Fairbanks News Miner. A U.S. Senate committee on Thursday approved two lands bills sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (NGP Photo) that aim to facilitate energy projects in and near Denali National Park and Preserve. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, on which Murkowski is the ranking member, passed legislation that would allow construction of a natural gas pipeline along the Parks Highway on the border of Denali National Park and a small land exchange in the park to allow the National Park Service to permit the construction of a micro-hydropower project to power privately owned Kantishna Roadhouse. Murkowski, R-Alaska, first introduced legislation to permit a gas line to be built along the Parks Highway for the seven miles that the highway runs through the park near its entrance in 2010. The bill gives the National Park Service legal authority to permit a pipeline to be built within the park boundaries so the state and pipeline developers can determine the best route based on technical and economic grounds, not because of the legal uncertainty surrounding access for a pipeline running across National Park Service lands. “This bill will overcome a key hurdle for a pipeline to run along the Parks Highway — the most direct route to Southcentral — and removes the uncertainty about possible permitting delays related to crossing federal lands,” Murkowski said in a news release Thursday.
11-11-11 — A Great Date
ALASKA NORTHERN WATERS TASK FORCE: Nov 16 Wednesday Barrow 9:00 AM. Location: Inupiat Heritage Center, Barrow
Topics: Arctic Research and Arctic Changes
9:00am — Introduction and comments from
ANWTF Chair Rep. Reggie Joule (NGP Photo) and other task force members
9:15am–Dan Fitzgerald & Robert Suydam, North
Slope Borough; North Slope Science Initiative
10:15am–Dr. Mark Myers, Vice Chancellor for
Research, University of Alaska, Fairbanks; Oil
Spill Research and other Arctic Research
11:15am–Dr. LaBelle-Hamer, Associate Vice
Chancellor for Research and Director of Office
Research Integrity, University of Alaska,
Fairbanks; Proposed Oil Spill Research Center
12:15pm–LUNCH
1:30pm–Michael Macrander, Shell Alaska, Venture
Support Integration Group Science Team Leader;
Shell’s Arctic Cooperative Science Efforts with
the North Slope Borough, University of Alaska,
Industry Partners, and Federal Agencies
3:00pm–Barrow Arctic Science Consortium Tour
(Task force members and staff only)
5:00pm-6:30pm–Public Testimony
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