10-18-13

Governor Sean Parnell (NGP Photo) will deliver remarks to the Fairbanks Chapter of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance and the Mat-Su Business Alliance Forum today. Y'all come!

1. Fairbanks. Alaska Support Industry Alliance, 9 a.m., Westmark Hotel

Financial Post by Diane Francis. A major discovery of oil in shale deposits was made this year near Norman Wells (1,700 km north of Edmonton and 500 km south of Inuvik) and a bidding and drilling frenzy is underway. …

Vast portions of Canada’s North are unexplored and unmapped, making Canada itself a laggard in terms of economic development. The territories are cold and remote and unpopulated, but so are Alaska and Siberia and yet those jurisdictions are massively wealthy, have large populations and impressive infrastructure.

The North is North America’s last frontier and maybe its time has finally arrived.

2. Wasilla. Mat-Su Business Alliance, Evangelo's Restaurant, at noon.

Today at noon, Bill Hardham, Repsol's Alaska Project Manager, will outline the company's Alaska operations and also discuss investing in Alaska projects from the perspective of an international oil and gas firm. Where: CIRI building at 2525 C Street.

Repsol is one of the world’s largest oil companies and operates in more than 30 countries with a worldwide workforce of more than 36,000 employees. Alaska is an especially promising area for Repsol, and the company is actively exploring on the North Slope. The company holds 156 onshore blocks to the west of the Kuparak River and Prudhoe Bay fields. Repsol also holds 93 offshore leases (100% working interest) in the Chukchi Sea and 71 leases (20% working interest) in the Beaufort Sea. (Here is a teleconference call-in number 276-4900.)

Bradenton Journal. National Energy Board spokeswoman Rebecca Taylor said Thursday that the TransCanada had a rupture on its NOVA gas transmission line. She says the pipeline has been shut down. TransCanada spokesman Shawn Howard says no public safety threat was expected.

Washington Post. Larry Persily (NGP Photo), federal coordinator for Alaska natural gas pipeline projects, said the state is closer to Asia in terms of tanker voyages than, say, the U.S. Gulf Coast, Middle East, Africa and even some proposed projects in Canada’s British Columbia. He said liquefaction plant compressors run more efficiently when it’s cold — a plus for Alaska’s colder climate — and its well-known that Alaska has the gas; it comes up with oil.

Today's American Energy Alliance News & Comment:

