Salazar's BOEMRE Grants Shell Exploration Permit, Conditionally - Inuvik Pushes For Gas Pipe and Economic Development - Mark Hamilton Levels the Guns of Logic On Anti-development Liberals

A few minutes ago, NGP received the copy of a "Make Alaska Competitive Coalition" statement by former University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton (NGP Photo) smashing a specious contention by Senator Hollis French and Representative Les Gara (i.e. both downtown Anchorage attorneys are schooled in the art of rhetoric) that Alaska's predatory taxes are good for Alaska.   Here is the document for your weekend study.    Between Obama anti-development regulators in the Federal arena and the same mentality hindering development on Alaska lands, the state has a dismal economic outlook when it could be leading American economic recovery in so many ways.   With Alaska's economic lifeline, the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline, 2/3 empty and and becoming more vacant at a throughput decline rate of 6% annually, investment into oil prospects on state land is essential.  Also essential, is a state tax and regulatory policy that attracts and does not repel such investment.  -dh

On the Federal side of the ledger, we calculate that Alaska has not experienced one single positive act of support for its economy or the American economy from the Obama Administration which controls access to Federal on- and off-shore lands.  Below, you'll read the 'conditional good news' that the Interior Department OCS leasing department has tentatively approved Shell's Exploration Plan for next summer.  Trick is to get a final approval in time to mobilize for next summer.  Anti-Alaska development groups are massing to oppose that approval.  A few days ago our own North Slope Borough Mayor blasted the Exploration Plan (EP).  The Pew environmental group has blasted the EP.  Shell answered Pew's blast with a factual response.  Then, we hear that in preparation for next week's trip to Alaska, an Interior Department Press Conference accepted the call of an Alaska environmental lawyer (i.e. Peter Van Tuyn) supposedly calling from a 'Montana mountaintop' blasting Alaska oil and gas development.  Pardon us if these attacks on Alaska seem just too well coordinated.  Pardon us if we remain skeptical that the Interior Department has any intention of forthrightly fulfilling the role of America's landlord by responsibly leasing and permitting exploration and development of America's natural resources.  Pardon us if we doubt the Obama Administration cares a whit about America's economic recovery or American jobs.  -dh

ADN by Richard Mauer.  Shell cleared a major hurdle Thursday in its effort to begin a two-year drilling program in the Arctic Ocean next summer, receiving a conditional exploration permit from the federal agency that oversees offshore oil development.The company said it was buoyed by the morning announcement from the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, just as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar (NGP Photo) was preparing for an Alaska visit next week at the invitation of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (NGP Photo), R-Alaska.  ... Representatives of several environmental organizations, in a joint telephone news conference from Washington, D.C., said they were disappointed by the decision and were studying whether to challenge it in court. Erik Grafe, an Anchorage-based attorney for Earthjustice, said they had 60 days to file a lawsuit.  ... "Shell has been working to secure approval of this plan for over five years," Murkowski said in a prepared statement. "This is another positive step forward, and I'm hopeful that they will soon be able to move forward with exploration and production in the Beaufort."  She, Sen. Mark Begich (NGP Photo-r), D-Alaska, and Rep. Don Young (NGP Photo), R-Alaska, said the exploration project would create jobs and, if commercial development followed, could forestall problems with the trans-Alaska pipeline associated with declining oil flow.  ... Peter Van Tuyn, an environmental lawyer from Anchorage with the Alaska Wilderness League, phoned in to the Washington press conference from a mountain in Montana to say too little is still known about the Arctic environment to justify drilling.  

Today,  House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (NGP Photo) said, after the Department of Labor released its July jobs report: 

Northern News Services by Samantha Stokell.  Jackie Challis (NNS Photo by Samantha Stokell) started working as the town's community economic development manager at the start of July. She comes with years of experience in developing economies and tourism across the North, including a year as Inuvik's tourism co-ordinator, from 2008 to 2009.  ...  "We can't do our jobs without working together," Challis said. "My job is to promote Inuvik to people to live, to work, to invest and to visit."   Her job is also to provide support for potential economic projects such as the Tuktoyaktuk-Inuvik highway, the Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline and the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link.  "The pipeline is the greatest opportunity and the opportunities expand beyond the pipeline and get other businesses and visitors here," Challis said. "We're trying to bring money and people here and the road would not hurt."