Harper Administration Cuts Canadian Pipeline Red Tape - Alaska considers $167 million gas pipeline budget - Rick Mystrom addresses RDC - Mushers' Banquet another success!

We began the day yesterday with former Anchorage Mayor Rick Mystrom's briefing on an an Alaska Railroad extension that could ameliorate gas pipeline logistical costs; we ended it with the Iditarod Mushers' Banquet  (Stories and Photos coming....)

Tomorrow will be another big day in Washington: tune in over the weekend and find out why before you read about it elsewhere.

Alaska Dispatch by Rena Delbridge.  The state has directed an estimated $142 million toward gas line development in the past six or so years. Now Gov. Sean Parnell is asking the Legislature for another $167 million through June 2011 for more work linking North Slope gas with in-state and Outside markets.  Some put the estimate of state pipeline spending even higher. Larry Persily (NGP Photo-l, Federal Alaska Gas Pipeline Coordinator-designee, describing gas pipeline status to retired legislator Vic Fisher last September), staff to Rep. Mike Hawker (NGP Photo-r), figures the spending since the early 2000s could be at least $200 million if this year's request is funded. That's excluding $140 million of Parnell's request, which goes toward reimbursing a major pipeline project.  But some members of the House Finance Committee are wary of making big investments without assurances that a large-diameter gas pipeline will actually be built.

News Times. Bob Bleaney, general manager of Denali Canada, told the Canadian Institute's Arctic Gas Symposium earlier this week that no proponent has an exclusive right to build pipelines in the United States or Canada.Bob Bleaney, general manager of Denali Canada, told the Canadian Institute's Arctic Gas Symposium earlier this week that no proponent has an exclusive right to build pipelines in the United States or Canada.  (Calgary symposium link here.)

Calgary Herald by Deborah Yedlin.  Wednesday's Throne Speech contained one good tidbit for the energy and mining sectors - a promise that the regulatory process will be streamlined to eliminate the "daunting maze of regulations".  The goal here is to eliminate the layers and multiple reviews that have the potential to discourage investment.  Gee. Can you say, Mackenzie Valley Pipeline?

Calgary Herald by Dan Healing.  Energy and business leaders in Calgary welcomed the Harper government's commitment to cut red tape while condemning its continued deficits following Thursday's federal budget.  The Tories will shift responsibility for energy project environmental assessments to the National Energy Board from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, a bureaucracy-cutting decision that won kudos from the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association.  Association president Brenda Kenny said the move -- which affects only projects that are federally regulated, such as pipelines that cross provincial borders -- would have reduced the near decade it took to have the Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline project approved.  "Something like that up front would have saved a huge amount of time before the project even got underway," Kenny said.  Earlier this year, a review panel report conditionally supporting the project was presented to Ottawa, three years late and $10 million over budget.  ... "What we're proposing, amongst other things, is the elimination of duplication," said Environment Minister Jim Prentice in a later interview. "So this is about balancing, on the one hand, the need to have first-class environmental assessments but also to not duplicate."  Pius Rolheiser, spokesman for the Mackenzie Valley project's lead partner, Imperial Oil, said it's unclear how much the change would have affected the wait for the proposed 1,200-kilo-metre pipeline.  Dave Collyer, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said a focus on regulatory efficiency is a "positive," but otherwise there wasn't much in the budget for the oil and gas sector....

Windsor Star.  The decades-delayed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline has received a much-needed shot in the arm after an independent panel gave its support for the $16.2-billion mega-project. But many barriers still stand in the way of development, and experts said this is just one step on a very long path to development that is still fraught with uncertainty. ... Given the abundance of shale gas deposits in North America and the fact that natural gas prices have plummeted almost 60% from their peak last year, experts said that building the Mackenzie project does not make much sense right now.  But it is also clear from the report that the pipeline is not expected to be up and running anytime soon.  Bob Hastings, an analyst at Canaccord Adams, noted that the panel report recommends, among other things, a “multi-year study” of permafrost before construction of the pipeline can even begin. That is in addition to many other approvals that would need to be obtained.  “It just reinforces what we thought before: This is going to be a very long and delayed process. The stock market is unlikely to assess any economic value to the potential of this project right now,” he said.