2009 Archives
More Perspectives: Joint Review Panel on Mackenzie Project - Cairo Report #2 - Also, Kudos to Chuck Gray of NARUC
National Journal by Chuck Gray (NGP Photo). NARUC strongly supports improved energy efficiency as the first option 
for achieving greater energy security, but conservation alone will not be enough to address anticipated demand. To become truly energy independent, Congress and the Obama Administration will need to keep all options on the table—efficiency, renewables, fossil fuels, natural gas, and nuclear. All of these fuels have domestic components, and all must be considered if we are going to wean ourselves from inhospitable foreign energy sources. (See our February 2010 story, 'After The Moratoria Report')
Fox News. International Frontier Resources Corporation, (TSX VENTURE:IFR) today reported that the Joint Review Panel ("JRP") report on the Mackenzie Gas Project ("MGP") was issued on December 30, 2009. The report concludes that the proposed gas pipeline should go forward as it "would deliver valuable and lasting overall benefits for a sustainable future for Northern Canada". The MGP as described in applications to the National Energy Board ("NEB") entails the construction of a 1220 kilometer pipeline connecting gas
fields in the Mackenzie Delta and Central Mackenzie Valley to northern Alberta. The pipelines initial capacity would be 1.2 BCF/D; the pipeline is being designed for the possibility of future expansion to 1.8 BCF/D. The JRP report has been filed with the National Energy Board who are expected to make a decision on whether the MGP project can go forward by September 2010. A copy of the report can be obtained at www.ngps.nt.ca.
I nicknamed my security handler, Amad, President Obama (NGP Photo). Turns out, he's famous among the police and other security professionals for just that reason. Amad is a great representative of his country.
JRP Approves Mackenzie Pipeline But Holds Its Punch - Our Cairo Report
Globe and Mail by Nathan VanderKlippe. A decades-old northern dream has taken a major step ahead after the panel that was assigned to review the Mackenzie Valley natural 
12-31-09 Cairo Report. Upon arrival at Cairo--after a long but pleasant Egypt Air flight from NYC--found security tight. Many uniformed and ununiformed security personnel all talking intently on headsets 
to each other, automatic and semiautomatic pistols and mini-guns open and concealed behind bulging suit coats. We are reminded everywhere that folks are trying to live normal lives amid a dangerous world. Egypt copes well with the challenges facing it. America's leaders better wake up, accept this reality and act accordingly. Guides, security detail and citizens are great. Nice hour-long briefing last night before dinner with Dr. Zahi Hawass (Photo with Billy Harbour). Gave him Alaska gifts. He once took the Alaska Inside Passage voyage and was quite animated about his trip. Got great autographs and photos and stories.
All I Wanted For Christmas.... All I Want For This New Year....
On December 24, 2001 we wrote an editorial satirizing the human greed and mismanagement that was interfering with gas pipeline project advancement.
Northern Gas Pipeline Begins Delivery! - and more....
1. International News. This Northern Gas Pipeline began operations this week (...but it is not serving Canada or the U.S.)!
Sullivan and Young Fight Destructive Beluga Designation
ADN by Don Hunter. Two of the state's top politicians Tuesday said the state should finance an aggressive round of .jpg)
scientific research of Cook Inlet's beluga whales to counter a federal conclusion that the whales are endangered and need special habitat protections. Congressman Don Young (NGP Photo-r) and Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan (NGP Photo-l), speaking at a joint news conference at City Hall, also said they are asking the government to extend for 60 days a comment period on designating critical habitat for the whales. The Anchorage Assembly earlier unanimously passed a resolution asking for the extension on comments, which now is set to expire Feb. 1. (The Beluga designation is another Obama administration attack on Alaska's economy. See our evaluation of the cumulative effect of the President's economic death by a thousand cuts. -dh
Alaska Dispatch by Jill Burke. "Don't take the word of the federal government, that's the worst thing you can do," U.S. Representative Don Young, R-Alaska, told a group of reporters and Alaska Native business leaders Tuesday....
Washington Post (12/21) reports, “Now -- after a year in which a climate-change summit in Copenhagen fell short of most expectations, and with a climate bill stalled in the U.S. Senate -- the EPA might shoulder more of the burden for an administration with historic environmental ambitions. It has already laid plans to tackle greenhouse gases, smog, "mountaintop" coal mining, and the long-running fight to save the Chesapeake Bay. But the difficulties of dealing with coal ash illustrate why such problems can linger unsolved. "I don 't think I've ever seen this many major proposals coming out this quickly," said Jeffrey R. Holmstead, who headed the EPA's air-pollution efforts under Bush, and works for the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani. "They're going to need lots of staff. They're going to need an enormous effort, the likes of which I think they've never seen, in such a short period," said Eileen Claussen of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and a former EPA staffer.
KTUU Anchorage (12/22) reports, “It seems like every few weeks there's been a new twist in what has become a long, litigated process. The Outer Continental Shelf in question is the area 20-70 miles off Alaska's north and west coasts, where offshore drilling proponents say there is potentially 25 billion barrels of oil on tap and another 130 trillion cubic feet of gas. This year, the process of tapping these resources began with senate confirmation of the man who will oversee activity on the OCS. (Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was confirmed in January and promised to visit Alaska as he shaped the nation's policy on oil and gas drilling. Almost immediately, he put OCS drilling on hold, saying he needed more input from communities affected by exploration.
Oil Tax Debate Coming - Wagoner Ponders Bullet Line - Cook Inlet Has Gas; Deliverability Still A Concern
1. Alaska Dispatch by Rena Delbridge (NGP Photo). Some lawmakers say there's a limit to the amount of taxation the oil industry -- which provides 90 percent of the revenue to Alaska's state treasury -- will tolerate. There's a line, they say, and if the state crosses it, oil companies will no longer be willing to keep reinvesting their profits in developing Alaska's resources. That line -- so fine it's invisible -- could be the centerpiece of debate in the legislative session that starts Jan. 19.
2. Radio Kenai by Joe Nicks. Last week, Senator Tom Wagoner of Kenai participated in the special hearing about in-state natural gas and the questioning of the state’s In-State Gasline Chief Harry Noah, who is resigning from the Parnell Administration. Wagoner said he needs more questions answered about the price of natural gas from a bullet line to this region, before he would support it.
3. ADN by Elizabeth Bluemink. Despite recent public debate about future natural gas shortages in Southcentral Alaska, the Cook Inlet area contains enough known natural gas to supply the region's energy needs for a decade or longer, according to a new study by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.
