6-18-13 Environmental Opposition and Political Wrangling Threaten Canadian Energy Projects
6-17-13
Huffpost BC by Dene Moore. The proponent and opponents of the Northern Gateway pipeline will make their final pitches to a federal review panel starting Monday, at the last stage of public hearings before the panel issues its decision later this year.
| Calgary Herald by David Fraser. A toxic pipeline spill in northern Alberta — one of the largest leaks in the province’s history — should have been reported sooner, the province’s energy minister said Saturday. |
Fairbanks News Miner, by Matt Buxton. Two competing 
applications to provide natural gas distribution in North Pole might hinder the development of a natural gas trucking plan, a state official explained this week. Alaska Energy Authority Deputy Director Gene Therriault (NGP Photo) told the Fairbanks City Council during a Monday meeting that resolving competing applications by the municipal Interior Gas Utility and private Fairbanks Natural Gas could slow decisions key to the overall project.
6-16-13 Jim Prentice
mind the obligation and the opportunity to give back,” said James Prentice (NGP Photo), a senior executive vice-president for CIBC. Though his own father told him to stay away from politics, Prentice ran for office in 2004 and was re-elected in 2006. He stepped down in late 2010 — though he did promise his father he’d leave politics “with his name intact.” Which leads to his second bit of advice — stand up for your convictions.6-14-13
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WHERE: Gorsuch Commons, University of Alaska Anchorage
WHEN: 2:00 – 5:00 pm on June 14, 2013
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WASHINGTON BRASS GATHER IN ANCHORAGE TODAY.
Today Federal Administration officials will meet in Anchorage to discuss a National Strategy for the Arctic Region. Jim Egan (NGP Photo), of Commonwealth North, sent us a notice, "that on May 10, 
2013, the President signed the National Strategy for the Arctic Region. At that time—recognizing that successful implementation of the National Strategy will depend upon productive collegial engagement with Alaska Natives, the State of Alaska, Members of Alaska’s congressional delegation, and other key stakeholders—the White House 
announced that it would host initial meetings in Alaska in June to discuss how best to move forward."
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Commentary: With federal officials gathered en masse today in Anchorage, we suggest they consider yesterday's natural resource policy commentary (below). We also suggest the visitors review the RDC position regarding one of many examples of EPA overreach, here. We further urge readers to respond to the RDC summons and send in a comment today (Here is how). -dh |
- Penn West takes drastic measures The price of mounting a rescue mission for Penn West, one of the largest landholders in Alberta's tight oil plays, has climbed to the point where the senior producer has launched a strategic review, which usually means it will consider selling assets, finding a joint-venture partner or unloading the....
- BLM extends frack rule comment period Midway through the 30-day comment period on the Bureau of Land Management's revised draft rule to regulate hydraulic fracturing on federal and Indian trust lands, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that the comment period will be extended an....
- Streamlining Bakken permitting The federal government's interagency Bakken Federal Executive Group, an advisory group representing 12 federal agencies involved in the federal oil and gas permit review process in the Bakken, met in Billings, Mont., on June 5 where, according to a June 6 Department of the Interior press release, th....
6-13-13 Hypocrisy
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Huffpost Alberta. Hold on to your hats, Alberta, the Kennedy stampede is headed for the oil sands as a rich kid with few skills and nothing else to do heads north to criticize the very wealth production that has made North America great. This video won't thrill our NGP readers but it is enlightening. -dh |
Wilderness Society Doesn't Support Federal Cleanup Of Federal Drilling Messes In Alaska - New Interior Secretary Opposes Responsible Nearby Exploration. (NGP headline)
Our Comment: In recent Congressional testimony, Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Jewell proclaimed that both the President and she were opposed to oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) -- without explaining why.
Ironically, Wilderness Society spokeswoman, Lois Epstein (NGP Photo), in Anchorage defended DOI's Bureau of Land Management for not cleaning up earlier federal government drilling messes
(AOGCC Photo, 7-28-10, NPR-A Knifeblade #1) in the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska because, as she put it, "it’s extremely expensive to do so in the National Petroleum Reserve. It’s very remote, hard to get equipment there, and frankly there aren’t many people ...who are actually at risk....”
We wonder what Epstein and DOI would have said had the well mess been left by an oil company (i.e. companies require their truck drivers on the Alaska North Slope to place 'aprons' under the engine block to be sure and catch the escape of even one drop of oil. The hypocrisy is pungent.)
So, Alaska is too remote to require the Feds to timely clean up their own mess in NPR-A, too fragile to allow lawful oil and gas exploration in the best areas, but not too remote to require a continuing embargo on exploration in the nearby ANWR.
The inconsistent, anti-job creating position on natural resource issues is the most transparent reality of this administration.
While it would be difficult to find a soul without hypocrisy in some form, hypocrisy that invades national economic and security policy is particularly damaging to masses of constituencies and to the future of families and countries.
