Roger Marks, USAEE, IAEE, AAEE, Alaska Conference, oil and gas economist, ACES, AGIA, oil taxes, Photo by Dave Harbour

Just When Alaska Needs Lessons On Economics 101, the United States Association For Energy Economics (USAEE) Will Be Holding Its 32nd Annual Conference In Anchorage in July.  Here’s the Impressive Agenda, A Call for Papers, and Registration–Courtesy Of Alaska Oil and Gas Economist, Roger Marks (NGP Photo)!


Keith KohlCommentary: Energy and Capital’s Keith Kohl says Alaska’s economy is doomed to collapse–and it all has to do with TAPS throughput, as we’ve been reporting for years.  If national attention begins to focus on Alaska’s economic decline more and more, we suspect that interest of investors from many sectors — not just oil and gas — will begin to factor in this different kind of risk.  It is the ‘different’ risk that an investment area may not be sustainable.  It is a risk that if the major taxpayers retreat, taxpayers with shallower pockets may be left holding the bag.  It is a risk that the state touted as resource rich when statehood was granted 54 years ago, may have those resources strangled and stranded by 1) an inhospitable state tax climate and 2) a hostile and overreaching federal government.  The truth hurts.  -dh


Alaska Dispatch, by Pat Forgey.   House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, and Rep. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, are making another attempt at supporting the in-state gasline legislation that they pushed through the House last year but which stalled in the Senate. 


Celebrate "Meet Alaska’s" 30th Anniversary: the Alaska Support Industry Alliance!


Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post, Canada, Journalist, Inuvik, gas pipeline, Photo by Dave HarbourFinancial Post by Claudia Inuvik, Round Church, NWT, Canada, Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline, propane, Photo by Dave HarbourCattaneo (NGP Photo).  There is plenty of blame to go around for failing to turn Canada’s vast Arctic natural gas deposits into one of the country’s major sources of fuel.  Regulatory delays, disagreements between First Nations, opposition from green groups, the discovery of competing shale gas deposits, increasing construction costs — all played a role in the shelving last year of the Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline from Inuvik, N.W.T., to Alberta.  But it’s the economy of the North that is bearing the brunt of the consequences. In a cruel twist, the blow has just expanded as communities such as Inuvik (NGP Photo w/author) and Norman Wells, N.W.T., surrounded by vast hydrocarbon deposits, are forced to import large and costly quantities of fuel from southern Canada to keep homes warm and businesses running.


Fairbanks News Miner by Dermot Cole.  For the last couple of years, Alaska has enjoyed a premium on the price of oil, which has added hundreds of millions of dollars to the state treasury.  But that premium is about to vanish, according to an analysis offered by a oil industry veteran who says that rising production in North Dakota will lead to lower prices on the West Coast for Alaska oil.


Today’s Consumer Energy Alliance Clips:

 

National Journal: Energy in the Next 4 Years 

Over the next four years, energy development will face challenges both from the Obama Administration’s regulatory agenda, as well as from Congress. Additionally anti-development forces are ramping up efforts to block energy development at the local and state level. The regulatory action, stemming mainly from EPA, that stalled during the two years leading up to the election will continue apace, at least until the midterm elections in 2014. Despite the potential for the confirmation of a more moderate Administrator, EPA can be expected to work quickly to promulgate and finalize rules in order to insure completion by 2016. I expect that the agency will push aggressively in several areas including the regulation of coal-fired utilities, regulation of hydraulic fracturing and regulation of offshore oil and gas development.

 

Forbes: A Broken Promised Land 

I’ve always been a big fan of Matt Damon’s movies.  Anyone who knows me well has likely heard me say that there are two actors whose films I don’t miss, because they just don’t make bad movies:  Matt Damon and Denzel Washington. After seeing Damon’s new anti-natural gas film, “Promised Land” on Saturday, I’m not sure I can continue making that statement. Granted, I’m not exactly an unbiased source given the film’s subject matter, but “Promised Land’s” disappointing box office numbers over the weekend would indicate the general public agrees.

 

The Florida Current: Scott maintains narrow view on water, energy issues 

Kevin Doyle, executive director of the Consumer Energy Alliance-Florida, said Florida should be concerned about federal regulations that could possibly restrict natural gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is studying the effects of fracking on drinking water. "If any one of those agencies (studying fracking) start to impose regulations that are over-excessive, that can disrupt the supply chain," Doyle said. His group supports affordable and reliable energy including increased oil production.

 

The Houston Chronicle: Two arrested in Keystone XL protest

Two people were arrested Monday after scores of protesters against the Keystone XL pipeline stormed the lobby of a Houston office for pipeline owner TransCanada, a spokesman for the protesters said. The activists sang and dropped black balloons symbolizing spilled oil in the lobby of the building, located immediately adjacent to the Galleria mall, with some roaming up stairwells and into offices, said Ron Seifert, a spokesman for Tar Sands Blockade, which backed the effort.

 

Associated Press: Colo. oil, gas panel OKs groundwater sampling rule

Colorado oil and natural gas regulators approved rules making the state the first to require energy companies to do groundwater sampling both before and after they drill. The sampling is meant to show whether supplies of drinking water have been affected by energy development. Industry and environmental interests both immediately found fault with the new sampling regulations, which the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission approved Monday as it began a three-day hearing on rule changes. Next, the commission will consider updating how far drilling must be from buildings.

 

Houston Chronicle: Inspectors set to look at rescued Shell drilling rig

Salvage teams anchored the Kulluk rig in Kodiak Island’s Kiliuda Bay after arriving there at 10 a.m. Alaska Standard Time, 1 p.m. Monday in Houston. But for Shell, which owns the 266-foot conical drilling unit and planned to use it to continue a $5 billion quest for Arctic oil this summer, the work is just beginning. Salvage specialists will conduct a detailed inspection of its hull, fuel tanks and equipment. There were no signs of leaking fuel from the rig during its 45-mile voyage from Sitkalidak Island, but 150,000 gallons of diesel and other petroleum liquids are on board.