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Dave Ramsay, NWT, Northwest Territories, gas pipeline, oil pipeline, mackenzie valley pipeline, Alaska, Photo by Dave Harbour

Petroleum News by Gary Park.  Arctic Gateway, a sweeping initiative to explore ways to move oil and natural gas from Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Alaska to markets in the Asia-Pacific region, will likely be an underpinning of a standalone energy strategy being drafted in the NWT, said Industry Minister Dave Ramsay (NGP Photo).

(See our earlier report, "Another Northwest Passage May Be Viable.  -dh)

Scroll Down For Yesterday's Reports On White House Energy, Etc. Overreach documenting an illogical, harmful attack on American family budgets

Tim Bradner, Governor Bill Walker, AGDC, State Budget, Medicare, Photo by Dave HarbourJournal of Commerce by Tim Bradner (NGP Photo).  On the Alaska LNG Project, another priority, Walker said: “We have met with — and probably again also in the next 30 days — the AK LNG sponsors. We have met with the ADGC (Alaska Gasline Development Corp.) leadership and some of the board members and some of the outgoing administration and had a debriefing with them,” Walker said in the briefing.

Calgary Herald by Mario Toneguzzi.  A new RBC report says slumping oil prices will be a drag on Alberta’s economy in 2015.

Here's a rich source of information on energy regulation: The Cruthirds Report.

NAESB Board of Directors meeting – The North American Energy Standards Board held a Board of Directors meeting in Houston on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014.  There were 50 +/- folks in the room, as well as a large contingent on the phone.  As noted in our last report, I was the featured speaker for the meeting and provided wide-ranging remarks on issues and challenges facing regulators and the industry.  Topics ranged from the DOJ’s investigation of Entergy, the Georgia PSC’s $200+ million “gift” to the Southern Company’s shareholders in the Plant McIntosh affiliate abuse case, the sometimes corrosive political influence exerted by some incumbent utilities and the associated ethical challenges for regulators, and the dire need for better gas-electric process harmonization.  Presentation.

More…. 

The following Advanced Energy for Life article highlights the White House's illogical and harmful attack on America's Constitution.  Meanwhile, keep our 2012 warning commentary in mind as you consider the nexus joining all of these overreach issues — which provide pretext and precedent for omnibus federal control.  -dh

In his Harvard days, Barack Obama studied under law professor Laurence Tribe. Perhaps the future President spent too much time at the law review and missed the part about limited powers. We say that because Professor Tribe delivered a constitutional rebuke this week to the Obama Administration that is remarkable coming from a titan of the liberal professoriate.

Mr. Tribe joined with the world’s largest private coal company, Peabody Energy, to criticize the “executive overreach” of the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule to regulate carbon emissions from existing power plants. In joint comments filed with the EPA, the professor accuses the agency of abusing statutory law, violating the Constitution’s Article I, Article II, the separation of powers, the Tenth and Fifth Amendments, and in general displaying contempt for the law.

The Clean Air Act doesn’t give the Administration the authority the EPA claims….

As Obama Champions Carbon Tax In Low Price Oil Era, Harper Turns Away From Carbon Taxing.  (Note that in the same timeframe, the White House is illogically killing the Keystone XL project that would provide economic stimulus to both the U.S. and Canada.  -dh)

Calgary Herald, by Stephen Ewart.  

Sure it’s “crazy” talk, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper is actually being up front about his assessment of climate policy and the oil industry.

Agree with Harper or not, it’s a change from his government’s long history of over-promising and under-delivering on environmental policies and Canada’s global commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However blunt, the prime minister is being unusually honest.

He’s clearly backing away from earlier — always improbable — climate rhetoric.

With the oil price free fall threatening the $60 US threshold, Harper told the House of Commons this week he has no intention of imposing a carbon tax on a nationally important industry, even as Canada falls further behind GHG commitments and the next round of global climate negotiations kick off.