"While watching a legislative hearing on TV last Monday, I heard a representative of BP tell legislators that any change in oil taxes would "discourage new companies from exploring for oil" in Alaska. This from a company that has done only one new exploration — Mukluk — on the North Slope for more than 40 years. Immediately after the Prudhoe discovery in the late 1960s, then BP CEO John Brown, said the discovery of oil on the North Slope would be treated by his company as a "development" project. And that's what it's been for the past 40 years. Telling Alaska's lawmakers that any change in oil taxes will discourage new companies from exploring for oil in Alaska is simply a shameful scam. New companies will explore for oil in Alaska to find "new" oil, and taxes will play very small part in their decision to explore. Incidentally BP was one of the best explorers for oil in Alaska in the 50`s and 60`s, but it should not now give advice to new companies as to whether to explore in Alaska"