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"Miss a day and miss a lot."
Northern Gas Pipelines is your public service, objective, unbiased 1-stop-shop 
for Arctic gas pipeline history, projects and people, informal and rich with new information, updated daily. Here is the most timely and complete gas pipeline news collection anywhere. Northern Gas Pipelines might be the FIRST Alaska blog. Does anyone know of an older one (pre-2001)? -dh
BOEM Came and Went and We are Stunned - Alaska Energy Employment Hits 30 month Low
BOEM Came and Went and We are Stunned
by
Dave Harbour
Our story of Michael Bromwich's (Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management, Regulation and Enforcement, NGP Photo) visit to the Alaska colony is coming, with commentary. (ADN story by Elizabeth Bluemink; KTUU story by Ted Lamb)
Alaska Dispatch. Data compiled by the Alaska Department of Labor & Workforce Development’s Research & Analysis Section show that since a modest rebound during the first quarter of 2010, oil and gas employment fell again in the second quarter and by mid-year stood at its lowest level in 30 months.
ALERT - ALERT - ALERT: CREDIT WHERE CREDIT'S DUE!
Your author is leaving now for the BOEM meeting, more fully discussed below in the previous page posts.
Come on down!
1. Alaskans should go down to the Dena'ina in Anchorage this morning from 8 a.m.- noon. Here's all the information you'll need. While the public cannot testify, everyone can fill out 'comment cards'.
2. We admire that Governor Sean Parnell will have Commissioner Larry Hartig represent him on Panel III (click link above for information), that Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan obtained a spot on the Panel, that Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich will testify.
3. We are amazed that the organizers refused to allow Alaska Legislators to participate and compliment Representative Craig
Johnson (NGP Photo) on his letter. We appreciate that Alaska State Senate President Gary Stevens and House Speaker Mike Chenault have encouraged Legislators to be involved.
4. We respect the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, Alaska State Chamber of Commerce, Alaska Support Industry Alliance and Resource Development Council for Alaska for defending Alaska's free enterprise system and urging member participation.
5. We also respect the various Anchorage talk show hosts for drawing attention to the event. This discussion by Dave Stieren and Jeff Jones pretty well summarizes the issues at stake (move to minute 35, Dave Stieren Show, Hour 2. This link may be downloaded until this evening).
ALERT - ALERT - ALERT: SUPPORT ALASKA OCS NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE!
ALERT-ALERT-ALERT-ALERT
Tomorrow one Interior Department bureaucrat with less than a week's notice will meet here to decide on the future of Alaska's OCS program. OCS success or failure will impact the future of the existing Trans Alaska pipeline and future gas pipeline projects. Those energy lifelines provide life support to Alaska's Economy...down to the last teacher, laborer or health clinic technician.
Do you care?
Every member of Alaska's Legislature, every news media person should be there. Outside yesterday's Primary Election, nothing more important to Alaska's future (or more newsworthy) will likely occur until the November elections.
Be at the Dena'ina in Anchorage from 8 a.m.- noon. Here's all the information you'll need.
Dave
907-227-7110
P.S. A great friend of Northern Gas Pipelines writes:
"Somehow the meeting on Thursday calls to mind that famous scene from Oliver Twist when a starving Oliver asks the manager of the work house, "Please sir, May I have some more?"
Oliver received a caning for his impudence, I wonder what the DC bureaucrats will do to the sovereign people of Alaska.
It is indeed shameful that most elected officials are such sniveling wimps in the face of unaccountable bureaucratic authority."
Victor John Yannacone, jr., Attorney
A Federal Bureaucrat On Thursday Will Determine the Future of Alaska
A Federal Bureaucrat On Thursday Will Determine the Future of Alaska
Submitted To The Alaska Standard, August 24, 2010
By
Dave Harbour, NGP Publisher (Photo)
Remember the name: “Michael R. Bromwich”, Director, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM), Department of the Interior
Bromwich will play a key role in determining Alaska’s future at a meeting Thursday in Anchorage. Alaska’s elected and appointed leaders, news media, and our citizens should show up en masse as if the State’s survival depended on them. Why? Let’s connect the dots.
First dot. One third of our entire economy and nearly 90% of the state operating budget is based on North Slope oil.
Second dot. North Slope oil throughput in the Trans Alaska Pipeline is down 2/3. Declining at a 6% annual rate, the pipeline could be inoperable within 5-6 years.
Third dot. If North Slope oil becomes stranded, the economics of a gas pipeline will be jeopardized. Scores or up to hundreds of thousands of jobs could be lost; we’re potentially facing a ‘pre-pipeline population’ that will be feeding off the carcass of a dwindling Permanent Fund.
Fourth dot. 1) ANWR, 2) NPR-A, 3) OCS and/or 4) a big new oil/gas discovery on state land could help fill the oil pipeline, provide more economic support for a gas pipeline and sustain Alaska’s prosperity.
Fifth dot. The FEDS are making 1) ANWR and 2) NPR-A development less likely. We hear of not much new oil and gas investment being risked on 4) state lands. That leaves 3) OCS, where companies have spent over $3 billion to obtain federal leases in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas and meet every permitting requirement. The University of Alaska Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research has revealed that OCS development could infuse our economy with 35,000 jobs per year. The oil thought to exist there rivals the Prudhoe Bay reserves and Senators Begich and Murkowski have both introduced legislation that would require the Feds to share revenue with Alaska as the law requires them to do with adjacent states in the Gulf of Mexico OCS region.
