s Budget from Driving Over a Cliff, Inletkeeper Blog
- Addressing the Hilcorp-Shaped Elephant in the Room: Why Alaskans Should Support SB 92, Inletkeeper Blog
Annual net metering for home solar owners
House Bill 164 and Senate Bill 150: Net metering allows owners of grid-connected home solar systems to receive credit on their electric bills for power they export to the grid when their panels produce more energy than their home needs. This may happen frequently at the peak of summer, while in the winter months, the panels may produce very little. But the accounting system in our net metering laws skews the economics of home solar by buying excess energy monthly at a lower rate than the owner saves with the solar energy used inside their home.
This pair of bills makes net metering compensation annual, letting excess generation from sunny months roll over to be compensated at the saving rate in the following month. This would let solar owners balance the dark winters with summer overproduction, improving the economics of home solar and likely incentivizing more and larger installations.
Read more:
- Tilt of the Earth, Inletkeeper blog
- What would we get with the annual net metering bill? by Erin McKittrick
Plug-in solar generation
House Bill 257: “Plug-in” or “balcony” solar refers to a small system of 1-4 panels designed to feed a home’s electrical system through a standard outlet. Most systems produce just enough power to run a few appliances. Plug-in solar has become popular in Europe, but unclear regulations are hampering widespread adoption in the U.S. This bill makes small solar generators (less than 1,200 watts capacity) that meet safety standards set by Underwriters Laboratory exempt from the rules for utility interconnection and net metering. This means plug-in solar owners wouldn’t need their utility’s permission to use their systems.
The exemptions apply to solar devices with less than 1,200 watts of capacity – enough to be useful, but too small to be disruptive to household or utility-scale electrical systems. For comparison:
- The average laptop needs 65 watts to charge.
- A two-slot toaster uses 800-1000 watts.
- A microwave uses 800-1,200 watts
Read more:
An Alaska Climate Emergency Response Fund
House Bill 247: As demonstrated by severely damaging winter storms in Western Alaska and by the heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires in our region, climate change is having disastrous impacts on Alaskan communities now. This bill would create a climate change response fund for such disasters, administered by the Dept. of Environmental Conservation and funded by a 20-cent per barrel charge on oil production.
According to calculations by conservation scientist Rick Steiner, the 20 billion barrels of oil and 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that drillers have extracted from Alaska are responsible for 11.5 billion tons of climate pollution, about 0.5% of humanity’s total cumulative greenhouse emissions of 2.5 trillion tons. In addition to taking responsibility for our climate pollution, we must deal with its consequences for Alaska. HB247 is a first step.
The Bristol Bay Forever Act
House Bill 233: Full title: An Act prohibiting certain mining activities within the watershed of the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve.
Bristol Bay, one of Alaska’s most valuable and productive salmon-spawning regions, has been threatened for decades by the possibility of destructive mining at its headwaters. House Bill 233, the Bristol Bay Forever Act, expands on the work of Governor Jay Hammond, who in 1972 created the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve to protect the longstanding value of commercial, subsistence, and sport fisheries in the region. The creation of the Reserve prohibited oil and gas development within Bristol Bay. Now, through HB 233, representatives Edgmon and Josesphen are seeking to add large-scale, acid-generating mining projects to the list of prohibited activities within the reserve.
This bill would ensure all rivers and streams in the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve remain free from harmful and toxic mining activities like those proposed at Pebble, and protect salmon permanently. Existing federal protections are important, but only apply to the Pebble deposit, leaving the rest of the Fisheries Reserve at risk from more than 20 active mining claims.
Read more:
- How we protect Bristol Bay forever, Bristol Bay Defense Fund.
We are opposing:
Tax breaks for the North Slope gas pipeline
Governor Mike Dunleavy has announced plans to favor the developers of the fantasy North Slope gas pipeline project with a 90% cut to the oil and gas property taxes that help fund city and borough services, including schools and road maintenance. The Alaska LNG project, as the latest iteration of the gasline delusion is called, is fundamentally uneconomic. Its only hope of attracting buyers or investors come by pushing significant cost and risk on to the Alaskan public.
Inletkeeper opposes Alaska LNG. When and if Gov. Dunleavy introduces his bill to benefit the outside interests pushing it at the expense of Alaskan communities, we will stand against it.
Read more:
- Dunleavy to propose lower property tax to support LNG megaproject, ADN.
- Investing in LNG is a bet on climate failure, Inletkeeper blog
General resources
- Contact information for legislators and their staff.
- Create an account on akleg.gov to sign up for email or RSS updates on bills you care about.
- Sign up with your local Legislative Information Office to be notified weekly of new bills introduced and to be alerted to public comment opportunities.