Alaskanomics

October Unemployment and 2014 Jobs Update

The Department of Labor released the October unemployment numbers and the Alaska rate remained at 6.8 percent for the third month in a row. Nationally, the rate continues to drop and head back to pre-recession levels. Between 2003 and 2008, the national rate averaged 1.6 percentage points below Alaska’s rate.

As is typical for this time of year, most areas saw an increased unemployment rate due to the summer tourist- season wrapping up for the year. The North Slope Borough had the lowest rate in October and is expected to stay low with winter construction increasing throughout the Borough. Experts predict that Alaska’s unemployment rate will climb through the end of the year and stay above the national average.

Along with the unemployment rate, the Department of Labor also released the employment numbers for the first half of 2014. The average monthly employment in the first half of 2014 was up 0.6 percent over the first half of 2013. Total wages increased 3.0 percent for the same period, when adjusted for inflation.

The private sector held all of the job growth. Construction had an increase of 979 jobs, mostly due to increased activity on the North Slope. The retail sector also saw a large increase with 881 jobs gained in early 2014. Government jobs continued to decrease with federal employment down by 714 and local government losing 441 jobs.

For full details on employment numbers, please visit: http://live.laborstats.alaska.gov/ces/

RDC Conference Wrap-Up

Two mines are celebrating 25 years of operation in Alaska, Red Dog Mine and Greens Creek Mine. Wayne Hall and Lance Miller discussed the progress made at Red Dog Mine and the future for zinc mine. They shared the hard work it took to acquire the property for the mine. It was ultimately the NANA people’s decision to proceed with the mine, but it took many community meetings before the final decision was made. The Northwest Arctic Borough was formed in 1986 for the benefit of local residents. Federal legislation was necessary because the mine would go through the Krusenstern National Monument and $175 million in loans were needed from the State. Since mining began, over $1 billion has been received by NANA. The mine has created 600+ direct jobs in the region; 54 percent of that was shareholder hire. Red Dog produces 73 percent of US zinc and is the second highest producer of zinc in the world. Red Dog celebrates 25 years of the “Right place, right time, and right engagement”. They believe that responsible development of Red Dog Mine has helped improved the lives of NANA shareholders and build the economy in Northwest Alaska.

Mike Satre with Greens Creek Mine continued the mining discussion with an update from Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska. Greens Creek is the largest and lowest cost silver mine in the world. Hecla, who operates in low-risk, mining friendly jurisdictions, operates the mine.  Greens Creek is a poly-metallic, underground mine with a relatively small footprint. It sits on 350 acres on Admiralty Island and employees 400+ people, the largest private employer in Juneau. Greens Creek focuses on safety and environmental responsibility. Hecla is developing a training program that can be used industry wide to increase mining safety. Hecla is also highly involved in the local community. They invest in charities, schools and the arts in Southeast Alaska. They even created the Hecla Charitable Foundation in 2008 and have donated $1.45 million to date. Greens Creek and Hecla believe that “Great Alaska mines will keep Alaska great.”

The two-day conference concluded with an outlook from people involved in the Alaska LNG project. Larry Persily with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources began the discussion with an update on the export license process. In August, the Department of Energy adopted new procedures that only apply to the Lower 48. The Energy Secretary agreed that Alaska is a very special case and sees nothing but an upside for the Alaska LNG project. The Department intends to act as expeditiously as possible when considering requests from the project. During the public comment period for the project, only 27 comments were received. Only two were negative. One was from the Sierra Club, who has objected to all LNG projects and the other was not a legitimate comment on the project. All other public comments were positive. There will be one single Environmental Impact Study (EIS) done for the entire project and it will be submitted to FERC for review, upon completion.

Steve Butt, Senior Project Manager for the Alaska LNG Project broke the project down to three simple steps:

• Treat the gas (on the North Slope)
• Transport the gas (via pipeline)
• Liquefy the gas (LNG plant, Nikiski is the lead site).

Project leaders consider the key elements of success to be alignment, risk, and cost. Alignment for all participants who are owners of the gas, including the producers and the State of Alaska. Risk is the ability to identify and mitigate risks at all stages of the project. Finally, cost is to have the lowest cost of supply for competitive success.

