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04 April 2012 12:25pm

 

 

But seriously, folks: Let's stop enviro-extremists from taking millions of dollars from taxpayers through the courts via irresponsible government agencies that don't keep track of our dollars!

5-18-12

18 May 2012 6:36am

...in progress.

5-17-12 We Detest Intergenerational Inequity -- So Rampant Nationally and Throughout Alaska

17 May 2012 2:09am

Calgary Herald, by Dina O'Meara.  Enbridge Embarks on $3.2 Billion Expansion of Pipeline System

Bloomberg by Ramsey Al-Rikabi.   Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., operator of the 800-mile Trans-Alaska crude system, will close for work (today), the first of as many as five shutdowns scheduled until Aug. 5.

Intergenerational Inequity

by

Dave Harbour

(Read the full article in this month's Alaska Business Monthly: Page 1 and Page 2)

Author's note: Intergenerational inequity is a fancy term for spending money we don't have and letting our kids pay our debt, with interest.  Politicians love this form of theft by a voting generation from the young, unaware non-voting generation.  It is part of the fundamental problem Alaska has as it spends imprudently when elected leaders all know the pipeline is 2/3 empty and on its last legs.  Some will say, "Well, look at all the money we're saving.  No we're not.  We are not paying down the huge public employee retirement deficiency of approximately $15 billion and our bloated, entitlement spending rips ahead as if everything were normal.  Then, there are the $15 trillions of Federal debt.  Parents who do this to their kids should be locked into stocks in Town Square.  But those responsible will instead retire with financial rewards as fewer and fewer employed persons work harder and harder to pay off the indenture placed upon their necks like an ox yoke.  Rise up, children, whether you can vote or not, and begin to tell your parents and elected leaders, "Don't buy your generation services and stuff that I have to pay for!  I am not your indentured servant!  America's founders fought for freedom from 'taxation without representation'.  They won that fight.  Why do you want to make us kids pay the price to win that victory all over again?"  -dh

Maybe our kids, looking forward to no viable economy in Alaska, should confront elected officials and also begin picketing the 'enemy within', NGO's that are doing everything possible to subvert the natural resource development basis of Alaska's constitution.   Then, there's this.  Scroll down for similar news in recent days' reports.  -dh

THREE CHEERS FOR CHAIRMAN DOC HASTINGS!

Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives passed a mineral production and Indian land energy Doc Hastings, US Congress, Photo by Dave Harbourbill.  “By streamlining government bureaucracies, we can boost American production of critical minerals such as rare earths that China has nearly one hundred percent control over.  These critical minerals are vital for manufacturing everything from cell phones to hybrid vehicles.” said Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (NGP Photo).  “Indian lands are unfortunately home to some of America’s highest unemployment rates, yet they also contain the greatest job creation potential through energy development.  Due to restrictive and cumbersome federal regulations, many tribes have been unable to harness their own energy resources.  The Native American Energy Act allows tribes more control over their land by streamlining government barriers to energy production.”

 
“Every provision of this bill was requested by Indian tribes or Alaska Native Corporation leaders.  The bill is a product of consultation with tribal leaders who U.S. Congressman, Don Young, Photo by Dave Harbourare interested in increasing Native Americans’ control over the energy resources beneath and on their lands,” said Indian and Alaska Native Affairs Chairman Don Young (NGP Photo).  “A number of tribal leaders provided excellent testimony underlining the need to remove federal red-tape that stands between them and timely, efficient production of energy resources that creates jobs for tribal members and nearby communities, revenues for the tribal government, and energy security for all Americans.”
 
 
In the spirit of the House Republicans’ American Energy Initiative effort, the House Natural Resources Committee today passed three bills, with bipartisan support, to expand onshore energy production, lower gasoline prices and create new American jobs.  The bills would reduce burdensome government hurdles and streamline duplicative and unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles to onshore American energy production while encouraging job creation and economic growth.
 

 

5-16-12

16 May 2012 6:02am

Washington Times Op-Ed Today: Senators Lisa Murkowski and David Vitter.  TransCanada’s decision to reapply for a federal permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline across the U.S.-Canadian border offers President Obama something that rarely comes around - a second chance to do the right thing.

