A READER WRITES REGARDING YESTERDAY’S "DISCOVERY DAY" CELEBRATION:  Thank you Dave,  this is a great reminder of that great time made possible by many Alaskans and those from Government and from many states, who finally saw the beginning of a new era for the State and the world, and also ended the tough times in getting the TAPS line started and constructed.  I was hired by Alyeska as an HR Operations Supervisor line wide and had the opportunity to drive the road from Pump Station #1 on the North Slope to Valdez every week for 7 years and then was moved into Corporate.   I cherished those days and am proud of everyone who worked for the system and made it as great as it is even today.  Thanks, Paul Richards
 
Commentary:  
Yesterday’s Investor’s Business Daily gives evidence Obama is misleading citizens

One also notes Senator Lisa Murkowski’s (Photo) words today on the floor of the Senate, identifying three areas where greater energy supply  is possible: the Keystone XL Pipeline, expanded OCS exploration and better access to Doc Hastings, Congressman, Photo by Dave Harbourfederal lands in Alaska.  -dh

Congressman Doc Hastings (NGP Photo) over in the House, today released updated federal energy production data showing fossil fuel production is down 7 % since Obama took office.   -dh
about the effect of energy supply on prices and about America’s potential to impact supply.  -dh
 
Investor’s Business Daily by John Merline.  When he was running for the Oval Office four years ago amid $4-a-gallon gasoline prices, then-Sen. Barack Obama dismissed the idea of expanded oil production as a way to relieve the pain at the pump.  "Even if you opened up every square inch of our land and our coasts to drilling," he said. "America still has only 3% of the world’s oil reserves." Which meant, he said, that the U.S. couldn’t affect global oil prices.  It’s the same rhetoric President Obama is using now, as gas prices hit $4 again, except now he puts the figure at 2%.  "With only 2% of the world’s oil reserves, we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices," he said. "Not when we consume 20% of the world’s oil."  The claim makes it appear as though the U.S. is an oil-barren nation, perpetually dependent on foreign oil and high prices unless we can cut our own use and develop alternative energy sources like algae.  ….

 

Juneau Empire by Pat Forgey.  …House Speaker Mike Chenault said he was “frustrated” with some of the critics of the plan, who have questioned its route, cost to the state, cost to consumers, and other attributes of the multi-billion-dollar plan.  “Maybe it’s not the right color,” Chenault quipped at a meeting of in-state gasline supporters Tuesday evening.  Chenault said a state gasline was insurance against Southcentral running out of natural gas, but some critics said the pipeline could actually cause that to happen.  New drilling and gas discoveries in Cook Inlet have led to what Gov. Sean Parnell called a “renaissance” of the state’s oldest oil and gas field, but Sen. Joe Paskvan, D-Fairbanks, warned that a state-subsidized line bringing twice the volume of gas to Anchorage that the city uses would depress prices, and exploration.  “It’s important that we not destroy the incentive to explore Cook Inlet,” he said.  It would likely be cheaper to bring Cook Inlet gas to Fairbanks than from the North Slope with a small diameter pipeline, he said.  And Rep. Scott Kawaski, D-Fairbanks, didn’t like the pipeline’s route.  “The AGDC line misses Fairbanks by 37 miles,” he said. The additional cost to ship that gas east to Fairbanks and its military bases will increase the city’s costs.  “We have to have an in-state gasline that actually works,” he said.  What the state really needs, said Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, was a high-volume export gasline that would bring much cheaper gas to residents and revenue to the state at the same time.  “A big export line, either to Asia or the Lower 48, provides substantial revenue to Alaska,” he said.  Locking in the high prices of a small line for decades won’t benefit anyone,” he said.  “The worst thing we can do is build a gasline that produces the most expensive gas, and then build a big line that goes right by them” that they can’t access,” Gara said.  The state is working to develop a big gasline under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act that would bring Alaskan gas to export markets. It has options to go the Lower 48, or to a LNG export terminal, an option that Parnell said he now favors.  Rep. Mike Hawker dismissed those concerns, and said the state needed to get moving on ASAP.  “The Alaska public is tired of us screwing around, the Alaska public wants an Alaskan gasline,” he said.  He said he doubted the ability of the big AGIA line to succeed.  “It would seem to me that the economic viability of that project in the face of the development of shale gas is somewhat compromised at this time,” he said.  AHFC Executive Director Dan Fauske, heading up the gasline efforts, said many of the criticisms he’d read of the ASAP plan in the newspaper were simply not true.  “Some of that stuff, I just get furious when I read,” he said.  Fauske voiced a version of the “If we build it, they will come” argument.  Suppliers and business and industrial consumes will come forward when they see “crazy Alaskans welding pipe together” and will want to make sure they’ve got a part of it, he said.