Alaska

Alaska Air Group rebounded from a relatively tough start to the year by turning a $193 million profit in the second quarter amid escalating operating costs. Leaders of the parent company to Alaska Airlines and regional carrier Horizon Air are finishing up work to rebalance the company’s operations and finances after purchasing former West Coast competitor Virgin America for roughly $4 billion in a deal that closed in December 2016. While Alaska Air Group was still in the black in the first quarter, the $4 million profit was its smallest quarterly return in more than six years. The $193 million netted in the second quarter — adjusted upward to $206 million when ongoing merger-related costs, fuel hedging and other special items are included — compares to a $293 million net in the second quarter of 2017. The net income translates to $1.56 per share. Alaska Air Group Inc. stock closed trading July 25 at $58.76 per share before the earnings report and rose 10.2 percent to … [Read more...] about Alaska Air Group earnings rebound in second quarter

Rare earth elements really aren’t that rare; they’re just rarely mined. Many in Washington, D.C., particularly those in the Defense Department, see this as a major looming issue. That’s because the Mountain Pass mine just on the California side of the border with Nevada southwest of Las Vegas closed in 2015 when its operator went bankrupt. It was the last producing rare earths mine in the country. The nation’s supply of these 17 often hard-to-pronounce metals now comes from France, Estonia, Japan and China, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Most troubling for some is the fact that China dominates the world’s rare earth elements supply. Sen. Lisa Murkowski remarked during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing she held July 17 on domestic mineral security that China has leveraged its dominance in rare earth production in the past and could do it again at a time when the country is in a tit-for-tat trade dispute with the U.S. … [Read more...] about Alaska remains potential source for critical rare earth elements

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has asked federal regulators if its permitting office can join the environmental review team for the Alaska LNG Project as a “cooperating agency,” promising not to share anything with the project applicant, its colleague in state government, the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been working toward an environmental impact statement, or EIS, for the state-led North Slope natural gas project since AGDC filed its application in April 2017. The commission is scheduled to issue its draft EIS in March 2019. Federal offices with permitting authority over a project are required to assist as cooperating agencies, such as the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the Alaska LNG Project. FERC is the lead for the federal EIS for the Alaska gas development. The law also allows non-federal agencies to participate, if they have “special expertise with respect to the … [Read more...] about State agency wants in on EIS review for Alaska LNG project

More seafood tariffs in Trump’s trade war with China are hitting Alaska coming and going. On July 6, the first 25 percent tax went into effect on more than 170 U.S. seafood products going to China. On Aug. 23 more items were added to the list, including fishmeal from Alaska. “As of right now, nearly every species and product from Alaska is on that list of tariffs,” said Garrett Evridge, a fisheries economist with the McDowell Group. Alaska produces more than 70,000 metric tons of fishmeal per year (about 155 million pounds), mostly from pollock trimmings, with salmon a distant second. The pollock meal is used primarily in Chinese aquaculture production, while salmon meal goes mostly to pet food makers in the U.S. In 2017 about $70 million worth of fishmeal from Alaska pollock was exported to China from processing plants all over the state. Anchovy-based fishmeal from Peru is the predominate source for world aquaculture, but whitefish meal made from Alaska pollock is … [Read more...] about Tariffs set to take toll on Alaska seafood exports and imports

A pair of local young women will be wearing tiaras for the next year after winning titles at the Miss Alaska USA pageant Aug. 4 in Anchorage. Neither expected to win. “I think I said out loud, ‘What?’” said Chugiak’s JoEllen Walters, who was crowned Miss Alaska USA at the event held at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium. “Then I cried.” Like Walters, Miss Alaska Teen USA Meghan Scott was surprised when she heard Audrey Johnson’s name called instead of hers as the first runner-up. “Actually, yeah,” said Scott, who previously competed in two other pageants but never in the Miss Alaska Teen event. “Usually it takes a year to prepare, this one was very last minute.” Walters said this was her fifth year competing in the pageant. The North Star Elementary first-grade teacher said competition this year was as fierce as ever. “All the girls I competed with were amazing and any would have made a great Miss Alaska,” … [Read more...] about Local young women win Miss Alaska USA crowns