The project is in the design process with 130+ people working on the project. No one on the leadership team has less than 20 years of experience in his/her field. The team is continuing to work to ensure the regulatory process is proceeding. They are also working with the State to determine the best way to provide gas to Alaskans. Citizens are invited to participate in community open houses and meetings to discuss the project. In 2014, more than 250 people, 80 percent of whom are Alaskan, completed summer fieldwork to acquire regulatory data. The summer of 2015 will have an even larger scope and data will be collected between Livengood and Nikiski. Recently, contracts were awarded for various sections of the project.

• Gas treatment plant- URS, CB & I, and AES
• Pipeline- Worley Parsons
• LNG Plant- CB & I, Chiyoda and AES
• Marine- CH2MHill

The project team looks forward to engaging Alaska contractors and businesses in various stages of the Alaska LNG project.

Mike Pawlowski with the Department of Revenue completed the presentation with his remarks regarding the Heads of Agreement that was presented to the legislature in early 2014. The agreement outlines the guiding principles of the project and provides Alaskans with a roadmap of the various stages of the project. Participation by the State is making the project better. A project of this size is only feasible because of the manageable pieces for each step of the plan. We must have predictability moving forward, which is why it is so positive that SB21 was not repealed in August. While North Slope gas commercialization is challenging, working together, we can maintain the momentum toward our shared vision for Alaska.

After the RDC Conference wrapped up, the Department of Energy granted authority for Alaska LNG to export to the 18 countries covered by free-trade agreements with the US. South Korea is the only significant importer on the list since Asia’s big LNG consumers; Japan, China, India and Taiwan do not have free-trade agreements with the US. Approval to export to those nations is still pending.

There are mixed feelings within the resources industry. Many feel that there is hope moving forward because of the competitive tax structure and progress made on the Alaska LNG project. There is also fear because of low commodity prices and the high cost of operating in Alaska. The future remains uncertain for the state that relies so heavily on the oil and gas industry but there is no shortage of people willing and able to work on the issues and help secure Alaska’s economic future.

Complete presentations can be read at http://www.akrdc.org/membership/events/conference/2014/

RDC Day 2 Morning Sessions

The second day of the RDC conference included updates on Point Thomson, federal regulations, the mining industry, and the Alaska LNG project. 2014 was a successful year for the companies working at Point Thomson. Many steps were taken to move closer to 2016 when the first gas is expected to flow. There are more than 70 companies working to make this a reality. 85 percent of the workers are Alaskan. The project has spent $2.5 billion to date, with 70 percent of that in Alaska. This year, a 22-mile export pipeline was completed and ready to take gas from Point Thomson into TAPS. ExxonMobil is working hard to keep workers safe in the harsh environment of the North Slope. Examples of this include:

• A Scan Link RFID Armour System that detects workers near vehicles
• North Force Hard Hat that protects that back of workers heads and is much lighter than previous hats
• Polar Bear Detection that can detect animals near the pad and give a longer lead time for workers to get inside and avoid negative interactions

A discussion on federal regulations rounded out the morning session. Eric Fjelstad with Perkins Coie discussed the changes to offshore and onshore regulations. He noted that the regulations are always expanding and the focus is on the process. There were a few regulations that Fjelstad addressed specifically.

• Arctic Drilling Rule- most likely published in 2015
  • Mandatory measures rather than voluntary
  • Likely focus- drilling and spill containment
  • May require standby drilling rig for relief well
• Chukchi Sea Lease Sale- 2008
  • Several NGOs and the Native Village of Point Hope have challenged the sale
• Marine Spatial Planning- April 2013 first implementation of the plan
  • Many believe this process is still in the works
  • Beth Kerttula is the White House Director for Ocean Policy
  • Hard to know where the program is headed but Kerttula will make sure that Alaska is well represented
• Mining- EPA will submit regulations on bonding
  • More 404(c) ‘veto’ actions/watershed planning
  • Many expect the war on coal to continue
  • will fight against exports
  • there will be discussion of the greenhouse gas regulations

There was also discussion of water regulations and the Endangered Species Act.

