This morning in Anchorage, Paul Ludwig (NGP Photo-L with RDC’s Sr. VP Phil Cochrane) discussed Linc Energy’s Alaska Plans for Alaska (See video here).  United FishermenArni Thomson of Alaska President Arni Thomson (NGP Photo-r), described Governor Sean Parnell’s "Choose Respect Initiative"

This morning, Representative Mike Hawker (NGP Photo-Below) editorializes: "We Must Be Competitive, Not Just Profitable"        Amen.  -dh

Mike Hawker

Commentary: Margaret Munro’s Calgary Herald article today discusses an environmental initiative spawned from academia which could put another obstacle in the path of the Mackenzie gas project, already burdened with over 200 conditions.  We remind our Canadian friends that a similar environmental strategy is in play in the States.  The Obama Administration’s every action in Alaska for the last two years has been designed to delay or halt natural resource wealth production in Alaska.  In addition to arbitrary and capricious permitting delays, the administration — with support from over four dozen environmental group outposts in Alaska — put overlays on top of permitting delays.  These include improper application of the Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act and the initiation of a whole new matrix of delay techniques enabled by a new Ocean Policy.  Like the Boreal Forest protection concept being advanced in Canada, the US Ocean policy is designed to choke off human activity that is even indirectly related to the health of the oceans as defined by a smart group in the White House headed by the so-called Council on Environmental Quality.  While the techniques employed by enviro-activists in our two countries differ, the objects are shared: erect overlays of complexity into the regulatory system that will discourage natural resource investors, delay those who do initiate projects and kill projects with lawsuits as they seek to advance upstream through the morass of bureaucratic hostility, aided by the outside activists.