Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Tuesday ordered the Alaska Legislature to return to the Capitol for a special session starting Thursday morning, one day after the 2026 regular session’s constitutional deadline, to consider a bill that would advance a major North Slope natural gas pipeline and export project.
The special session call, which Dunleavy had telegraphed in the final days of the regular session, focuses on House Bill 381, a measure that would set the taxation framework for natural gas pipeline infrastructure tied to the Alaska LNG Project. Dunleavy, a Republican in his final year in office, has described the project as his top remaining priority.
House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, an independent from Dillingham, interrupted floor debate on an unrelated tobacco bill Tuesday afternoon to inform members of the governor’s order.
“I’d like to take just a moment to let the body know that the governor has officially called the Legislature back into special session starting on Thursday at 10 a.m. here in Juneau on subjects germane to the title of the following bill, House Bill 381, which is the natural gas taxation of certain natural gas pipeline properties,” Edgmon said.
The regular session, which began in January, ended Wednesday with lawmakers deadlocked on the gas line legislation. Both chambers had worked on competing versions of the bill Tuesday evening but appeared to set those efforts aside as the clock ran out, the Associated Press reported.
The Alaska LNG Project, a decades-old proposal to pipe natural gas from the North Slope to a liquefaction terminal on the southern coast for export to Asian markets, has struggled to secure final legislative approval through multiple administrations. Dunleavy’s special session call is aimed at breaking that impasse in his final months before leaving office.