_small.jpg)
Senate Finance May Help Create an Economy Killer, A Coastal Management Board - Mayor's Energy Task Force Reports - Legislature Fails on Tax Improvements
Comment: Yesterday we appeared on the Dan Fagan (NGP Photo, w/author) radio program (Link coming)
to discuss current coastal management, tax, and regulatory issues affecting the survival of Alaska's economy. While we focused on a number of immediate threats to the economy, I wish we could have had time to throw KUDOS to several legislators who battled for improvement of Alaska's tax structure (like Rep. Craig Johnson) and incentives for providing more gas exploration and storage in Cook Inlet (like Rep. Mike Hawker) and to Governor Sean Parnell NGP (Photo-l) for his leadership on OCS issues. -dh
-Today, the Alaska Standard prints our Alaska Coastal Policy Board Commentary-
1. Yesterday we analyzed the perils of establishing a Coastal Management Board. Today, the Senate Finance Committee considers approving the concept defined under Senate Bill 4. Here's the hearing schedule.
2. ADN. The push for a major rollback of Alaska's oil tax appears headed toward failure as the Legislature enters the final three weeks of its 2010 session. We have editorialized that providing tax clarity to investors is the most important thing the Legislature could have done this year.
3. Alaska Dispatch. Gas Lines Face Labor Shortage. (Comment: We ask, what gas lines?)
4. Cook Inlet natural gas shortage background: We commented Friday that a legislative bill to create a government sponsored 'bullet line' from the North Slope to feed thirsty Southcentral energy needs would deter investor interest 
in Cook Inlet exploration, development and storage projects. The stories below relate to findings by the Mayor of Anchorage's Energy Task Force, of which your author is a member. Here is the Mayor's News Release and here is the Task Force's Resolution. Todd Disher's Frontiersman story today indicates that Ralph Samuels (NGP Photo) believes the state should focus on a bullet line for supplying Interior and Southcentral Alaska with energy, but, we ask, at what expense to Cook Inlet exploration, production and storage? We need to choose: are we counting on Cook Inlet or the Alaska North Slope for local gas use; and if it is the latter, are we willing to answer in a satisfactory way the many questions that come to mind? See our questions, here. -dh
KTUU. Mayor Dan Sullivan's (NGP Photo) Energy Task Force made two recommendations Monday related to potential rolling blackouts next winter. First, Southcentral Alaska needs to secure storage to keep gas at a constant level despite energy supply peaks and valleys. Second, the task force wants the Regulatory Commission of Alaska to encourage potential investors by speeding up the permitting process and relaxing some regulations that make Cook Inlet unattractive to energy companies.
gas producers and utilities can't meet demand. She says heat and light bills will likely go up with no guarantee the city can keep the lights on. ... "There is a crisis looming, and it is because we had so many years of cheap gas, and a lot of gas. Everybody began to take it for granted that there would be cheap gas and a lot of gas forever. And then, boy, it started getting more and more expensive," Brady said. For Enstar Natural Gas Co., "crisis" is too strong a word, but the company agrees it will get harder to get gas to customers. "If utilities aren't able to find a storage service provider in the near-term then there could be some serious issues," said John Sims. If securing storage and easier permitting don't happen fast enough, the Anchorage area may have to 
bring in foreign gas. "It just boggles the mind that we might be brining in foreign LNG to solve our problems.jpg)
when we've had this long to take meaningful steps to fix (it)," said Bill Popp (NGP Photo) with the Anchorage Economic Development Corp. ... "Many of us have looked at this crisis on the horizon and said that we've got to put a team together to complete the right of way work and the cost estimate for how we could get a line from Prudhoe Bay down into Southcentral. We think that's the number one solution," said Sen. Lesil McGuire (NGP Photo), R-Anchorage. ... But a gas line could be 10 years down the road, and the task force says Southcentral has to come up with a plan to keep the lights on until then. ... Brady says the city needs a plan to build storage by this summer to have a plan in place for 2011, when demand is expected to outstrip supply.
- Login to post comments