Larry Hartig with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation continued the presentation with his thoughts on emerging energy and climate regulations. He noted that there was a potential impact on Alaska from greenhouse gas emissions and regulations surrounding the emissions. Carbon is the largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the US and was 32 percent of total GHG emissions in 2012. The President’s Climate Plan from June 2013 called on the EPA to set carbon pollution standards for both new and existing power plants. It established the best system of emission reduction considering that plants must reduce emissions by 30 percent, improve heat rate at existing coal power plants by 6 percent, shift generation from coal-fired boilers to natural gas combined cycle units, increase generation from renewable energy,  and improve end-use energy efficiency to decrease electricity demand. The issue for Alaska in this regard is that we do not have access to electrical interconnectivity across the entire state. There are grid limitations and issues and natural gas is not yet available throughout the entire Railbelt region. As with many federal regulations, there are concerns about the feasibility for Alaska. The ability to have access to affordable energy is a real problem for many across the state.

Finally, Governor-Elect Bill Walker spoke briefly to conference attendees to express his desire to work with the resource industry, especially to move the Alaska LNG project forward. He noted that he has already met with RDC, Alliance, and AOGA board members to discuss resource development priorities. He believes that we can put more oil in the pipeline, bring more companies to Alaska, and he will work hard to continue the work that has already been started on important resource issues. He assured the group that he would be focused on moving Alaska forward to create a strong future for all Alaskans.

RDC Day 1 Wrap Up

Cook Inlet and the Interior Basin have been the major areas of focus for Hilcorp, Cook Inlet Energy and Doyon Ltd. Hilcorp has only been in Alaska for a few years, but is already making a large impact on production. They purchased assets from Chevron in 2012 and from Marathon in 2013. Production in their major oilfields has doubled from January 2012 through September 2014. Hilcorp President Greg Lalicker noted that he was confident that Hilcorp could meet the needs of Alaska for years to come. An example of this is the Trading Bay Field. There was a steady decline of the field and Hilcorp was able to turn this around and increase production in the field. Hilcorp has invested a total of $73 million in the Trading Bay Field.

Hilcorp will also increase their investment in Alaska with the asset transfer from BP that closed last week. This transfer included 100 percent of BP’s interest in Endicott and Northstar and 50 percent of Milne Point on the North Slope. There is also an option to purchase 50 percent of BP’s interest in the Liberty Development.

David Hall, President of Cook Inlet Energy, continued the discussion by outlining the growth within Cook Inlet. Hall shared the significant investment of Cook Inlet Energy from $34 million in 2012 to almost $140 million in 2014. Cook Inlet Energy works in four distinct fields, Redoubt, West McArthur River, North Fork and Badami. He concluded that the company’s capital expenditures have led to a 436 percent increase in BOE/D from 2012 to 2014. They are continuing to grow and are working hard to offset the production decline.

Jim Mery, Vice President at Doyon Ltd. rounded out the presentation with his company’s work in the Yukon Flats Basin and Nenana/Minto. He said that increased oil activity around the state has revved up Doyon’s business and they are seeing the benefits. Mery outlined Doyon’s objectives of oil and gas discoveries in both basins; new markets for Doyon oilfield service companies; business opportunities for nearby village corporations; job training for shareholders; and to secure new partners for State of Alaska leases.

A focus on the Arctic rounded out day 1 of the RDC Conference. Drue Pearce, Senior Policy Advisor with Crowell & Moring gave a detailed description of the Arctic Council and Alaska’s place in Arctic policy issues. She stressed the shift of the council from promoting economic and energy issues to protecting the environment and conserving its resources. There are many people and organizations that covet the Arctic; and often their agendas do not mesh with Alaska and the Native Alaskan lifestyle. There is currently no discussion of economy or smart development when discussing Arctic policy.

The United States is poised to take over the Chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2015. Secretary of State, John Kerry, will be the chair of the council for the 2 year US term. Alaska will be well represented with Fran Ulmer as the Special Advisor on Arctic Science and Policy. The theme for the US Chairmanship will be “One Arctic: Shared Opportunities, Challenges and Responsibilities.” The thematic areas include addressing the impacts of climate change in the arctic, stewardship of the Arctic Ocean, and improving economic and living conditions in the region. This will be the first time that US policy is addressing economic issues in the arctic in the current administration. Alaskans should continue to watch the work of the Arctic Council because it directly affects the living and working conditions for many Alaskans. Policy-makers should have input from people who live and work in the Arctic when making decisions regarding our coastlines. Some want to shut off the entire Arctic and if they are not able to do that, they will section it off into pieces that do not allow Alaskans to live the lives they have lived for hundreds of years. It is important that Alaskans have a seat at the table when discussing Arctic policy.

