Our friends at the Resource Development CouncilResource Development Council for Alaska write this morning:

Congress is currently considering the Coast Guard reauthorization bill.  Passage of this legislation presents an opportunity to achieve a short to mid-term solution to Alaska¹s concern with the Emission Control Area (ECA).  Your help is needed immediately, as there is a small window of opportunity.

The U.S. House of Representatives will likely pass a Coast Guard authorization bill soon. At this  point, the best hope is to get language inserted into the Senate version.

Action requested: RDC encourages its members to thank Senator Mark Begich (NGP Photo) for his  efforts and to ask him to obtain the support of the committee members and include the ECA Pilot Project language in the Senate version. Please contact Senator Begich and express the critical nature of achieving a solution now, and request his help in convincing his Democrat colleagues to support the ECA Pilot Project. For additional details and comment points, please see the
Action Alert at:

http://www.akrdc.org/alerts/2012/ecapilotprojectalert.html

Please take action today.  -RDC


Fairbanks News Miner, by Dermot Cole.  Ray Latchem, the developer who started Fairbanks Natural Gas in 1997, spoke to the board of the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce Monday about his proposal for a natural gas treatment plant on the North Slope.  Latchem said that fuel from this system could be trucked to Fairbanks and transported on the Alaska Railroad to Anchorage. The wide gap between natural gas prices and diesel fuel prices is creating a powerful economic incentive to switch fuels.  He said his company, Spectrum LNG, could be producing gas on the North Slope by 2014.