Borough Assembly member wants public vote on whether to truck liquefied natural gas to Fairbanks

From The Fairbanks Daily News Miner, Saturday, July 10, 2010:

Assemblyman Guy Sattley has drafted an ordinance requiring a public vote on the plan to truck liquefied natural gas to Fairbanks, but Borough Mayor Luke Hopkins said delaying the $250 million project is risky.

“If we stretch this timeline out,” Hopkins said Thursday at a Borough Assembly work session, “basically, the project is going to be very difficult to be financed in the way the port authority wants it to be.”

Hopkins, who belongs to the governing board of the Alaska Gasline Port Authority, said the main problem with delaying the project for a public vote is an expected rise in interest rates.

“As financing money begins to cost more, it could cost the project greater and greater amounts,” Hopkins said. “That would take away from the revenue stream.”