This ain't rocket science….government policies which raise energy costs for consumers (Germans pay 3 times what Americans do for electricity) and business (30% increase in the last 5 years) cost jobs and investment. The Wall Street Journal (10/16/13) reports: “High production costs—especially high energy prices in Germany compared with the U.S. and some European or emerging economies—and lingering uncertainty about the longer-term cohesion of the euro zone are also commonly cited reasons for holding back on domestic investment. Energy utility RWE said it is holding back on investment because of Germany's policy of switching from conventional to renewable energies. RWE spokeswoman Annett Urbaczka blamed what she called ‘uncoordinated and rapid expansion of photovoltaic’ energy, fueled by government subsidies that are widely seen as needy of an overhaul.”
Speaking of science, it appears those dumb, climate denying tea partiers know a thing or two about the ways of the world. Independent Journal Review (10/16/13) reports: "Yale Law professor Dan M. Kahan was conducting an analysis of the scientific comprehension of various political groups when he ran into a shocking discovery: tea party supporters are slightly more scientifically literate than the non-tea party population. When composing histograms of the scientific inference abilities of liberals and conservatives, he discovered that those who described themselves as tea party supporters came out pretty well, based on National Science Foundation standards of evaluation."
Dim Bulb Award: “History will be the judge…When you talk about chemicals in the ground, those chemicals have Barack Obama’s initials on them. Obama is the guy who presided over more fracking than Bush. Is fracking going to be Obama’s legacy?” — Josh Fox, Gasland
Finally some honesty: Even with the ‘best’ example of the carbon tax, it’s just not enough. To come anywhere close to their goals they’ll need to do even more. If you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile. The Energy Collective (10/16/13) reports: “With the exception of implicit prices on carbon on some emissions in Sweden, Japan, and Germany (see yesterday’s OECD report for details), no carbon pricing policy in place today comes close to that type of stringency. Put another way, despite all the good things about BC’s [British Columbia’s] carbon tax (and it got some laudatory words in the OECD report yesterday), it’s barely stringent enough to fit into the IEA’s 450ppm path and it’s not likely to be stringent enough to see BC’s emissions decrease between now and 2020.”
Commissioner O'Malia kills it; and he has the advantage of being correct. E&E News (10/17/13) reports: “A Republican member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission today denounced his agency's efforts to write dozens of new rules under the 2010 financial reform law and warned that energy companies will end up paying more money to manage risk. In a speech at the Edison Electric Institute, Scott O'Malia said he believed the commission has been relying on issuing guidances to set policy and not adequately weighing the costs and benefits of proposals. Energy companies are improperly being swept up into the regulatory regime, the commissioner said.”
Malawi emits less carbon than the U.S. does. Clearly, we're doing something wrong. Let’s all be Christlike and force our children and neighbors to have the same quality of life those in Malawi have. The University of Chicago Divinity School (10/17/13) reports: “This past summer, evangelical pastor Mark Driscoll made headlines for his comments at the Catalyst Conference in Dallas, where he reportedly said, ‘I know who made the environment. He’s coming back and he’s going to burn it all up. So yes, I drive an SUV.’ The idea espoused by some Christians that God will annihilate his creation at the second coming of Jesus Christ—and that this licenses human beings to destroy it in the meantime—is certainly not new.”
All politics is local. The Denver Post (10/16/13) reports: “Ultimately, the Broomfield City Council approved rules that require companies seeking timely approvals to adopt a host of ‘best practices’ that go well beyond state or federal law. The ordinance is a model of how communities can control their own destiny without simply trying to ban drilling. And yet Broomfield voters also face a ballot question this fall that would impose a five-year ban on hydraulic fracturing. We hope they reject this ban and let the new regulations work as intended. Not only is the measure not needed, it's very likely illegal.”
Can there really be any asylum from the horrors of climate change? The Washington Times (10/16/13) reports: “A Pacific Island man trying to flee the rising tides in Kiribati asked a New Zealand court on Wednesday to let him seek asylum as a climate change refugee. The low-lying island nation of Kiribati is an average 6-1/2 feet above sea level, making it vulnerable to rising waters and other climate change effects, Reuters reported. Ioane Teitiota, 37, asked New Zealand's High Court in Auckland to let him appeal a decision that refused him asylum, the report said. The court on Wednesdayreserved its decision.”
This is bad news if you prefer humanity had to live in the dark. Investors.com (10/16/13) reports: “A shale field in Louisiana and Mississippi once deemed too costly is getting a second look from oil drillers who believe lessons from other wells can help them overcome the potentially lucrative play's tricky geology. Goodrich Petroleum (GDP), Sanchez Energy (SN) and EnCana Corp. (ECA) have increased their holdings in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale in recent months, betting it will pay off like other rich shale deposits in Texas and Arkansas.”
The crew is still very much opposed to a carbon tax. Please contact us at nocarbontax@energydc.org if you wish to join our growing ranks. Tom Pyle, American Energy Alliance Myron Ebell, Freedom Action Phil Kerpen, American Commitment William O’Keefe, George C. Marshall Institute Lawson Bader, Competitive Enterprise Institute Andrew Quinlan, Center for Freedom and Prosperity Tim Phillips, Americans for Prosperity Joe Bast, Heartland Institute David Ridenour, National Center for Public Policy Research Michael Needham, Heritage Action for America Tom Schatz, Citizens Against Government Waste Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform Sabrina Schaeffer, Independent Women's Forum Barrett E. Kidner, Caesar Rodney Institute George Landrith, Frontiers of Freedom Thomas A. Schatz, Citizens Against Government Waste Bill Wilson, Americans for Limited Government Wayne Brough, FreedomWorks Rich Collins, Positive Growth Alliance Craig Richardson, E&E Legal The Honorable George Allen, American Energy Freedom Center Dick Patten, Family Business Defense Council James L. Martin, 60 Plus Association