Sixth dot. Last week the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) announced its Anchorage 
meeting will occur in the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center this Thursday at 8 a.m. BOEM Director Michael R. Bromwich will preside. Back on June 23, Bromwich sat with Secretary Salazar before the Senate Appropriations Committee wherein Senator Lisa Murkowski (NGP Photo) peppered the Secretary with Questions. That questioning revealed that while the Secretary’s moratorium on oil and gas activity only applied to certain Lower 48 drilling activity below 500’, the agency had put Alaska’s OCS ‘on pause’ (i.e. not a legal term) to look at oil spill response issues. Pushing that so-called pause button resulted in cancellation of this summer’s exciting exploration program. Even though Alaskan OCS exploration involves depths of about 150’, Murkowski’s questioning forced the Secretary to finally admit later in the meeting that, “The moratorium that is in place does in fact apply to Alaska.” No public notice. No public meetings. Just an embarrassing admission. Just one man saying he was -- by personal fiat -- attaching a moratorium to Alaska OCS as a result of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill when no relationship to the Gulf Oil Spill exists. Next, will the Federal Government announce that it is grounding all airline flights in Alaska because a crop duster crashed on the Iowa State Fair? The lack of clarity is astounding for a public agency. As a former regulator I am appalled at this affront to the rule of law and to the right of due process. Six hundred Alaskan OCS jobs that could have been contributing to America’s economic recovery this summer have been hijacked with insufficient explanation. The leadership of the Department of Interior and BOEM have given no clarity, no assurance that they won’t continue to obstruct OCS development next year. Alaska’s social, economic, educational, political and subsistence future is in jeopardy—for these lifestyle values are all supported by declining production of natural resources.
meeting will occur in the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center this Thursday at 8 a.m. BOEM Director Michael R. Bromwich will preside. Back on June 23, Bromwich sat with Secretary Salazar before the Senate Appropriations Committee wherein Senator Lisa Murkowski (NGP Photo) peppered the Secretary with Questions. That questioning revealed that while the Secretary’s moratorium on oil and gas activity only applied to certain Lower 48 drilling activity below 500’, the agency had put Alaska’s OCS ‘on pause’ (i.e. not a legal term) to look at oil spill response issues. Pushing that so-called pause button resulted in cancellation of this summer’s exciting exploration program. Even though Alaskan OCS exploration involves depths of about 150’, Murkowski’s questioning forced the Secretary to finally admit later in the meeting that, “The moratorium that is in place does in fact apply to Alaska.” No public notice. No public meetings. Just an embarrassing admission. Just one man saying he was -- by personal fiat -- attaching a moratorium to Alaska OCS as a result of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill when no relationship to the Gulf Oil Spill exists. Next, will the Federal Government announce that it is grounding all airline flights in Alaska because a crop duster crashed on the Iowa State Fair? The lack of clarity is astounding for a public agency. As a former regulator I am appalled at this affront to the rule of law and to the right of due process. Six hundred Alaskan OCS jobs that could have been contributing to America’s economic recovery this summer have been hijacked with insufficient explanation. The leadership of the Department of Interior and BOEM have given no clarity, no assurance that they won’t continue to obstruct OCS development next year. Alaska’s social, economic, educational, political and subsistence future is in jeopardy—for these lifestyle values are all supported by declining production of natural resources. Seventh dot. If a battalion of environmental activists shows up Thursday in Walrus, Bear and Seagull suits and normal citizens stay home, the impression could be that, “Alaska doesn’t want/need OCS”. So, the seventh dot is participation. That participation dot is connected to all the other dots contributing to the economic survival of Alaska.
Final comment: I’ve tried to testify at all of the Federal hearings and chime in as a citizen, father, retired regulator. I’ve appreciated the participation of Anchorage’s Mayor, our Governor and a few legislators. But almost all of these forum facilitators ask, “Are there any public officials that would like to speak?” It has been surprising to see how few participate from critical categories: Legislators, Assembly Members, Mayors, entitlement program beneficiaries, news media employers and non-profits depending on oil and gas grants and operating funds. I am amazed at how few oil and gas company employees show up as private citizens. Hundreds should show up. One reason for a poor turnout Thursday could be the conscious strategy of 
Bromwich. His Website didn’t even announce the time and location of the Anchorage meeting until late last week.
Bromwich. His Website didn’t even announce the time and location of the Anchorage meeting until late last week.Elected officials wishing to participate in the third ‘Elected Official Panel’ could call Pat Pourchot (NGP Photo), a long-time Alaskan who is Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Alaska Affairs: 907-271-5485. Ask him how elected officials may participate, if at all.
The official BOEM ‘comment card’ for next Thursday’s meeting asks commentors to check off what category they belong to. Categories include: “Oil and Gas Industry, Renewable Energies Industry, Environmental/Natural Resources/Conservation, Science/research, State Government, Local Government, Alaska Native, American Indian, Private Citizen”.
When you review public reports of such comments, you might be surprised at the poor turnout in many categories. I guarantee you, there will be a big volume of comments in the Environmental category. And that, my friends, will provide a legal record upon which BOEM can justify its decision making to deprive Alaska of its economic future. It will be interesting to see how many of our State’s leaders participate. Will candidates who win and lose in today’s Primary Election still feel motivated to participate Thursday, to represent our state’s rights to Bromwich?
Come. 8 a.m. Thursday. Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center. Fill out a comment card and participate as if your job, kids, nation and state depended on it. They do.
