Elizabeth Harball, Alaska's Energy Desk

Alyeska Pipeline Service Company is bringing on Edison Chouest as a new contractor responsible for oil spill prevention and response. The switch has drawn scrutiny and criticism. So Alyeska is trying hard to reassure Alaskans that Prince William Sound — the site of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill — will be safer than ever before.

An oil project in the Arctic may seem like an odd leap for a company from an island nation in the South Pacific. But in a recent interview, the newly-minted president of Oil Search Alaska, Keiran Wulff, said the company is serious about its new venture.

If it goes forward, the project would be ConocoPhillips’s third oil development inside the boundaries of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

The Yes for Salmon initiative reports it received close to 42,000 signatures, significantly more than required. But a vote on the issue isn’t guaranteed.

Energy infrastructure is a tempting target for hackers, and the trans-Alaska pipeline is no exception. Alyeska, which operates the pipeline, now ranks cyberattacks as one of its top three risks.

Bernhardt said in the next few weeks, the agency will kick off the regulatory process required before the administration can hold an oil lease sale in the refuge.

A top state regulator is asking the legislature to make sure oil companies pay to clean up old oil wells, even after the wells are sold to a different company.

Every summer, millions of migratory birds like the greater white-fronted goose descend on the National Petroleum Reserve, to lay eggs, molt their feathers and fatten up. A lot of the oil potential lies squarely in migratory bird habitat.

Murkowski cited a recently released Alaska Department of Labor report, stating the share of out-of-state workers in Alaska’s oil industry rose to 37.1 percent in 2016.

The Wednesday night meeting was the only opportunity for Alaskans to comment on the draft proposal in person. But it wasn’t what some participants had hoped for.