Walker: “You can’t be anything but pro-oil development...”

Governor Bill Walker reached out to hundreds of Alaskans from all of the state’s in meetings with RDC and other associations, he pledged to accept the decision by voters to resource industries and economic sectors at RDC’s Alaska Resources Conference in November to assure them he supports oil and gas development.

“You can’t be anything but pro-oil development in this state to be a successful governor,” Walker said in his first public address after former Governor Sean Parnell conceded a hard-fought race. Walker, who in 1975 was a charter board member of RDC’s predecessor, the Organization for the Management of Alaska’s Resources, supported this year’s referendum to repeal Parnell’s oil production tax reform law. In his speech and keep the new tax regime in place.

Referring to efforts of the Parnell administration to advance the large Alaska LNG project, Walker said “the thought that I would do anything but expedite and move along the gas pipeline is foolish. I’m not going in to try to fix something that’s not broken. I’m not taking office to try to slow anything down.”

Walker said he learned as a contractor not to dismantle projects and begin from scratch. “I’m not a start-over person, I’ve remodeled a lot of houses and I always finish the job that I’ve been handed.”

Return to newsletter headlines