The North Slope is primed for new development and Repsol and Caelus Energy Alaska shared their successes from the past year. Bill Hardham, Alaska Operations Manager for Repsol, reported that they were looking forward to their fourth drilling campaign on the North Slope and have made good progress from the first three winter campaigns. Repsol is the second largest North Slope leaseholder with more than 650,000 acres. They intend to be very busy in 2015 with a 500+ workforce and a budget of $240 million. Repsol is currently waiting for permits to be approved and to have the proper weather to start ice road construction. In the past three seasons, Repsol has drilled nine wells and invested $650 million in the North Slope. They first entered the Alaska market because legislators were willing to work on the tax structure and make Alaska more competitive in the national and global market.

Pat Foley introduced Caelus Energy Alaska to the conference to finish the day’s presentations. Caelus is a privately held Exploration and Production company founded in 2011. It acquired Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska assets in April 2014. Caelus is currently working to develop Oooguruk, where they are 70 percent operators. Oooguruk should have 13,000 BOPD gross production, 80+ Alaska employees, and 150-300 Alaska contract workers. Caelus has a $500 million capital budget for 2015. They see Oooguruk as their platform to grow the business, increase production, and further explore the North Slope.  In the next year, there will be many new projects with a lot of diversity for Caelus Energy Alaska.

RDC Part 2

The first day of the RDC conference continued with discussions from the heads of ConocoPhillips Alaska and BP Alaska about their investment in the North Slope. Both companies have had a busy year and are continuing the trend of investment in Alaska.

Trond-Erik Johansen of ConocoPhillips kicked things off, assuring the crowd that there are many good things happening in Alaska. There have been some challenging debates over the past few years, but ConocoPhillips will continue to move forward and will stay the course of investing on the North Slope. ConocoPhillips is very focused on converting resources that are in the ground into real oil in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). The 2014 capital budget was up 50 percent from 2013 and is double the 2008-2012 average. The CD5 project, that was announced prior to SB21, is on schedule and on budget ($1 billion). The first oil from the project is estimated to flow at the end of 2015 with peak production at an estimated 16,000 BOPD in 2016.

The Alaska projects that were announced since SB21 hit the books are also still on track. Two new rigs were added at Kuparuk and are producing an additional 8,000 BOPD per rig. Each rig also added an additional 100 direct jobs for the state. Kuparuk production has flattened with the additional rigs. There are new projects in the Western North Slope/Alpine area that will help slow the production decline. A new Kuparuk drill site 2S (Shark Tooth) has been approved for construction. Peak workforce during construction will be 250+ jobs in 2015. The project has a budget of $500 million. An additional 8,000 BOPD is predicted to start in late 2015. Greater Moose’s Tooth is in the permitting stage. If permits are received by February 2015, the project will add 30,000 BOPD in 2017. Johansen wrapped up his presentation with a note about the Cook Inlet Assets and Natural Gas Sales. It is the only LNG plant to export from the US. Exports only occur in the summer because the gas is needed in Alaska during the cold, winter months.

Janet Weiss of BP Alaska shared Johansen’s optimism for the future of Alaska’s North Slope. As of November 18, BP and Hilcorp closed the deal that transferred a portion of BP’s North Slope assets to Hilcorp. The transfer allows BP to focus on the major fields and to remain competitive at Prudhoe Bay. BP will add a rig in 2015 and another in 2016, which will increase activity by 40 percent. They will also add an additional 25 miles of pipeline to bring more oil to TAPS in 2017. BP will also expand their current pads at Prudhoe and add a new drilling pad in the near future.

BP continues to invest not only in production, but also in Alaskans and education. As a company, BP has invested $28 billion in education and workforce programs in Alaska. They will continue their focus on growing the resource space that includes the people of Alaska and not just the capital.

Both ConocoPhillips and BP were cautiously optimistic about being able to slow the production decline on the North Slope. They are both working to move projects forward. Production is still far from the levels of the past, but both leaders felt that Alaska was moving in the right direction and that there are still plenty of resources to develop.