Calgary Herald by Dina O'Meara.  Oil and Gas Producers Keep Eye On Wildfires



Jim Jansen, Oil Taxes, ACES, Keep Alaska Competitive, Photo by Dave Harbour

AP/ADN by Becky Bohrer. Marc Langland, Keep Alaska Competitive, Oil Taxes, ACES, Northrim Bank, Photo by Dave Harbour Marc Langland (NGP Photo-R) and Jim Jansen (NGP Photo-L), co-chairs of the Make Alaska Competitive Coalition, in an email Tuesday, said they are not giving up on pressing for what they call meaningful tax reform, saying the state's economic future is at stake.

AP/ADN by Dan Joling.  "Four groups sue to protect Beluga Whales."  (Comment: Environmental activists within over three dozen resident NGOs in Alaska are working full time to oppose responsible natural resource activity Beluga Whale, Port Woronzof, Anchorage, Alaska, Photo by Dave Harbourin Alaska.  Since Alaska's constitution centers on a sustainable economy based on natural resources, the environmental groups are, in effect, calling for the bankrupting of Alaska.  Alaska's State Senate, by keeping oil taxes at a predatory level are, in effect, however indirectly, working with the environmental activists so intent on shutting down the state's free enterprise sector.  We spied a pod of (at least several dozen) spunky Beluga this past weekend at Point Woronzof (NGP Photo), while photographing a wedding.  Since Beluga populations are stable if not increasing we might have suggested to the headline writer this morning this alternative approach: Groups sue to stop energy production and most human commerce in Cook Inlet, the most populated section of Alaska.  -dh)  

Glen Biegel, KBYR, Talk Show, Photo by Dave HarbourYour author will appear this afternoon on Glen Biegel's (NGP Photo) radio show at 4 p.m. A.D.T..  Call in!    -dh
Shell Canada details BC liquefied natural gas project - Calgary Herald  -  Main callout pointer for calgaryheraldcom .... the province's growing natural gas reserves Thepipeline received a B.C. environmental assessment certificate ... www.calgaryherald.com/business/energy...C.../story.html
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5-15-12 - Alaska's Budget is "Unsustainable", N.D. Overtakes Alaska As Nation's #2 Producer

15 May 2012 6:53am

ADN, North Dakota has passed Alaska to become the Eric Lidji, journalist, Petroleum News Alaska, Photo by Dave Harboursecond-leading oil-producing state in the nation, trailing only Texas. *   *   *   PNA by Eric Lidji (NGP Photo).  Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska Inc. is announcing a 50 million barrel discovery at its budding Nuna development based on exploration drilling completed this past winter. 

Alaska House of Representatives Finance Committee Cochairmen Bill Stoltz (NGP Photo-Bill Stoltz, Alaska House of Representatives, Co-Chairman, Finance Committee, Photo by Dave HarbourFar Left) Bill Thomas, Alaska House Finance Committee Co-Chairman, Photo by Dave Harbourand Bill Thomas (NGP Photo) said yesterday that, "The governor vetoed $66.6 million from the Fiscal Year 2013 statewide operations and capital investment budgets, which total $12.1 billion.  ...   "This is a responsible budget but not a sustainable budget. It is essential for Alaska that we increase production flowing through the Trans Alaska Pipeline with measures like reasonable and responsible oil tax reform."

EPA Threatened with Subpoena for Documents on Obama Coal Reg. Rewrite that Could Cost Thousands of Jobs 

Energy Global.  Despite its importance, the EU is a declining market for Russia’s long-term oil and gas exports owing to the rise of Asia as the world’s largest energy consumer. Russia has therefore been developing oil and gas fields (e.g. those of Siberia and Sakhalian islands) to generate oil and gas export capacities to meet this market’s growing demand, while building export infrastructure, including terminals, LNG plants and, of course, pipelines.

