Agrium nixed from tax credit bill

  • By KAYLEE OSOWSKI
  • Monday, April 21, 2014 10:46pm
  • News

Lawmakers approved tax credit bill for Alaska refineries during deliberations Sunday night, but excluded the Agrium Corp. fertilizer plant in Nikiski from the plan.

House Bill 287 was originally introduced by Gov. Sean Parnell to aid in-state refineries. As passed, companies may receive 40 percent of “qualified infrastructure expenditures incurred” which includes “in-state purchase, installation or modification of tangible personal property for the in-state manufacture or in-state transport of refined petroleum products or petroleum-based feedstock.”

House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, proposed an amendment to include Agrium during a Rules committee meeting on Wednesday by adding the words “hydrocarbon processing facility” as a part of qualified infrastructure.

Agrium is considering reopening its Nikiski location, which stopped producing fertilizer and ammonia from natural gas in 2007. The restart is estimated to cost $200 million.

Chenault said he’s “not real happy” that the bill passed without Agrium.

“It maybe would have helped with bringing Agrium back,” Chenault said. … “We’re going to continue to work with Agrium to see if there’s something that, if we need to do it, that it helps them and brings back those jobs to our community.”

He said lawmakers excluded Agrium because they didn’t want to jeopardize the extension of the Tesoro Corp. royalty oil contract and the bill was also becoming “a Christmas tree.” He said other amendments that could have been proposed were left out because they would have and made the bill “too top heavy” causing it to fail.

Steve Wendt, manager of the Nikiski facility, said being excluded from the bill is “disappointing.”

Wendt said Agrium will continue to work with the state and look for opportunities to move toward reopening the facility.

“We’ll work the project (regardless) and see where it comes out,” Wendt said.

Wendt said the project not only has to be externally economically positive, it also has to compete against other projects within Agrium.

“So incentives like this can benefit you in both those arenas,” he said. “So that’s why it was disappointing not to get it through because the company, even if it is an economically viable project, if there are better internal projects, then they’ll be the ones that are selected.”

He said currently the project is scheduled to go before the board for approval at the end of the year or in early 2015. Working with that timeframe, the company would like to have details of the project, including any incentives from the state put together by September or October.

“(Agrium was) an important part of our community,” Chenault said. “They still are and the potential is there. We’re going to continue working with them in every aspect that we can to try to bring about the restart of that facility.”

Kaylee Osowski can be reached at kaylee.osowski@peninsulaclarion.com.

More in News

Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, speaks at a town hall meeting in the Moose Pass Sportsman’s Club in Moose Pass, Alaska, on Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Insurance authorization bill sponsored by Bjorkman, Ruffidge becomes law

The bill requires insurance companies and health care providers to meet new deadlines for authorizing requests for care.

A map of the Johnson Tract Mine exploration project. Photo courtesy of the Center for Biological Diversity
Inletkeeper, partners file lawsuit against Cook Inlet gold mine

The Johnson Tract Mine is located on CIRI-owned lands inside Lake Clark National Park.

A sockeye salmon is carried from the waters of Cook Inlet on North Kenai Beach in Kenai, Alaska, during the first day of the Kenai River personal use dipnet fishery on Thursday, July 10, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai River dipnet fishery open 24 hours beginning Friday night

Per fish counts available from the department, 471,000 sockeye have been counted so far this year — with 108,000 counted on Wednesday alone.

Attorneys Eric Derleth and Dan Strigle speak to Superior Court Judge Kelly Lawson during the opening arguments of State of Alaska v. Nathan Erfurth at the Kenai Courthouse in Kenai, Alaska, on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Opening arguments offered in Erfurth trial

The trial is set to continue for around two weeks, into early August.

Evacuees in Seward, Alaska, walk along Adams Street following a tsunami warning on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
Tsunami warning canceled following 7.3 earthquake near Sand Point

An all clear was issued for Kachemak Bay communities at 1:48 p.m. by the Kenai Peninsula Borough Office of Emergency Management.

The Ninilchik River on May 18, 2019, in Ninilchik, Alaska. (Photo by Michael Armstrong/Homer News)
Ninilchik River to remain closed to king salmon fishing

It was an “error in regulation” that would have opened the Ninilchik River to king salmon fishing on Wednesday.

A table used by parties to a case sits empty in Courtroom 4 of the Kenai Courthouse in Kenai, Alaska, on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Nikiski woman sentenced to 4 years in prison for 2023 drug death

Lawana Barker was sentenced for her role in the 2023 death of Michael Rodgers.

Alaska State Troopers logo.
Seward resident arrested after Monday night police pursuit

Troopers say she led them on a high-speed chase on Kalifornsky Beach Road for around 7 miles.

Most Read