We added a new Sub-Tab, above, under ‘Archives’ for "Northern Gas Pipeline History".    It provides historical perspective from the Canadian Broadcast Corporation, the Alaska Gas Pipeline Federal Coordinator’s office and from our own magazine and newspaper articles.  -dh

TODAY IN ANCHORAGE, U.S. Sen. Mark Begich (NGP Photo)U S Senator Mark Begich, Arctic Deepwater Port Roundtable, ARCAC is hosting an Arctic Deepwater Port Roundtable discussion with Alaskans to discuss how increased marine traffic and economic opportunities in the changing Arctic will create a need and demand for an Arctic port in Alaska.  In the discussion with representatives from federal agencies, Alaska Native Corporations, and the shipping industry, Sen. Begich will outline some of the work he has done as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard, consideration of the Fiscal Year 2013 budget and future budgets as additional authorizations will be needed from Congress to move forward on Arctic infrastructure.   The roundtable is scheduled for Monday, April 9 from 3 to 4 pm at the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) Atrium, 311 Providence Drive, on the campus of UAA.   

 

The LegHead Report by Maggie Wall.  If AlaskaMike Chenault, Alaska Speaker of the House, Photo by Dave Harbour legislators want to see a natural gas pipeline built, it’s time to get a project on its way. That was the gist of House Speaker Mike Chenault’s (NGP Photo) comments to the Alaska House last week where he gave an impassioned speech in support of House Bill 9 which he sponsored to move a gasline forward.  

Juneau Empire by Pat Forgey.  Alaska will bring in more than $10 billion in oil revenue during the current fiscal year, as record high oil prices continue to pump money into state coffers.  That’s a billion dollars more than was projected during the Department of Revenue’s last forecast, and $2 billion more than was brought in last year.

Globe and Mail (4/7/12) reports: The debate about climate change and its impact on polar bears has intensified with the release of a survey that shows the bear population in a key part of northern Canada is far larger than many scientists thought, and might be growing…The number of bears along the western shore of Hudson Bay, believed to be among the most threatened bear subpopulations, stands at 1,013 and could be even higher, according to the results of an aerial survey released Wednesday by the Government of Nunavut. That’s 66 per cent higher than estimates by other researchers who forecasted the numbers would fall to as low as 610 because of warming temperatures that melt ice faster and ruin bears’ ability to hunt. The Hudson Bay region, which straddles Nunavut and Manitoba, is critical because it’s considered a bellwether for how polar bears are doing elsewhere in the Arctic.  (More below)

 

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently published an article on 2011 U.S. crude oil imports. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at where the U.S. currently obtains its oil, and how that has changed over the past decade. The EIA story is: Nearly 69% of U.S. crude oil imports originated from five countries in 2011. I downloaded their data sources for 2011 import data, and then also went into the archives and pulled up 2001 import data to create the following table:
 
Ahh, spring. The days get longer, flowers bloom, and gasoline gets more expensive. It’s a galling time for drivers, and it’s more maddening than usual this year. The average price of gasoline could surpass $4 per gallon nationwide as early as this week. It’s already $3.93 per gallon, a record for this time of year.
 
The average price for regular gasoline at U.S. filling stations increased 3.74 cents over the past two weeks and may have peaked, according to Trilby Lundberg, the president of Lundberg Survey Inc. The price jump to $3.9671 a gallon covers the period ended April 6 and is based on the Camarillo, California-based company’s survey of about 2,500 stations.
 
In his speech before the Newspapers Association of America/American Society of News Editors Wednesday, likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney accused the president of changing positions to get re-elected.
 
Minnesota Public Radio: Gas prices are nothing to complain about (Op-ed)
It’s time to be indignant about indignation. Each time gas prices rise, shrieks are heard in the land as if somewhere in the Constitution there’s a right to cheap and plentiful fossil fuels. We’ve been warned for decades about relying on petroleum for our personal transportation, and people are still furious when it happens — again!
 
There is a curious relationship between a state’s gas prices and presidential politics. The higher the price of gasoline, the higher President Obama’s prospects of winning that state. Obama’s electoral map to victory bears a remarkable resemblance to a map of the nation’s highest gas prices.
 
Democrats in Congress are preparing a volley against oil market speculators in their effort to counter charges by Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney that the Obama administration’s energy policies are to blame for skyrocketing gasoline prices. A coalition of consumer groups, petroleum marketers and some industrial users said Thursday that legislation will be introduced in the House and Senate in the next few weeks that would slap new controls on oil futures markets.