Shell may have abandoned its hopes of hitting oil in the Arctic this year, but the company is now cleared to do preparatory work in the Beaufort Sea. The U.S Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement gave Shell the go-ahead today to drill a pair 1,500-foot boreholes in Alaska’s northern waters. They’re already doing similar work in the Chukchi.
According to spokesperson Curtis Smith, these casings will serve as the foundation for Shell’s exploratory program next summer.
The Permanent Fund Dividend will be putting $878 in Alaskans' pockets this year. Some people splurge with the money, but many people use it to offset the state's high cost of living.
KUCB's Lauren Rosenthal and Alexandra Gutierrez found out how Unalaska residents are spending their PFD checks this year.
Two hikers who went missing on Akutan Island have made it back to town. The Oregon natives set off for Akutan’s volcano Tuesday morning, equipped only for a day hike. When they didn’t report for work at Trident Seafoods on Wednesday, the company sent out ground search parties and contracted with PenAir to do flyovers. The State Troopers and Coast Guard joined the search later in the day.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just issued its fisheries report card for 2011, and Alaska is on the honor roll. Last year, 2.3 billion pounds of seafood worth $1.3 billion crossed the state’s docks.
About a third of that fish came through Unalaska. The city has long been proud of its reputation as America’s number #1 fishing port. But as KUCB’s Alexandra Gutierrez reports, Unalaska got a bit of bad news in an otherwise rosy assessment of Alaska’s fisheries.
Search and rescue teams are looking for two missing hikers on Akutan Island. Both men are seafood-processing workers at the Trident plant. State Trooper Robin Morrisett says they left Tuesday morning to summit the island’s snow-capped volcano, but didn’t appear to be equipped to spend the night outside.
Trident and PenAir are assisting in a ground and air search. Morrisett says if they aren’t located soon, the Troopers will step in.
$878: That’s how much Alaskans will get from this years Permanent Fund Dividend.
While $878 may be a handsome sum, it’s still a big drop from last year’s figure of $1,174. Since the PFD was first established 30 years ago, it’s paid Alaskans about $1,100 on average. And in the past decade, Alaskans have even seen checks in excess of $1,500.
State Revenue Commissioner Bryan Butcher was the official who announced the amount in Anchorage this morning. He says that the drop happened because the PFD is based on a five-year formula. If the state’s investments perform poorly one year, it can have ripple effects on subsequents PFDs. And because the stock market crashed in 2008, Butcher says that there’s a particularly big dip this year.
Shell won’t be striking oil in the Arctic this summer. The company disclosed today that its oil spill containment bell, a critical piece of response equipment, is damaged and won’t be operational before the end of the drilling season. Without the containment system, Shell can’t drill into the oil-bearing layers beneath the Arctic seafloor. The company will continue to drill “top holes” – the first 1400 feet of the well – which they can return to next year.
In the middle of one of the busiest construction seasons ever, Unalaska’s city engineer has stepped down. Tyler Zimmerman tendered his resignation on September 4. He held the post for three years, overseeing projects like the construction of the small boat harbor and the design of the landfill's new leachate tank.
Zimmerman wouldn’t comment on the reasons for his departure, saying only that it was, “time to go.” He says he’ll stay in Unalaska, to complete work on some freelance projects. According to public records, Zimmerman was working for ten outside clients as recently as July. Those include Delta Western, Kloosterboer, American Seafoods, Pacific Stevedoring and Western Pioneer.
Alaskan students will benefit from scholarship legislation signed by Governor Sean Parnell on Thursday. Speaking to an assembly in the Unalaska high school gym, Parnell explained that the law will help Alaskan high school graduates who want to attend in-state universities or vocational schools.
“So in 2011, I was able to convince the legislature to set aside $400 million in an account so the interest earnings on that account could fund the Performance scholarships. This year, the bill that I’m going to sign, actually kind of puts a white picket fence around that $400 million and reserves it for the Performance scholarships and also for something called the AlaskaAdvantage needs-based grants for education.”
