Juneau Empire by Pat Forgey.  This Friday, no news may be good news for Alaska's decade-long hopes for getting the state a way to finally get its huge natural gas reserves to markets where it can be sold.  Calgary-based TransCanada Corp., which is developing a pipeline in conjunction with the state under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, will conclude Friday its first "open season," during which it solicits bids from customers of the estimated $40 billion pipeline.

Province by Monty Bassett.  Dubbed the Northern Gateway, the pipeline proposed by Enbridge Inc. would bring tarsands oil from Alberta to the coastal town of Kitimat and then ship it via supertankers to refineries in Asia.  The street banner doesn't tell the whole story. The main problem is not the pipeline per se, although many now have strong concerns about pipeline safety. Rather it is supertankers running through the narrow labyrinth of islands and fjords between Haida Gwaii and the mainland.  If Enbridge's plan goes through, supertankers will travel right by Gil Island, where B.C. Ferries' Queen of the North sank in 2006.  To win the hearts and minds of Canadians and push the pipeline through, Enbridge received $100 million from a group of 10 secret investors ( "Alberta producers" and "Asian refineries" is all the company will say). And suddenly the north and the nation is being bombarded with full-page ads in all of the major and minor media.

ADN.  Two companies that want to store Cook Inlet natural gas production so it can be used by consumers during the winter said Wednesday they have applied for a state certificate for the project. Semco Energy Inc. and MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. have formed a joint venture named Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage Alaska to complete the enterprise. The joint venture applied with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska to own and operate an underground natural gas storage system, they said.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Alaska State Office, Anchorage, Alaska, intends to prepare an Integrated Activity Plan (IAP) with an associated Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) planning area. This notice announces the beginning of the scoping period to solicit public input and comments.

Will Mayor Edward Itta Cause Suffering and Exodus for Future Generations Of North Slope Borough Residents?

In a July 18 Parade Magazine cover story, Mayor Edward Itta (NGP Photo) was quoted as saying, "I'm not trying to stop the oil, but if whales disappear, so will our culture."  (See attached article.)

We believe all Alaskans emotionally support Itta's desire to maintain modern subsistence lifestyles, but Parade readers may not grasp the larger picture.  Alaska's economy is 1/3 dependent on oil.  Alaska's state budget is 90% dependent on oil.  The massive, expensive and even lavish government of the North Slope Borough serves 7,500 citizens at a cost of about 1/4 billion annually ($33,000+/capita).  It requires the infusion of a river of money from federal, state and North Slope oil industry property tax and contracting sources.  In short, without oil subsidizing Alaskan lifestyles, subsistence would become a necessity not a pleasant hobby for whaling captains -- many of whom have six figure incomes.

With Alaska's oil production declining at about 5-6% annually and the state budget increasing at about 10%, Alaska's economy is on a collision course with economic reality.  That reality will affect Mayor Itta's constituents and all other Alaskans as well...and their children and future generations.  The only way future generations of North Slope residents can hope to enjoy what in today's world may be regarded as the 'luxury' of a subsistence lifestyle, is for ANWR to be developed, for a massive new oil discovery on state lands, or for Alaskan OCS to be developed and for the Federal government to share OCS rents, royalties and bonus monies with Alaska.  A gas pipeline would help, too, but the economics of that project in some degree rest on the overall attractiveness of Alaska's investment climate to oil producers.  Also, long-term gas pipeline financing is helped by increased gas discovery in ANWR, OCS or elsewhere along the pipeline route.

If the 'only way' to maintain a comfortable Alaskan, subsistence lifestyle is to support successful, new oil and gas exploration and development projects, one could conclude that lifestyle is in jeopardy.  To date, the biggest obstacle to OCS development in Alaska is Mayor Itta and his environmental extremist allies.  He has supported lawsuits delaying OCS permitting.  He has supported efforts to use jury-rigged legislation (SB4) to provide additional obstacles to oil, gas and mining activity.  He has supported Senator Begich's misguided effort to create additional, Regional Citizen Advisory Councils giving 'super voices' to certain citizens that can only delay oil and gas revenue producing efforts.  He uses every public forum to say, "Well I'm not really against oil, but...."  This comes from a man representing people whose lifestyles would not exist with today's comforts without oil and which will not exist with today's comforts if oil investment retreats from Alaska.  

And if oil investment retreats from Alaska, sucking the air out of this economy, so will many Alaskans begin the long exodus South.  Will some future North Slope families look back and say, wistfully, "We had a good life up here in the Arctic, but my dad and mom lost their jobs because of Mayor Itta.  Yes, we can live up here and hunt whales, but we have no money for guns, ammunition, fast boats and outboard engine gas.  We eat mostly subsistence food and can't afford to shop."

Respectfully, this writer would remind Mayor Itta that Alaskan oil companies haven't killed whales.  It is mostly the fairly well-healed folks enjoying modern oil-economy lifestyles, boats and weapons who kill whales today.

If Parade magazine were to interview me, I'd say, "I'm not against whales, but if oil disappears, so will many, comfortable subsistence lifestyles."

The American Culture.  [T]he Anthropogenic Global Warming scare is not about science and never was. As Climategate proved (but as some of us suspected long before), AGW is the invention of a cabal of activists, all working towards more or less the same ecofascist agenda: Mother Gaia is suffering; it’s mostly our fault; the only way to atone for our sins is to destroy Western industrial civilisation and shackle ourselves with a form of One World government run by ‘experts’ and bureaucrats over whom we have no democratic control. It is a battle against a tyranny every bit as great as we faced in the second world war or the Cold War. All what’s different about this enemy is that instead of jackboots it wears long hair, a warm, caring smile and drives a VW Combi with an ‘Atomkraft Nein Danke’ sticker.

Since we operate this website, occasionally we will stray from the Gas Pipeline mission to make a personal note.  Today we offer two:

1.  Brother Doug Harbour of (NGP Photo) is defending America's constitution and the free enterprise system from his outpost in Eastern Colorado.  Here is his Op-Ed from this weekend's Denver Post and an earlier story (Pueblo Chieftan).  Tuesday, he'll be appearing on Mike Rosen's talk show on Denver's big voice, KOA.

2.  We attended Sunday's Anchorage Community Theater's production and were both impressed with the excellence of our kids' acting/singing and saddened that their director, a local teacher named David Block, required them to memorize and recite a series of snippets of socialistic drivel throughout the 80 minute performance.  We were inspired to write a review and here it is:

Wikipedia reports that lefty playwright A.R. Gurney created “The Fourth Wall” in 1992, currently presented by Anchorage teacher David Block at Anchorage Community Theater (ACT).  We saw it Sunday at the tastefully designed theater on East 70^th Avenue.