Rebecca Brown's Consumer Energy Alliance energy links for today:
The Houston Chronicle: Quantifying the Energy Revolution **Op-ed by David Holt
Consumer Energy Alliance has long recognized and advocated for the immense economic benefits that domestic energy production brings.  From Pennsylvania to Texas and up to Michigan, we’ve witnessed the tremendous impact that increased energy production – both traditional fossil fuel and renewable energy – has brought to communities.  And now, we have the studies to back that up. Last week, a series of reports confirmed just how significant energy production can have on the economy.  In South Texas, increased activity in the Eagle Ford Shale last year contributed over $25 billion in economic impact.
 
New York Times: Confronting Keystone Again (Editorial)
The next chapter in the Keystone XL pipeline saga has now begun. In January, President Obama rejected the first proposal from TransCanada, the pipeline company, on grounds that there was not enough time for a thorough environmental review of the project, which would carry crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to the Gulf Coast. TransCanada recently filed a new application with the State Department, with alternative routes designed to avoid Nebraska’s Sand Hills region, an environmentally sensitive area that is at risk from potential pipeline leaks.
 
A senior executive with Enbridge, the company seeking to send Canadian oil sands west via pipeline toward Asian markets, says the U.S. production boom and falling imports help make the case for the project. Here are a few blurbs from prepared remarks by Janet Holder, Enbridge's executive VP for western access, to the Canadian Club of Toronto Monday: “[N]early all of Canada's crude oil exports, about 99 per cent, go to only one customer: the United States. US demand is dropping, in fact according to a TD Economics special report released earlier this month there has been a 30% net drop in their imports of oil and petroleum products since 2005. Their domestic supply is growing and they do have a desire to be self-sufficient. Us finding another customer won't hurt their feelings.”
 
The White House is trying to improve its icy relationship with the oil-and-gas industry, but things are far from "hunky-dory," a top energy aide to President Obama said Monday. “The notion that we rolled out the welcome mat or have this hunky-dory relationship that we’re all holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya’ is not exactly where we’re at today,” White House energy adviser Heather Zichal said. Zichal assessed the state of the relationship — and admitted to some regrets — at a natural-gas event Monday hosted by the American Petroleum Institute, the powerful oil industry trade association. Officials should have worked harder in the early years of the administration to communicate with the industry, Zichal said.
 
Barely two months after the cost of fuel was a white-hot matter in the presidential race, the subject has receded, just as prices have declined in much of the country. AAA reported Monday that the national average price of a gallon of gas has declined for 28 straight days, 21 cents off the recent peak of $3.94. That steady decline is the longest such streak since May 2010. Should it continue another day, it would be the longest since the summer of 2009. On the surface, that’s good news for President Obama. Republicans had seized on the rising prices in earlier primaries. Newt Gingrich began to run on a campaign of reducing gas prices to $2.50 a gallon. Others tied it to his administration’s rejection of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

 

5-14-12 - The Obama Administration Could Shut In The Nation's Petroleum Reserve in Alaska

14 May 2012 7:01am

AMA, Alaska Miners Association, Alaska Mining, Photo by Dave Harbour

 

The Alaska Mining Industry Is Honored -- Along with Bob Hoekzema, One Of Mining's StalwartSupporters (NGP Photo: Weekly AMA Meeting, 5-11-12.)

 Paul Jenkins says in his OP-Ed today that, "Without sensible oil tax reform, without more production, Alaskans will have to live with one eye on Alaska North Slope crude oil prices day to day and worry about the national and international vagaries and happenstance that drive them."

See the Alaska Gas Pipeline Federal Inspector News Briefs for Today!

Should Canada be less dependent on foreign oil?

Dan Fauske Says AGDC Still Has Much to Do | Radio Kenai - 5/14/12 The AGDC may not have received funding to take an in-state pipeline to an open season but ... radiokenai.net/fauske-says-agdc-still-has-much-to-do/

All-Alaska gasline the right move for today's market - Juneau Empire - By Sean Parnell Last fall I charted a new course to build a natural gas pipeline and deliver our resource to Alaskan homes and a global market. This new roadmap to a gasline established benchmarks that have been met and backstop our progress toward ...
See all stories on this topic »

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Alaska Is Being Assaulted: Let Me Count the Ways"

 
by 
 
Dave Harbour
 
Beginning today in Point Lay, Alaska and ending on May 24 in Anchorage, the BLM is holding hearings to seek public comment on the future of the Nation's Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A).  
 
