12-31-15 Happy New Year! There is a way to be optimistic!

As 2015 comes to an end today, let tomorrow's new year inspire the sort of dedication and successful work that creates a noble legacy from our service.  A great East Coast attorney reader emailed us about yesterday's commentary: "Great email, lots of news, but I would like to see YOU more positive about the future.  Give me some hope!"  Happy New Year!  L&E H   (The hope lies in the quality of our sowing, doesn't it?  -dh) A faithful, PhD biologist friend has it right: Alaska should keep its eye on [...]

By |2016-12-22T22:27:45-09:00December 31st, 2015|Alaska Taxes|0 Comments
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12-30-15 Tomorrow is the eve of Alaska’s great year of budget challenge

Tomorrow is the eve of Alaska's great year of budget challenge! by Dave Harbour Our friends in Canada are not immune from fiscal challenges.  After all. spending too much may really boil down to 'human nature' issues that, to understand, require us to 'follow the flows of money and power'.   Canada's leaders and Rebecca Logan and a dedicated Alliance staff add perspective to Alaska's fiscal crisis.         Petroleum News.  No easy answer to Alaska's fiscal crisis. environ- mental consti-tuencies are under-mining   eco-   nomic health   with 'Climate Change' [...]

By |2016-12-22T22:27:45-09:00December 30th, 2015|Alaska Taxes, Commentary|0 Comments
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12-29-15 Wilson Condon Passes

Our friend, former Alaska Attorney General Wilson Condon Passes: Anchorage Daily Planet.  NGP Photo.   Wilson and I became closely acquainted during his service with the Hammond administration.  In subsequent years, as he served in the Knowles and Murkowski administrations we had additional reason to confer an a number of gas pipeline policy matters as well as oil and gas tax, royalty and regulatory issues.   He was an accomplished Alaska attorney.  He was a gentleman, a kind man, and an objective, fair-minded professional.  Here is the Family obituary: Wilson [...]

By |2016-03-13T03:48:15-09:00December 29th, 2015|Personal|0 Comments
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12-28-15 Tax Policy, Spending Policy, Oil Policy and Gas Pipeline Policy Are All Related!

Northern Gas Pipeline Readers Join Us In Commenting On Current State of Affairs From a liberal friend, and our reply.   Petroleum News.   House Finance Co-Chair Mark Neuman (NGP Photo) says if Gov. Bill Walker wants to generate new revenue, part of that solution needs to be removing regulations that could stifle {More....} From Ak-Headlamp:  The New York Times covered Alaska’s ongoing fiscal woes as oil prices continue to fall. ... although other resource-based economies are also seeing the long-term impact of declining oil prices, Alaska’s situation is unique as Governor Bill Walker (NGP [...]

By |2016-12-22T22:27:45-09:00December 28th, 2015|Alaska Taxes, Commentary|0 Comments
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12-23-15 Chamber fights oil and other taxes in the name of investment climate “certainty”.

Job providing chamber urges legislators to resist job killing taxes as tax advocate Harry Crawford prepares for legislative bid.  -dh The day before Christmas Eve, we're just connecting some dots, as usual....  -dh Ak-Headlamp.  Harry Crawford, organizer of the failed ballot initiative for a gas reserves tax has filed to run for office.  Again.  Crawford didn’t identify if he would run for the house or the senate – Rep. Lance Pruitt would be his opponent in a house race and Senator Cathy Giessel would be the opponent in a senate race.  [...]

By |2016-12-22T22:27:45-09:00December 23rd, 2015|Uncategorized|0 Comments
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12-22-15 Wise Counsel from “Keep Alaska Competitive”

Wise Counsel from "Keep Alaska Competitive" (Caelus, et. al.) Low LNG and oil prices threaten LNG projects and Alaska's economy....  dh Petroleum News by Alan Bailey (NGP Photo).   As oil prices tumble and with them the potential solvency of the state of Alaska's finances, a heated debate is emerging over both the extent of the problem and the means of putting the state's fiscal position back onto an even keel. On Dec. 7, during Law Seminars International's Energy in Alaska c.... APRN by Rachael Waldholz.  This month, the state committed [...]

By |2016-12-22T22:27:45-09:00December 22nd, 2015|Alaska Taxes, Arctic Policy, LNG|0 Comments
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12-21-15 Port for future Arctic OCS efforts?

Fairbanks News Miner.  Tucked away in this year’s Coast Guard Reauthorization Act, a $175 million bill that just passed the Senate by a unanimous vote, is a land transfer that could be consequential for Alaska’s future role in the Arctic. Conveying 2,500 acres of federal land to state control at Point Clarence on the Seward Peninsula, the provision could set the location for a long-sought deepwater port for the northern half of the state. It’s the latest in a slow-moving chain of events coming together into a framework for Alaska’s [...]

By |2016-12-22T22:27:45-09:00December 21st, 2015|Arctic Policy, OCS|0 Comments
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12-20-15

CBC.  A landslide collapsed and buried buildings at and around an industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Sunday, leaving 27 people missing, authorities said.  A nearby section of China's major West-East natural gas pipeline also exploded, the official China Central Television (CCTV) broadcaster reported. Petroleum News by Gary Park.  The head of Canada’s leading energy pipeline organization is retiring, comfortable in the knowledge that, despite coming under frequent public disapproval, the industry can take pride in what it has accomplished. For Brenda Kenny, president and chief executive officer [...]

