Fuel Fix reports that “by a slim margin, Alaska’s new business-friendly oil tax regime appears to have overcome efforts to revert to the higher levels that became a signature policy of former Gov. Sarah Palin.”  

“A measure on the state’s primary ballot Tuesday would have reinstated Alaska’s progressive oil taxes, originally installed in 2007 and dismantled last year in an effort to lure oil companies to the state. The old taxes were tied to crude prices, and oil companies say they would have hampered the industry’s new plans for investments in the state’s lagging oil production.”  

“Some companies had said they might pull out of Alaska operations if the measure passed. Unlike any other state, Alaska owns all of its subsurface rights and is bound by its state constitution to receive the maximum benefit from all of its resources. Opponents of the tax scheme adopted last year, which the ballot measure would have repealed, characterized it as a giveaway to Big Oil that could cost the state $1 billion per year in state tax revenue.”