Hot Issue du Jour: Obama Administration Leasing Policy - Mackenzie Stumbling Block is Still Dehcho - 26th Alaska Legislature Ends With Many Energy Actions

Hot Issue du Jour: Obama Administration Leasing Policy: Call To Action

Dan Dickinson (NGP Photo) Summarizes Legislative Session Today At Noon

1.  Mackenzie progress.  Sympatica.  Dehcho Grand Chief Sam Gargan said the pipeline should not go ahead until the First Nations resolve two outstanding issues with Ottawa: the unsettled land claim and a land-use and resource management plan for Dehcho territory.

2.  Domestic Energy Crisis.  Canada's Globe and Mail describes America's domestic energy crisis better than we can.  The urgent message below from Canada describes why we should all join the Consumer Energy Alliance Call to Action and comment on the Interior Department's lease sale planning process.  Here's how (Disclosure Note: I am honored to serve as a volunteer boardmember of CEA).  G&M Story, by Neil Reynolds (G&M Photo): As the only country in the world to embargo its own offshore oil and gas reserves, America’s reliance on imported oil can be regarded as strictly voluntary. U.S. rights to the Outer Continental Shelf encompass 1.7 billion acres of submerged public land. Either by congressional or presidential order, more than 97 per cent of this land has been embargoed for almost three decades: no exploration, no drilling. By conservative calculation, the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf holds 86 billion barrels of crude oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas – enough oil to eliminate imports from OPEC countries for 159,259 days. (The U.S. imports 540,000 barrels of OPEC crude oil a day.)  Thomas Pyle, president of the Washington-based Institute for Energy Research, puts the American restraint this way: “Canada drills for oil in the Atlantic to the north of us. Cuba, Brazil and Venezuela drill for oil in the Atlantic to the south of us. Russia drills for oil in the Pacific to the west of us. Yet, America, the most technologically advanced nation in the world, with the most stringent environmental policies in the world, is the only country that prohibits domestic oil production.”  (See our earlier commentary on this subject.  Also, here.  Then see our recent presentation on OCS-Onshore moratoria to the Energy Council.)

3.  Natural gas tax, Alaska Dispatch by Rena Delbridge.  A controversial push to change the state's gas tax, and quickly, failed in the House today - but backers say the day isn't over.  The vote was one of the closest of the session, and no one seemed to know where it would fall until lawmakers lit up the board.  In favor were 19 lawmakers, including 15 Republicans and four Democrats. Chiming in against the gas tax change (SB 305) were 14 Democrats and seven Republicans.  News Miner by Christopher Eshleman.  The state House approved a rewrite of oil and gas production taxes late Sunday, reversing its own six-hour-old vote and approving a plan that drew heavy attention in the Legislature’s final weeks.

4.  Coastal Management Board Bill Dead (See our Editorial).  Alaska Dispatch by Rena Delbridge.  A Senate bill that's whipped the House Majority into a fuss and has splintered allegiances throughout the Capitol (more here) was laid to rest, for now. The bill (SB4) would have given coastal communities more say in developments - like OCS oil and gas drilling - with the potential to change a way of life nurtured for decades.

5.  Alaska Gas Pipeline.  News Miner editorial by Dermot Cole.  Lawmakers want to put the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation at the center of planning an in-state natural gas pipeline. AHFC woud be given the authority to create a subsidiary that could plan, construct and finance a pipeline or aid in the financing and construction of a pipeline under a bill headed to the governor.

6.  State Energy Policy.  News Miner editorial by Dermot Cole.  The Legislature moved closer today to adopting a state energy policy that contains many ambitious goals.  But the document approved unanimously by the Senate early this afternoon does not say how to make them a reality.