Alaska § 31.05.093 - Regulated well regulatory cost charge.

§ 31.05.093. Regulated well regulatory cost charge.

 (a) Every person that on the first day of a state fiscal year is the operator of a well for which a permit to drill has been issued under AS 31.05.090 and that has not, before that day, been plugged and abandoned and reported as abandoned in accordance with regulations of the commission shall pay to the commission an annual regulatory cost charge for that fiscal year. A regulatory cost charge may not be collected from a person unless the operation for which the person is responsible is within the jurisdiction of the commission.

 (b) The commission shall annually determine regulatory cost charges under this section. The regulatory cost charge to be paid by a person for a state fiscal year must be based on the total volume during the most recently concluded calendar year for the wells described in (a) of this section of which the person was the operator on the first day of the fiscal year as a percentage of the total volume during the same calendar year for all wells described in (a) of this section. For purposes of this subsection, “total volume” means the sum of the volume of all oil and gas produced from a well and all oil, gas, water, and other fluids, including waste slurry, injected into the well. For purposes of determining volume under this subsection, 6,000 cubic feet of gas has a volume that is the equivalent of one barrel of oil.

 (c) The commission shall determine the regulatory cost charges levied under this section so that the total amount to be collected approximately equals the appropriations made for the operating costs of the commission under this chapter for the fiscal year.

 (d) The commission shall administer the collection of the regulatory cost charges imposed under this section. The Department of Administration shall identify the amount of the appropriations made for the operating costs of the commission under this chapter that lapses into the general fund each year. The legislature may appropriate to the commission for its operating costs under this chapter for the next fiscal year an amount that is at least equal to the lapsed amount. If the legislature makes an appropriation to the commission under this subsection that is at least equal to the lapsed amount, the commission shall reduce the total regulatory cost charge collected for that fiscal year by a comparable amount.

 (e) The commission may adopt regulations under AS 44.62 (Administrative Procedure Act) necessary to administer this section, including regulations for investigation of the accuracy of reported information and for collecting required payments.