AIDEA now says no reason to keep $250K study from 2024 secret
Northern Economics completed a $250,000 “independent” study of AIDEA in early 2024 and was paid in full, but the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority never released it to the public.
Now the head of the agency says he knows of no reason why it can’t release the report. This is a welcome change and long overdue. The Senate Resources Committee is awaiting copies of the 2024 report.
I began writing about this in late 2024 and have done so many times, but AIDEA claimed the study was a draft and that it was not a public document. Draft reports are public documents under state law.
The agency released this revised version of the report in January with little fanfare and no publicity.
“Was there a report that was provided to you from Northern Economics back in 2024?” Sen. Bill Wielechowski asked AIDEA Executive Director Randy Ruaro during a Tuesday hearing.
Ruaro said yes, but there was a “lot of back and forth” with the consultant after the company sent in its finding on the economics of AIDEA two years ago.
(I’ll have more in a future blog post about the “back and forth” between AIDEA and the contractor on the history of the Red Dog project and whether it would have been built without a state subsidy from AIDEA. Economists Gregg Erickson and Milt Barker challenged the conventional wisdom about Red Dog, which is one of the reasons AIDEA hired Northern Economics for an “independent” and unbiased review, hoping it would prove Erickson and Barker wrong.)
In continuing his questioning of Ruaro, Wielechowski said it “seems odd that it was a year-and-a-half of back and forth for what was supposed to be an independent and unbiased report.”
Wielechowski asked Ruaro for the 2024 report that AIDEA called a draft.
“I can go back and take a look at that. I can assure you that we didn’t direct or tell the contractor to change any facts in his report version drafts,” Ruaro said. The agency did push back on how the Red Dog mine was dealt with and the question of whether it could have been built without a state subsidy.
Wielechowski asked if Ruaro would give the committee the 2024 report and the changes.
“I’ll take a look at all the reports and the back and forth. I don’t know there’s any reason we couldn’t, if there’s any, I guess, debate or discussion in between members of AIDEA. I’m not certain there’s any objection to providing that,” Ruaro said.
Sen. Cathy Giessel, co-chair of the committee, asked that Ruaro send the 2024 report to her office and she would make it available to committee members.
“I do think a report that is this extensive, that is something that we ought to be able to see,” said Sen. Matt Claman.
State law says that draft reports, such as the 2024 report by Northern Economics are public documents. AIDEA has claimed otherwise to me over the last year-and-a-half.
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