By |2016-12-22T22:27:45-09:00December 20th, 2015|Uncategorized|0 Comments
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12-19-15 TransCanada’s Energy East Project Cost Grows

Mining, by Cecilia Jamasmie.   TransCanada Corp (TSX, NYSE:TRP), the company behind the rejected Keystone XL pipeline, filed Thursday a revised application for its Energy East pipeline that includes route changes, and pegs the total cost of the project at $15.7 billion, compared with an initial cost estimate of $12 billion. The new plan makes nearly 700 changes to the pipeline, which would take Alberta crude to an Irving Oil refinery in New Brunswick, in response to concerns for environmentally sensitive areas, such as the Bay of Fundy, in Atlantic Canada. “Canadians want assurances [...]

By |2016-03-13T03:47:45-09:00December 19th, 2015|Interstate Gas|0 Comments
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12-18-15 Alaska Gasline Development Corporation Leadership Changes

(Scroll down or click here for yesterday's 12-17-15 editorial) ADN by Nathaniel Herz.  ... the board of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. made its acting chair, Dave Cruz, the permanent chair, with Hugh Short named vice chair.  The board also unanimously approved the appointment of Fritz Krusen, who was previously a vice president at the corporation, as interim president.... Courthouse News.  Alaska Gov. Bill Walker (NGP Photo) said Thursday his state extended its cooperation agreement with Japan-based consortium Resources Energy to develop natural gas fields in Cook Inlet.      The state [...]

By |2016-12-22T22:27:45-09:00December 19th, 2015|Alaska Taxes|0 Comments
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12-17-15 Alaska: Among LOWEST THREE Economically Free States – Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan Did Better!

Fiscal crises affect national and local governments -- and the oil patch!  -dh Last week in Anchorage, Caelus Energy Alaska's Executive Vice President, Alaska Operations, Pat Foley (NGP Photo), told members of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance that a stable investment climate had helped encourage his company to make big investments in the state's future.  He then added that because of increased talk about oil taxes and the instability of the state's economy, the company's investment decisions are slowing.  "As we look around today," Foley said, "we are starting to become a little [...]

By |2016-12-22T22:27:45-09:00December 17th, 2015|Alaska Taxes, Commentary|0 Comments
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12-16-15

International Business Times, by Craig Medred.  Alaska's "...sense of impending financial doom...." ADN.  Shell seeks to maintain Alaskan Arctic position Today's ​WSJ:​ Opinion Journal: The Paris Climate Pact The Global Battle for Oil Market Share The IRS Targets Political Donors Today's relevant links from O & G Online: U.S. O&G Production Steady Despite Low Prices API: SEC Disclosure Proposal A Step Back​ No Water-Based Contaminants Found In Colorado Wells Relevant energy links from today's Houston Chronicle: Big Oil among biggest winners from budget deal Saudi to increase its refining presence in Asia [...]

By |2016-12-22T22:27:45-09:00December 16th, 2015|Uncategorized|0 Comments
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12-15-15 Alaskanomics and Alaska’s Budget Plan

Today's page may be all about budget...but the budget is all about oil tax policy!  -dh TONIGHT: ALASKA'S GOVERNOR WALKER RELEASES MORE BUDGET DETAIL! FROM ALASKANOMICS: Governor Walker's Fiscal Year 2017 Budget Plan Last week, Department of Revenue Commissioner Randy Hoffbeck, and Tax Division Chief Economist, John Tichotsky, gave a presentation to the Energy Action Coalition about the State's 2015 Revenue Forecast. The Alaska Department of Revenue this week released the first 2 chapters of the Fall Revenue Sources Book for 2015. It contains the annual forecast data that provides basic [...]

By |2016-12-22T22:27:45-09:00December 16th, 2015|Alaska Taxes, Alaskanomics|0 Comments
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12-14-15 LNG To Juneau?

Juneau Empire by Rob Simpson.  I recently read the article about the possibility of bringing natural gas to Juneau in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG). I was at first surprised because in this day and age, burning fossil fuels seems to be a political crime. I read it as objectively as I could and as someone who has invested 25-plus years in the HVAC business (oil, gas and electric systems) I thought I’d try to clarify a few things. Converting a home heated with electric baseboard to gas [...]

By |2016-03-13T03:47:31-09:00December 15th, 2015|LNG|0 Comments
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12-12-15

"Climate Change".  Rich countries will pay poor countries for UN 'concensus' that global warming is real, caused by carbon emission and that humans can eliminate the trend and that eliminatiing the trend is good.  Bottom line, UN goal of "destroying capitalism" has advanced and accumulation of power under UN has taken a giant leap forward.  Alaskan and Canadian oil, gas and coal production will be more costly and all North American consumers and taxpayers will be asked to pay more from family budgets.  Meanwhile, ISIS threat takes a back seat [...]

By |2016-12-22T22:27:45-09:00December 13th, 2015|Commentary, Enviro-Industrial-Governmental Cabal|0 Comments
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