Governor Parnell stopped by the conference for a brief thank you to the resource industry. He highlighted the growth that has been seen during his time in office. Southcentral Alaska has new economic possibilities, especially along the Kenai Peninsula. The Governor thanked everyone in attendance for their support and their work to create more economic opportunities and growth. He concluded by saying how thankful he was for the opportunity to serve Alaska and its citizens and looked forward to getting back to work as a regular citizen.

More RDC highlights will be posted throughout the week.

Resource Development Council Conference Part 1

The Resource Development Council hosted the 35^th Annual Alaska Resource Conference this week. Over the next week, Alaskanomics will highlight the presentations from the conference.

The two-day event allows the resource industry to gather and look back at the past year, while planning for the coming year. There were many things to celebrate at this year’s conference, but participants and speakers were decidedly cautious about the State’s fiscal future.

As is the tradition, the conference started out with an outlook for the coming year by Alaska Department of Labor Economist, Neal Fried. With the exception of 2009, the Alaska economy has been growing for the past 25 years. The growth has not always been by leaps and bounds, but it has been moving in the right direction. In 2014, it is predicted that there will only be about 900 new jobs in Alaska, which is only 0.6 percent. This is not as strong as many would hope and there will be a breakdown of the employment categories in January when the annual wrap up is published. Fried continued with brief updates of the various resource industries.

• Timber has had very little change and is down with record lows
• Mining is largely unchanged as well and has slowed and growth has flattened out
• Fishing grew in both processing and harvesting this past year
• Oil keeps hitting new highs, North Slope employment has doubled in the past decade
• The Visitor Industry is up for the third year in a row

Alaska earnings have grown since a dip in the late 1990s and we currently have the second highest household income behind Maryland. The population grew in the past year, but the growth is starting to slow down.

Kara Moriarty of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association gave the update for the oil and gas industry. She shared the usual numbers that more than one third of all Alaska jobs are tied to the oil and gas industry and for every one industry job, 20 other jobs are generated through industry spending. The oil industry paid $6.9 billion in taxes and royalties and luckily the current tax policy generates more revenue at low prices than the old regime. This is very good since the price of oil has dipped below $80 a barrel. There has been a lot of new development on the North Slope and in Cook Inlet. Moriarty finished with the reminder that while we cannot control the price of oil or Alaska’s high cost environment, we could all be “Resource Proud”.

Stephanie Madsen of the At-Sea Processors Association shared that the fishing industry continues to grow and is currently the number one private sector employer in the state. The value of Alaska’s fisheries fluctuates because of the global market. The industry continues to be challenged by environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) calling for protected areas. Madsen continued by noting that Alaskan fisheries historically have been managed conservatively and are continually adapting to the varying definitions of sustainable.

Keith Coulter with Koncor Forest Projects gave the update for the timber industry, which by far has seen the largest decline of other resource industries. He noted that both fishing and forestry are sustainable and renewable and are not mutually exclusive. Rural communities that have lost timber are having a hard time replacing the jobs and income that were seen with the timber industry. Coulter shared that he felt that Federal Forests should be managed in the same way that private forests are and Alaska should resist efforts to adopt federal forest practices. He warned that changes to the Alaska forest practice should be informed by contemporary science. Coulter also urged the need for reform of federal overreach in the Tongass and elsewhere through fewer environmental regulations and restrictions.

Karen Matthias with the Council of Alaska Producers gave the update for the mining industry. She was proud to share that both Red Dog and Greens Creek Mines were celebrating their 25^th anniversary of operation. She said the industry needed to do a better job at sharing success stories from around the state. An example is that Usibelli Mine has been in operation for more than 70 years and is mining responsibly. There are more than 5000 direct mining jobs in Alaska with an average annual wage of $100,000. Donlin Gold is in the permitting process and other mines could bring many new jobs to the state. Alaska is number one in the world for pure mineral potential and holds incredible potential in the mining industry. It was no surprise to conference attendees that permitting is consistently the biggest challenge in mining and is a very slow process. The outlook is bleak right now, but the industry can redouble efforts to fight against those trying to block responsible development and educate the public on the positive impact of mining so that things might improve.