First created in 1923 as the Naval Petroleum Reserve Number 4, the area contains significant oil and gas resources.  The area was renamed in 1976 and management responsibilities transferred from the Department of the Navy to the Interior Department (DOI).
 
The BLM has created a Draft Integrated Activity Plan and Environmental Impact Statement (IAP/EIS) which contains four alternatives for NPR-A's future.  Alternatives A, B, and C embrace various levels of restricted access and activity while Alternative D would allow planning for natural resource development, including environmental safeguards.  
 
We believe the consumers of America along with the overall national interest are best served by Alternative D.  Here is an important analysis of the issues provided by the Resource Development Council for Alaska, and here is a link to the BLM notice.  We urge our readers to comment here and ALSO provide oral testimony at one of the upcoming meetings.
 
*     *     *    
 
Some of our newer readers may say of our title, "Isn't this a little bit of an overreaction?  Assaulted?  After all, we're just seeing routine regulatory processes, some hearings and a comment period.  It occurs during every administration."
 
We who have watched the actions of Alaska's Washington overlords for the past three+ years have compelling evidence that, a)  not one major natural resource decision from Washington has reasonably supported the sustainability of Alaska's economy, and b) the pattern of the Obama administration's regulation of Alaska activities has also been harmful to America's economy, national job creation, economic recovery, national defense, the balance of payments and energy security.  
 
Let us count the ways that calculating minds in the Federal capital are sapping the strength from America's largest, most well-endowed state:
 
1.  The NPR-A is an area the size of Maine, managed by the DOI's Bureau of Land Management(BLM).  The only significant environmental damage done in the area was perpetrated by the Federal government which has yet to clean up evidence of its own drilling activity, decades old.  Similar violations committed by private companies would have surely result in heavy fines.   Yet Washington at a time of financial and energy and employment crisis has resisted responsible development of NPR-A.  NPR-A is, for heaven's sake, a NATIONAL PETROLEUM RESERVE, yet the current proceeding could result in shutting in much or all of the NPR-A's future potential to supply domestic energy to our country. 
 
2.  The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, managed by the DOI's US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), is the size of North Carolina and mostly inaccessible wilderness.  Federal law permits oil and gas development on a small sliver on the coast (i.e. "1002 area"), with Congressional approval.  Exploration would occur in the winter when migratory species are absent.  In the adjacent Prudhoe Bay area, a different caribou herd has thrived and more than quadrupled, due partly to human protections.  Though Congress once granted approval for ANWR coastal plain development, President Clinton vetoed the bill in 1995.  The current Administration has not recommended Congressional approval and continues to consider making that coastal sliver, off limits.  Alaska has objected to USFWS steps to seek wilderness designations for the 1002 area within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s 19 million acres that would prevent development of up to 16 billion barrels of oil.
 
3.  Alaska has vast oil and gas potential in the shallow water OCS areas of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, managed by the DOI's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).  The current Administration has continually delayed providing necessary approvals for exploration.  It has used crafty, passive-aggressive techniques wherein one agency will play 'good cop' and another will be the 'bad cop' that denies a permit.  Again, this summer season, companies are poised to explore the leases for which they paid the Federal government billions.  There is no assurance that a combination of Federal obstruction and/or environmental lawsuits will not further delay this important work.
 
4.  The White House, via an Ocean Policy Executive Order that evades Congressional oversight and budget approval, has embarked on a two year crusade by the Council on Environmental Quality(CEQ) to put a huge matrix of regulatory controls over the nation's oceans, the waterways feeding them and the inland areas affecting those waterways.  This process would further erode states' rights and citizen freedom by laying a new net of federal control over already well-regulated water and land activity.
 
