Note Canadian Energy Challenges Below

Friday Alert and Comment:  U.S. House of RepresentativesDoc Hastings, US Congress, House of Representatives, Western Washington, Alaska, House Resources Committee, Obama Administration, Photo by Dave Harbour Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (NGP Photo) has been one of the top two advocates in the entire United States Congress for adopting a reasonable national energy policy–in our studied opinion.  Since Alaska composes 3/4 of America’s coastline, 20% of her total land mass and holds, arguably, the preponderance of America’s potential oil, gas, coal and strategic metals reserves, his voice is as critical to Alaska as it is to the nation.  Here is a statement Chairman Hastings issued just today, featuring Alaska Energy Policy issues which we hope you will find useful reading over the coming weekend.  Readers will also find links on his webpage to earlier, important policy statements on OCS, coal and hydraulic fracturing issues.  As always, feel free to send us your comments and suggestions.  -dh
 
LINK: Alaska is home to some of the most abundant energy resources in this country. These resources, if responsibly harnessed, hold the potential to significantly strengthen American energy independence, create thousands of American jobs and generate billions of dollars in new revenue. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration continues to lock-up vast amounts of Alaska’s energy resources.
  • The Obama Administration has delayed permits in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) and is proposing to put over half the reserve off-limits to American energy production.
    • The NPR-A was set aside as a petroleum reserve and remains specifically designated for the purpose of providing oil and natural gas resources to the people of the United States. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the NPR-A contains 2.7 billion barrels of oil and 114 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and there is broad, bipartisan support for developing its resources.
    • The Obama Administration’s Interior Department this year proposed a land management plan that would withdraw half of the 23.5 million acres in the NPR-A to American oil and natural gas production. This would represent the largest wholesale land withdrawal by the federal government in decades.
    • Bureaucratic delays imposed by the Obama Administration continue to block the construction of necessary roads, bridges and pipelines needed to transport the energy out of the Reserve once it is produced. For example, ConocoPhillips waited over four years for a permit to build a bridge and pipeline in order to transport oil and natural gas out of a ready-to-produce field.
  • The Obama Administration opposes opening a small portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to responsible energy production.
    • The North Slope of ANWR, which is not designated as Wilderness, was specifically set aside in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter and Congress for oil and natural gas development. New technologies would allow the full energy potential of ANWR to be accessed by opening up less than 3 percent of its 19 million areas.
    • According to U.S. Geological Survey estimates, ANWR contains approximately 10.4 billion barrels of oil and at peak production could supply the U.S. with up to 1.45 million barrels of oil per day. This is more than the U.S. imports daily from Saudi Arabia.
    • House Republicans have passed legislation to open less than 3 percent of ANWR to energy production, which would create tens of thousands of new jobs and strengthen our economy.
  • The Obama Administration has delayed offshore leases in the Arctic and continues to keep areas off-limits to new offshore drilling.
    • President Obama’s five-year offshore leasing plan only includes two lease sales off the Alaska coast in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. These lease sales are scheduled to happen in 2016 and 2017 – imposing years of delays from when they were originally supposed to take place. Other areas offshore of Alaska remain closed to new energy production.
  • By blocking increased energy production in Alaska, the Obama Administration is also putting the future of the Trans Alaskan Pipeline System (TAPS) at risk.
    • TAPS is the conduit for transporting oil from the far north across Alaska for shipment to Washington state and California for refining and use in the lower 48 states. TAPS at one time conveyed over 2 million barrels of oil a day, but reduced production has left the pipeline at less than half capacity, threatening a shutdown that would impact thousands of good paying jobs.
    • TAPS is one of the most important pieces of energy infrastructure in our nation. Unfortunately, federal policies and inaction are threatening to starve TAPS into destruction.
To learn more about how the Obama Administration has blocked, delayed and hindered American energy production, visithttp://naturalresources.house.gov/roadblocks
Part 1: Offshore Drilling
Part 2: Hydraulic Fracturing on Federal Lands
Part 3: War on Coal
###
 
 
Colleen Starring, Cook Inlet Storage, Enstar Natural Gas, Alaska, AGIA, ACES, RCA, CINGSA, Photo by Dave HarbourCommonwealth North’s (CWN) Energy Action Coalition will meet next Friday in Anchorage with Colleen Starring (NG Photo), President, ENSTAR, who will speak about the CINGSA project status and the benefits to the utility customers that will be realized this winter.  The goal of this group is to continue discussion on CWN’s most recent energy reports Energy for a Sustainable Alaska: The Railbelt Predicament &The Rural Conundrum and highlight and identify challenges and opportunities in Alaska’s energy environment in order to bring informed Alaskans to the table and come to solutions that will benefit all Alaskans and ensure these complex energy issues are understood. If you would like to be added to this distribution list please contact Joshua Wilson at:
 

 

NYT by Ian Austen.  OTTAWA — AND you thought pipeline politics in the United States were treacherous. Rebuffed by Washington on bringing the Keystone XL pipeline down through the western United States, Canada now finds that its Plan B — to build a pipeline to its west coast for shipping to Asia — has become mired in domestic politics thick enough to rival the tarlike oil it hopes to sell.  Getting the oil to the Far East first requires building a $5.5 billion, 730-mile pipeline from landlocked Alberta over a series of mountains to the coast of northern British Columbia. About 220 tankers a year would then navigate some of Canada’s most scenic yet treacherous waters to complete the trip.

WSJ.  Prime Minister Stephen Harper likes to advertise Canada as a market-friendly destination for capital. But at three minutes to a midnight deadline on Friday, Ottawa announced that it won’t allow the $5.2 billion purchase of Progress Energy Resource Corporation by Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas company Petronas. Investors are left to wonder if Mr. Harper has had a change of heart about attracting global capital to develop Canada’s vast oil and gas resources.  Unlike President Obama, Mr. Harper views fossil-fuel deposits as something to be exploited for faster economic development. Recognizing that Canada lacks the domestic capital to do so….