In honor of her service and life we provide some of Margaret Thatcher’s quotes. Not included is this one, perhaps the greatest of all: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” Here is a great story. -dh
Last week, NGP reader, Dawn Patience, reminded us of a milestone that quietly passed Alaska 
by earlier this year, 
perhaps lost in the intensity of oil tax reform and intrastate gas supply project debates. In early 2013, Alaska saw production of the 12 billionth barrel of crude oil from the North Slope initial production area. Here’s the link to that story, told by Frank Baker.
Today, Snowflake Rebellion author Tom Brennan (NGP Photo) and I will review this history, a Canadian history ‘tie-in" and related current events with Dorene Lorenz (NGP Photo) of Your Alaska Link. If you don’t have a TV at work, and wish to tune in at 4 p.m., you can catch us on a live stream, here, from anywhere in the world. Ain’t technology great! -dh
P.S. From the News Miner/AP: The end is near. Right? The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn from its 90-day session on Sunday, with a number of major pieces – oil taxes, budgets, an in-state gas line bill – still in play.
P.P.S. Double Hitter: at 1:30 today ADT, the Senate Finance Committee will take testimony on the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation bill and the House Finance Committee will take testimony on the Oil and Gas Production tax reform bill.
CBC notes that a Canadian Province is subsidizing for one of it’s counties what Alaska is planning to do for Fairbanks -dh. The Nova Scotia government has announced plans to spend several million dollars to help bring natural gas to businesses and homes in Pictou County.
Reader Steve Borell brings us this link from Algemeiner. It provides another dimension to the competition U.S. and Canadian natural gas producers experience: attractive and friendly investment climates abroad. -dh
The Tamar field is designed to deliver natural gas rates up to 1 billion cubic feet per day, and will likely reach this maximum capacity during the peak summer demand in the third quarter this year. Noble Energy chairman and CEO Charles Davidson said, “In just over four years from discovery, the Tamar project is fully operational and delivering significant volumes of natural gas to Israel. The project is a technological and commercial milestone for Noble Energy and our partners.”
Fairbanks News Miner. The Senate on Thursday approved a five-year deal to sell royalty oil to Flint Hills Resources’ North Pole Refinery.
Today’s Energy Links, Courtesy: Consumer Energy Alliance:
Philly Blurbs: Philadelphia region an emerging player in energy industry – Now, natural gas is helping to energize the region’s manufacturing base with the revival of several formerly dying or dead facilities. This fall, Sunoco announced that its closed Marcus Hook site will reopen as a natural gas processing facility, which will bring new business and attention to the Delaware Valley. In fact, it was reported that state officials applauded the project as “a big boost for Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale industry by connecting the areas producing natural gas in western Pennsylvania to markets linked to Philadelphia.”
Wall Street Journal (Editorial): The 1% Keystone Confusion – Our favorite anecdote from the tour, however, came when some protesters against Keystone XL chanted outside another rich man’s home, "What do we want from the President? No pipeline for the 1%." These protesters need to have their consciousness raised too. The 1%-ers writing checks to Mr. Obama loathe the pipeline. The folks who need and want it are the 99%. They’re the working stiffs who are "struggling to get by" in this economy.
Oil & Gas Journal (Editorial): Arkansas pipeline leak no reason to block Keystone XL – Environmental pressure groups responded predictably to a Mar. 29 pipeline accident in Arkansas. “With stakes this high,” the Sierra Club said after crude oil leaked into a neighborhood near Little Rock, “there is no excuse for the White House to approve Keystone XL.” So where were the Sierra Club and other like-minded groups when the Carnival Triumph cruise ship blew off its moorings in high winds and hit another vessel in Mobile, Ala., the following week?
POLITICO: Yea or nay, W.H. will face backlash on Keystone – Got questions about the Keystone XL oil pipeline? Don’t ask the White House. Amid growing anticipation over the decision on the controversial project, the White House is swatting away reporters’ questions, directing them to the State Department, which is deep into a lengthy analysis of the pipeline. The State Department is the ultimate decider on the pipeline, not the president, White House aides say. “Again, this is a decision that’s housed within the State Department and made on the merits,” press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Thursday, reiterating his long-standing response to questions about Keystone.
U.S. News & World Report: What’s Next in the Ongoing Keystone XL Saga? – With the public comment period for the State Department’s draft environmental statement drawing to a close, debate over the approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline has started heating up again, not least because of two recent spills involving Canadian crude oil. Although the Obama administration seems to be leaning toward approving the pipeline, according to experts, navigating the political climate surrounding the issue promises to be difficult, especially with the president’s comments about stemming the progress of climate change.
National Journal (Energy Experts Blog): Is the Keystone XL Pipeline Too Risky? – Do the risks associated with the Keystone XL oil pipeline outweigh the benefits? That’s the debate playing out in Washington and around the country right now in the wake of an oil-pipeline spill in Arkansas. The ExxonMobil-owned pipeline accident, which spilled at least a few thousand barrels of oil in a Little Rock suburb, is a stark reminder that energy production comes with unavoidable risks. Ironically, the spill occurred a little more than a year after President Obama signed a law strengthening the nation’s pipeline-safety regulations.
NBC News: Disputes over environmental impact of ‘fracking’ obscure its future – Carol French still has the canning jar full of cloudy and gelatinous water that came out of her well right before her daughter got sick and some of her 40 milk cows developed a rash. She agrees that this jar, by itself, proves nothing about the environmental impact of "fracking," the drilling technology largely responsible for America’s boom in oil and gas production. You can’t determine the environmental effects of drilling and fracking from one person’s Mason jar full of water.
Associated Press: Fracking coalition upsets both greens and drillers – Like a marriage the in-laws don’t approve of, a new plan to strengthen standards for fracking is creating unusual divisions among environmentalists and supporters of the oil and gas industry. At first glance, it’s hard to fathom all the angst over the Pittsburgh-based Center for Sustainable Shale Development. Environmental groups, foundations, and major oil and gas companies came together to support stringent measures to protect air and water from pollution in the Appalachian region, and they invited other groups to join in and help limit pollution from fracking. Not everyone was flattered by the invitation.
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