The Congress made the Arctic National Wildlife "Range" into a "Refuge" in 1980, rendering millions of acres off limits to natural resource development while preserving a small sliver for oil and gas exploration. The Obama Administration in a time of challenging economic recovery, is within sight of making America energy independent and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs yet opposes oil and gas development where Congress has intended it.
Likewise, if Oil Sands production in Alberta does not go to America via TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline, it will likely go abroad--taking hundreds of thousands of potential North American jobs with it. Professional environmental activists like Kennedy oppose the very wealth producing oil, gas and mining industries that made America and Canada great, while jetting to exotic locations and living carbon-luxurious lifestyles. Ironically, the hypocritical behavior of such citizens does not penetrate their own veils of wealth but cripples the promise and potential of the broad mass of citizens they hypocritically and meanly pretend to represent. -dh
Today's Energy Commentary from American Energy Alliance:
If complete control of a market is called a monopoly, what do you call mandated control of a market...? The Renewable Fuel Standard. PoliticoPro (6/11/13) reports: Sen. Tom Coburn used the nomination hearing for Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs nominee Howard Shelanski to rip into EPA’s renewable fuels standard…“We’re going to see ... two refineries in Oklahoma close within a year, year-and-half, because they cannot afford to buy the renewable fuel credits. So, we got a regulation out there that’s actually going to kill our ability to provide gasoline to the country even with an ethanol blend,” Coburn said at the hearing today… “It would take one adjustment to that regulation and all that’d go away and it won’t make any difference in the long-term in terms of our environmental consequences because we’re still going to have ethanol blended into our fuel,” he said, before asking Shelanski whether he had “any thoughts about that.”
On this issue, Jim Lankford is very solid. President Bush was not. That is all. NewsOK (6/12/13) reports: “FEDERAL renewable fuel mandates passed in 2005 and 2007 could create significant economic hardship, reducing citizens’ take-home pay without offsetting benefit… A recent U.S. House subcommittee hearing chaired by Rep. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, made clear the abundant flaws of the mandate. The Renewable Fuel Standard requires that 35 billion gallons of ethanol-equivalent biofuels and 1 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel be refined by 2022. However, those mandates were imposed when officials assumed that U.S. fuel consumption would continue increasing and that domestic oil production would account for a declining share of supply. Both assumptions were wrong.”
Just in case you were wondering what the reworked cost of carbon means. Bloomberg (6/12/13) reports: “And if Obama approves the pipeline, the higher carbon-cost estimate could to be a part of any lawsuit challenging the decision, according to Bill Snape, senior counsel for the Center for Biological Diversity... ‘It won’t be a game changer, but it would help’ in any legal challenge, he said. The increase in the estimate is being cheered by environmentalists as one small sign that President Barack Obama is going to make good on a pledge from his inaugural address to tackle global warming in the face of opposition from Republicans in Congress.”
Don't miss it!! Resources for the Future (6/13) reports: “This seminar is part of “Considering a Carbon Tax,” a research initiative in RFF’s Center for Climate and Electricity Policy… RFF invites you to learn more about these modeling results in a special half-day seminar featuring distinguished researchers and experts. In the first session, RFF researchers Rob Williams, Richard Morgenstern, Jared Carbone, and Dallas Burtraw will share model results and describe carbon tax impacts across a range of revenue recycling scenarios. In the second session, experts from the research and policy communities (see below) will comment on the economics and the politics of the model’s results.”
U.S. oil production soars (except on federal lands). IER (6/10/13) reports: “The Energy Information Administration (EIA) just released its report, Sales of Fossil Fuels Produced on Federal and Indian Lands, FY 2003 Through FY 2012.[i] This report shows that total fossil fuel production on federal lands is at a ten year low, natural gas production on federal lands is also at a ten year low, and oil production on federal land fell in fiscal years 2011 and 2012 ending two years of increase in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. Specifically the new EIA report shows:”
We agree. The federal government should allow for more exploration of our deep seas. Washington Examiner (6/11/13) reports: “Cameron, who says he has ‘always had an affinity for the ocean,’ commissioned the manned (or "personed," as Cameron pointedly noted, in deference to the many female oceanographers) submersible, which took seven years to build, and piloted it more than 35,000 feet below the ocean's surface… ‘Sending a piloted vehicle down gets a lot more media and public attention,’ Cameron said at a Capitol Hill briefing. ‘I don't have a degree in any of the sciences or in engineering, but I didn't have a degree in filmmaking either, and that didn't stop me.’… He told congressional staff members that he does not have a "specific call to action" on policy, but that it "boils down to funding" deep sea exploration. He and Dr. Susan Avery, director of Woods Hole, compared exploring the deeper ocean to exploring space -- but said the former has been neglected in comparison.”
6-12-13
Yesterday, we noted three important conferences for Alaskans and Canadians; here's a FOURTH! You'll experience a day long LNG conference in Anchorage, on July 10, 2013 at the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center. The program will explore a range of hot topics including LNG exports, State of Alaska initiatives to promote oil and gas development, and unconventional plays. This program will be relevant to senior executives, in-house counsel, infrastructure developers, and buyers and sellers of Alaska oil and gas. (More here....)
