BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. and Conoco Phillips Alaska told the Senate Resources Committee there are projects the companies could do on Alaska's North Slope to increase oil production, but those projects will have trouble attracting capital investment because of high state taxes. Damien Bilbao, head of finance, developments and resources for BP, discussed a proposed reduction in the "progressivity" of the state oil production tax from 0.35 from 0.40. He told the committee: "A change of five-hundredth of a percentage point will not sway our investment decisions in Alaska." (He was discussing an earlier version of Senate Bill 192 than...