Gideon Garcia with CIRI Alaska Tourism wrapped up the year in review with the tourism industry update. This past year, Alaska saw 1.96 million visitors, who spent $3.9 billion. The tourism industry adds 46,000 jobs for Alaskans. The projections for the 2015 season look good. Cruise traffic is predicted to have a 2.8 percent increase and overall visitor traffic is expected to jump 2-3 percent in 2015.

The year in review and 2015 outlook is a staple to the RDC conference and while presenters were proud to share accomplishments within their individual industries, it was obvious that the challenges of federal overreach, commodity prices, and regulations weighed heavy in the room.

Alaskanomics will continue to highlight the conference with Investment in Action by Trond-Erik Johansen of ConocoPhillips Alaska and Investing in Alaska’s Future with Janet Weiss of BP Exploration (Alaska).

Alaska Economic Trends: 10-Year Forecast

The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development publishes a monthly magazine, Alaska Economic Trends. In October, the focus was a 10-year forecast of industries and occupations. In her opening, Department Commissioner Dianne Blumer highlights that Alaska is expected to gain more than 36,000 jobs by 2022. This will increase the state’s total job count to more than 370,000. In the projections, health care and mining jobs will have the largest increase with 25 percent and 24.8 percent, respectively.

The projected gain of just over 36,000 jobs by 2022 is a 10.8 percent growth rate for Alaska. This follows the projected population growth of 10 percent during the same period. The health care industry will see the largest increase of jobs due to the increasing age of Alaska residents. Between 2012 and 2022, the number of Alaskans who are 65 or older will increase 79 percent.

The mining industry, minus oil and gas, will be right behind health care in job growth. The expected increase of 24.8 percent will be due to higher-than-average mineral commodity prices and the expansion of existing mines. Many existing mines are expected to grow and there are multiple projects in various stages of permitting and planning. Because of the volatile nature of the mining industry, experts are not able to predict which projects will move forward and there could be significant changes to the forecast depending on mineral prices.

Not only are jobs expected to grow by 36,000 before 2022, there will also be 95,000 jobs that will need to be filled due to employees retiring or changing jobs. As noted earlier, the number of people over 65 will increase significantly in the next 8 years. In comparison, the number of people under 65 will only see a 3.6 percent increase. This will put high demand on healthcare jobs and related services as the population ages.

Alaska Economic Trends gives specifics in a variety of industries and occupations and expands on the forecast through 2022. The full issue can be viewed at http://labor.alaska.gov/trends/oct14.pdf

Anchorage State of the City

Yesterday, Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan gave his final State of the City presentation to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce. The Mayor started off with noting that the Municipality’s budget grew $142M from 2004 to 2008 and only grew $45M from 2008 to 2015, showing a significant shift in the trend of unsustainable spending.

Anchorage was recently recertified by Standard & Poor’s with a AAA bond rating. This is the second time Anchorage has received this rating after being increased from AA+ in 2013. The Mayor was proud to report that Anchorage is paying off more debt than it is incurring thanks to the work of the department heads. There has also been savings in property taxes. The Municipality has saved $110M by taxing below the cap and utility payments back under cap in property tax replacement.

The Mayor went on to highlight the projects that were part of the capital budget during the past year. There have been many park and trail improvements as well as facility improvements to the Project 80’s facilities. The public can now see all Public Works Projects and their status by visiting www.AnchorageRoads.org. This is a new system that allows the public to see exactly what is happen throughout the city.

There has also been significant investment from the private and non-profit sectors in the past year. National chains continue to invest in Anchorage and new stores and office space signals the private sector’s belief that the Anchorage economy is strong and will continue to grow. Local non-profits have also followed the lead of the private sector by adding new facilities throughout Anchorage.

The Municipality is focused on the Ship Creek Waterfront and the Port of Anchorage. The Ship Creek plan has been approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Anchorage Assembly. It is the first step for this generational project that will transform the Ship Creek area into an accessible waterfront and a connection between the Coastal Trail and the Ship Creek Trail. The Port project is also moving along and is a high priority because 90 percent of all goods entering Alaska go through the Port of Anchorage. It also gives access to 19 strategic military posts in the state.

The Mayor concluded his presentation with the highlights of the Centennial Celebration and a few of the accolades that Anchorage has recently received. He reminded the crowd that Anchorage is cleaner, safer and stronger than ever before.

The full report can be read at http://www.muni.org/Departments/Mayor/Documents/StateOfTheCity.pdf