TransCanada Participates in Consumer Energy Alliance's Energy Day in Houston: Video
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Petroleum News: The new board of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. met for the first time Oct. 30. The board selected John Burns, a former attorney general for the State of Alaska, as chair. |
Friday Afternoon Alert: We received a working draft of a Beringia Memorandum of Understanding between the governments of the United States 
and Russia a few minutes ago, courtesy of Governor Sean Parnell's (NGP Photo) Director of State/Federal Relations, Kip Knudson. He obtained the document from the U.S. State Department.
Background. Readers will recall that earlier this week, on October 30, Alaska U. S. Senator Lisa Murkowski and Congressman Don Young wrote to Secretaries of Interior and State regarding this subject. This follows earlier communication from Governor Parnell demanding that the Federal government communicate with Alaska on the status of Beringia plans and negotiations. Yesterday, we provided a review and commentary noting, among other things, that while the US and Russian negotiators probably had a draft agreement, the American public did not.
Having now received the draft, we can only recommend that Alaska Native Corporations, natural resource companies, commercial fishing interests, National Guard, state environmental and natural resources commissioners and other good Alaskans review the draft thoroughly to make their views known to Alaska's Governor and Congressional Delegation. Congressional leaders should also review the document to make sure that the sovereignty of the country is unaffected and that a Senate Treaty Ratification action is truly unneeded. We will also be happy to print any analysis of the Agreement sent to us by thoughtful readers.
Initial Observation.
- Our initial observation is that just because negotiators infer in Para. 10 of the draft that the sovereignty of the country is unaffected does not mean that opinion is factual. Every word should be carefully examined.
- Para. 1. The National Park Service is the designated US participant, an agency whose jurisdiction covers much of the proposed Beringia area discussed over the last 20 years.
- Para. 2 does not translate a description of the 'geographic scope of cooperation' to acres, but in September we said, "The Russian contribution would be 4.5 million acres in the new Beringia Heritage National Park. The US contribution which the NPS thinks are the “most reasonable candidates” are the 6.5 million acres of Noatak National Preserve, 2.6 million acres in the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, 1.7 million acres of the Kobuk Valley National Park and .6 million acre Cape Krusenstern National Monument. While this Agreement mentions the only US contributions as the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve and Cape Krusenstern National Monument, this section goes on to say that, "Either Government may change the aforementioned boundaries of the national parks in its territory in accordance with its country's laws." Since the NPS has already suggested a preference for a larger area one may suppose that to be the desire of at least some of the Administration's leadership.
- Para. 3 describes activities and values that almost anyone would revere. It is important to keep in mind for the benefit of rural and urban Alaskans, however, that it takes a solvent state government to enjoy most of Alaska's values. When Alaska's state government is 90% dependent on oil, a 3/4 empty pipeline with annual throughput declines describes an unsustainable economy. And when the secret to filling the pipeline is partly in the hands of the federal administration, Federal actions in Alaska are noticed. Finally, when the Federal government overreaches its authority by blocking or unreasonably slowing efforts to properly develop the National Petroleum Reserve, the 1002 Area of ANWR, major mining areas, and Alaska's OCS, Alaskans are understandably suspicions about what have been secretive Federal negotiations with Russia to possibly further restrict activity on Alaska lands. In this section a bone is thrown to economic development in the third paragraph but in the order of words it seems to take a much lower priority than other objectives, including social, ecological tourism, recreation, sustainable development (i.e. whatever that means), environmental awareness and education, environmental protection and preservation, cultural exchanges, etc. We would like to see a more robust reference to the importance of oil and gas and mining and marine industries to both countries…otherwise, those values may not be very well represented as future Park Service decisions are made re: Beringia. We would like to see the Federal government appointing an NPS person and an Alaska Governor's appointee as co-representatives of American interests.
- Para. 4. Participants agree to develop a joint action plan. We would like to see the Federal government specifically name the Governor of Alaska or his representative as being a participant in development of the joint action plan–and assume the Russians would want their local government represented as well.
- Para. 5. If Alaska is not equally represented with the Federal coordinator established by this section, Alaska cannot expect to receive any more communication courtesy than it has received in the the last 5 years. This should be an important consideration of the Alaska Delegation if not the entire United States Senate.
- Para. 6. This section is an invitation to build a new bureaucracy with significant, new funding at a time when the Country is already shifting the pain of debt repayment from this generation to the next. This should be an important consideration of the Alaska Delegation if not the entire United States Senate.
- Para. 7. This is 'intent' language. Astute readers will determine whether intent to NOT "… affect other existing or future arrangements between the Governments or between one of the Governments and a third party," is sufficient.
- Para. 8. Does calling this a "nonbinding" Memorandum make all of its parts nonbinding without ramifications to Alaska or the Nation?
- Para. 9. Does the ability to "discontinue cooperation under this Memorandum" relieve Alaska and the Nation from any adverse consequences?
Conclusion. The memorandum appears to be a peaceful extension of olive branches across the cold Bering Strait barrier between nations. But we are concerned and have identified areas where we believe Alaska, the U.S. Senate and the Administration need to share common understandings and consensus.
To achieve consensus, if that is desired, the President could ask the United States Senate and the Alaska Governor/Legislature by resolution to express support. Then, any positive or negative impact resulting from the document's provisions will be shared among the principle stakeholders.
-dh
Heather Handyside in U.S. Senator Mark Begich's (NGP 
Photo) office told us that he, "…met yesterday with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary nominee Jeh Johnson to ensure that Alaska issues, especially an Arctic strategy and the changing role of the Coast Guard, are a priority for the nominee.
“The Department of Homeland Security has a role in both preventing and responding to threats and disasters and I want to make sure that Alaska is incorporated in all of their efforts,” said Begich. “We are entering a new era of Arctic activity with new shipping routes and major increases to maritime traffic. The Coast Guard has effectively been tasked with taking responsibility for a whole new ocean and I want to know that DHS is able to work seamlessly with the Coast Guard and other agencies in the event of a maritime accident or spill.
"During the meeting, Begich stressed the importance of the new Arctic Strategy and pushed for DHS to fully engage in its emerging role in the Arctic.
“'Unlike many other nominees I interview, Jeh Johnson has already visited Alaska twice and already understands our unique challenges and opportunities,'” Begich said.
In yesterday's commentary on Beringia (scroll down), we noted that Senator Begich is researching his position on Beringia. We shall report on his position as soon as the information becomes available.
-dh
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