ADN by Lisa Demer.  The state of Alaska is considering investing billions of public dollars in a natural gas pipeline venture in the hopes that will make the long-sought mega-project happen.  A state-commissioned study released Monday suggests direct state investment — an ownership share — as a way to improve the economic footing of a liquefied natural gas project that could cost more than $60 billion. The $424,000, 188-page study was by a team that included Black & Veatch, an employee-owned consulting and engineering firm based in Overland Park, Kan., and Daniel Johnston & Co. Inc., a New Hampshire-based oil consultant.

Petroleum News.  The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact John Hendrix, Apache Oil, IOGCC, Environment, AOGA, AOGCC, Photo by Dave HarbourCommission has awarded its Chairman’s Stewardship Award to Apache Alaska Corp. for the company’s nodal seismic survey program in the Cook Inlet basin. On Nov. 5 the commission announced Apache as the winner in the small independent category of the award.  The award recognizes achievements in environmental stewardship by the oil and gas industry.  “We are immensely proud of this award because it formally recognizes what Apache Alaska practices every day — an unwavering commitment to protect the environments in which we operate,” said John Hendrix (NGP Photo), general manager of Apache’s Alaska operations.

Calgary Herald by Stephen Ewart.  B.C. will announce an export tax for its emerging LNG industry later this month and the National Energy Board is to decide on Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to the B.C. coast by the end of 2013. There is also an NEB decision on the reversal of Enbridge’s Line 9 early in 2014 and reviews from the Quebec and Ontario governments on Line 9 and TransCanada’s Energy East oil pipeline to New Brunswick. 

A decision on TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline from the oilsands to the U.S. is presumably coming in the first half of 2014.

Every one of those decisions will impact industry.

Fairbanks News Miner by Dermot Cole.  A new survey of 800 residents shows that the idea of switching from oil to natural gas is wildly popular here, but the price of winning converts won't be cheap.

The Washington Times (11/18/13) reports: “It was a safe bet that President Obama wouldn’t talk about his floundering Obamacare program in his weekly address Saturday, and he didn’t. Instead, Mr. Obama devoted his weekly broadcast to energy, which he called “one area where we’ve made great progress.’ ‘After years of talk about reducing our dependence on foreign oil, we are actually poised to control our own energy future,’ Mr. Obama said, praising his administration’s decision to spend more money on new technologies’. The president hailed the news that the U.S. in October produced more oil domestically than it imported from foreign sources for the first time since 1995. ‘That’s a big deal. That’s a tremendous step towards American energy independence,’ he said.”

Bloomberg (11/15/13) reports: “Philadelphia has 119 fire hydrants that cost about $2,000 each waiting in a warehouse to be installed, yet they sit high and dry because federal regulators say their fittings might taint drinking water with lead. The City of Brotherly Love and communities across the U.S. face the specter of hundreds of millions of dollars in useless hydrants after a surprise ruling last month by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that requires fireplugs put in after Jan. 4 meet stricter standards for lead content, said Tom Curtis of the American Water Works Association in Denver. That means cities must scrap or retrofit inventory or buy hydrants and parts that some vendors aren’t even making yet….’This delivers a huge cost and probably no health protection,’ said Curtis, the water group’s deputy executive director. ‘It needs to be rethought.’”
The Washington Examiner (11/15/13) reports: “Environmental Protection Agency officials are using reproduction fees to delay or avoid releasing documents under the Freedom of Information Act, two conservative think tanks said in a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Free Market Environmental Law Clinic and the Energy and Environment Legal Institute requested communications related to a proposed Northwest coal export terminal in July. The EPA denied fee waivers for the request, even though both groups are supposed to be granted waivers as nonprofits disseminating information for public benefit.”
The Washington Free Beacon (11/15/13) reports: “A group of ‘climate change experts’ that discovered a 507-year-old clam that was the world’s oldest known creature killed it in the process of determining its age. The scientists, determined to count the rings on the inside of the clam’s shell, killed the creature instantly when they opened it up. The Bangor University scientists who murdered the creature also got its age wrong when they published their initial findings, reports the Mirror…Other innocent victims of environmentalism include the more than 600,000 bats and eight federally protected golden eagles killed by wind turbines in 2012, as well as the baby tortoise and kit fox populations threatened by federally financed solar projects.”

 

The Hill (11/15/13) reports: “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is cutting the amount of ethanol and other biofuels that must be blended into the nation’s fuel supply, a victory for oil companies that call the federal ethanol mandate unworkable. On Friday, the EPA proposed draft 2014 blending volumes under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard that are lower than the 2013 requirements, and far less than called for in a 2007 law that expanded the mandate. The EPA is proposing to require 15.21 billion gallons in 2014, down from 16.55 billion gallons in 2013, marking the first time the agency has lowered the target from the prior year. A senior administration official said the Obama administration is firmly supportive of biofuels, but said  ‘market, infrastructure and other constraints’ warrant paring back the mandate.”

ThinkProgress (11/13/13) reports: “A group of top U.S. climate scientists have sent a letter to California Gov. Jerry Brown urging him to issue a moratorium on fracking in his state. Twenty scientists — including James Hansen, former head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and vocal advocate of taking action on climate change, and Michael Mann, professor of meteorology at Penn State University — signed the letter. The Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit group that organized the letter, delivered it to Gov. Brown’s office Wednesday morning.”