Edmonton Journal by Rebecca Penty.   Four thousand speakers, six months, 23 communities.  Plus followup visits to 17 locations on the list.  The panel reviewing Enbridge Inc.’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline has made staying on track a priority, it said Tuesday in releasing where it will host community hearings next year.  The three panel members will begin their tour where the oil pipeline would end in Kitimat, B.C., next Jan. 10 and continue criss-crossing British Columbia and Alberta. Dates, times and venues for each location will be announced later.  The National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, the two organizations conducting the joint review, want to hear from an enormous number of people – the most ever for such a review process in Canada – who requested to make oral presentations on the project.

ADN.  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar (NGP Photo-L) unveiled a proposal to hold 15 lease sales for Ken Salazar by Dave Harbour, DOIareas in the Gulf of Mexico, including two in the eastern Gulf, and three off Alaska’s coast in the timeDavid Hayes by Dave Harbour, DOI frame from 2012 to 2017. The sales off Alaska, where Native groups and environmentalists have objected to drilling, would be the first since 2008. They would be held late in the five-year time frame to allow for scientific evaluations in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, which Interior officials called a "frontier" for drilling. And they would be targeted to avoid areas with cultural and environmental sensitivities, officials said.  "The approach we are taking there is a cautious one," Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes (NGP Photo) said of the Arctic leases. "We are aware of the substantial issues associated with major production."