Notice to Alaska's Governor, Legislature and 49th State Thought Leaders   Respectfully: 1.  Repeal the cruise line head tax law.  This may seem unrelated to Northern Gas Pipelines, but if Alaska doesn't rid itself of its current, pirate mentality, we have no meaningful economic future...only government control.  At the very least, repeal all of the illogical statutory and regulatory requirements accompanying the tax.  Kudos to Steve Hites, Skagway Street Car Company, Inc. -dh   2.  Repeal the misnamed, confiscatory, predatory and suicidal "Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share" production tax; or, at least, [...]

Comment.  Of all the bad news flowing from Washington D.C. these days, today's appointment of Alaskan Larry Persily (NGP Photo) as the Obama Administration's new Alaska Gas Pipeline Federal Coordinator is a shot of good news.  We hope that the infusion of smart, trustworthy Alaskan appointees like Mr. Persily and other recent Department of Interior appointees will provide wise insight to Washington's insiders who, until now, seem intent on destroying Alaska's and America's economy as noted in yesterday's editorial.  -dh  

ADN by Sean Cockerham.  Former state House Majority Leader Ralph Samuels (NGP Photo) announced Tuesday he's running for governor next year. That sets up a Republican primary fight among Samuels, Gov. Sean Parnell and Anchorage attorney Bill Walker over Alaska's relationship with the oil industry.  Samuels was a big critic of the 2007 increase in taxes on oil companies pushed by then-Gov. Sarah Palin. Parnell supported it as Palin's lieutenant governor and still does.  On Tuesday, Samuels described the vote to increase oil taxes as a "feeding frenzy."  "As governor I'll work [...]

ADN Editorial.  Has a bureaucratic turf war undermined the Parnell administration's effort to promote an in-state natural gas pipeline? That's the allegation from state Rep. Jay Ramras, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.  He claims in-state gas line coordinator Harry Noah resigned because his efforts were thwarted by other staff who are more keen on the big gas line through Canada. In particular, Ramras complains that key officials on the governor's gas line team seem to have ruled out one in-state option, a bullet line from northern gas fields to [...]

Find Photos and Stories Here:  12-1-09.

AEA release: The Regional Integrated Resource Plan (RIRP) is a 50-year, long-range plan that will identify combinations of generation and transmission (G&T) capital improvement projects in the Railbelt Region of Alaska. Fairbanks News Miner by Dermot Cole.  The December edition of Business Monitor International’s  monthly review of oil in gas in North America has a grim assessment of the natural gas outlook.  The London-based publication says that Canadian companies such as Suncor Energy, EnCana and Enbridge Energy Partners are looking to sell some of their “noncore” natural gas production because of [...]

 ...story coming Friday on this week's Alaska World Trade Center Luncheon Speaker, Consul General Gao Zhansheng. ADN by Elizabeth Bluemink.  Federal regulators on Tuesday proposed designating more than 3,000 square miles of Cook Inlet as critical habitat for the Inlet's beluga whales.The proposed rule would provide an additional layer of protection for the roughly 300 remaining Cook Inlet belugas that were listed as endangered in October 2008, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  "It means that we are looking more broadly than the species. We're also looking at its habitat," [...]