AK State Legislator Proposes 20 Center/Barrel Tax On State's Oil Production To Cover Costs Of Climate Collapse
Landslides, storm-driven floods, infrastructure-damaging permafrost thaw and intensifying wildfires are among the expensive disasters that scientists link to Alaska’s rapidly changing climate. Now a state legislator is proposing to levy a 20-cent surcharge on every barrel of Alaska-produced oil to fund programs that respond to and prepare for disasters related to climate change. Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, introduced the measure, House Bill 247, in advance of the legislative session scheduled to start on Jan. 20.
To explain why the state needs such a fund, Josephson ticked off a list of recent disasters in Alaska that imposed heavy costs — and, in some cases, killed people. Those events, which include deadly landslides in Southeast Alaska, landslides that have blocked roads, severe flooding in Western Alaska last October from the remnants of Typhoon Halong and similar damage in 2022 from the remnants of Typhoon Merbok, all had some links to climate change that is caused by greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning, he said.
“It’s a true statement that a lot of the disaster dollars we need right now are related to climate change. That, in my opinion, is sort of inarguable,” he said. Disasters like those that have occurred in recent years are expected to continue in the future, he said: “We’re in a new normal.”
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The surcharge idea has precedent in Alaska. The Department of Environmental Conservation already administers another fund with money coming from a per-barrel fee on oil produced in the state. After the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, the state began levying a 5-cent-per-barrel surcharge on oil that goes into the state’s Oil and Hazardous Substance Release Prevention and Response Fund. The fund itself was created by the legislature in 1986, with the surcharge established after the disastrous Prince William Sound spill.
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https://alaskabeacon.com/2026/01/16/proposed-surcharge-on-oil-would-help-pay-for-responses-to-climate-related-disasters-in-alaska/