5.  Washington is designating an area over half the size of Texas as critical habitat for Alaska's polar bears, whose population is stable if not increasing.  This initiative could stop or limit otherwise legal, reasonable and logical human activity in a state twice the size of Texas with a total population (722,000) smaller than Fort Worth.  The Parnell Administration has vowed to fight “…Improper listings and critical habitat designations with sound science and cost data,” referring to efforts by DOI's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to designate 187,166 square miles as a critical habitat for polar bears—an action Alaska and the Arctic Slope Regional Native Corporation believe will cost Alaskans hundreds of millions of dollars in economic potential.
 
6.  The State of Alaska sued the Secretary of the Interior in U.S. District Court to overturn the federal moratorium on offshore drilling in Alaska’s OCS, on grounds that the Obama administration violated federal law and acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner.
 
7.  Alaska challenged DOI's National Park Service regulations, claiming they violate federal law, usurp state sovereignty, and infringe the liberty of Alaskans.
 
8.  The State of Alaska petitioned The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to remove the eastern distinct population segment (DPS) of Steller sea lions from the list of species protected by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). NMFS is an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Commerce (DOC).
 
There is more we could say about assaults on Alaska.  We believe we are being subjected to an economic death by a thousand cuts.  And, there is much more we could say about similar Federal assaults occuring throughout America (i.e. Consider the USFWS current assault on Texas' economy via the "dunes sagebrush lizard" and EPA's sponsorship of economic distruction.)  
 
But in the spirit of 'one-step-at-a-time' we now focus on the NPR-A challenge and repeat our council to respond to the call to comment and to appear at the public meetings.  It is especially important that elected officials comment and verbally testify, as federal agencies frequently show deference to those of our readers elected to represent the rest of us.
 
Yes, federal actions seem contrived to wear down ordinary citizens and company analysts as well.  We seem to be on the receiving end every month of one initiative after the other to close down reasonable free enterprise and build up a bureaucratic oligarchy to enforce the multiplying array of costly and largely unnecessary regulations.
 
But we cannot give up.  If we stop appearing and commenting, the forces seeking to shut down commerce and our very way of life will own the preponderance of the legal record of these proceedings.  So, we take another deep breath, make another committment to comment, and work toward a better day.
 
End note:
 
2.We often repeat here our allegiance to factual content and urge our readers to provide us with specific suggestions for word changes in any of our news reports or editorials wherein facts are stated.  Thank you!  -dh
We congratulate the Alaska Miners Association for the noble service which has resulted in the following recognition from Alaska's Governor and Legislature:
 

Legislature Honors Bob Hoekzema

Senator Cathy Giessel presented a Bob Hoekzema, Alaska Senator Cathy Giessel, Alaska Miners Association, AMA, Photo by Dave HarbourCitation to Mr. Robert Hoekzema (NGP Photo), Alaska Miners Association at the Alaska Miners Association Anchorage Branch Breakfast on May 11, 2012, for his efforts and commitment in establishing open communication with the Alaska Miners Association Small Scale Miners Committee and the regulators for the State and Federal Agency in the State of Alaska.

The Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management presented the committee with the 2011 Hardrock Miner Committee Outreach and Economic Security Award October 17, 2011. 

Governor Proclaims "Mining Day"

 

Senator Cathy Giessel presented a Deantha Crockett, Cathy Giessel, Alaska Senator, Jim Duffield, Alaska Miners Association, Mining Day, AMA, Photo by Dave Harbour2nd Mining Day Proclamation to the Alaska Miners Association (AMA) last Friday (May 11, 2012) at the weekly AMA meeting in Anchorage.  To receive this Proclamation was Deantha Crockett, Incoming Executive Director of the Alaska Miners Association and Jim Duffield (NGP Photo).  This act commemorates and represents the passing in Congress the General Mining Law of 1872 of the United States.
 

Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell Mead Treadwell, Alaska, Lieutenant Governor, Photo by Dave Harbour(NGP Photo-L)  presented . Steve Borell (NGP lower Photo), past Executive Director of the Alaska Miners Association, Steve Borell, Alaska Miners Association, AMA, Photo by Dave Harbourthe original Proclamation on May 10, 2011 at the Resource Development Council’s Annual Lunch.

 

 

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