Edmonton Journal by Michael Smyth.  As PremierPremiers Clark-L and Redford  Christy Clark (EJ Photo-L) ramps up the rhetoric on the proposed Enbridge pipeline, it’s important to know exactly where she stands on the $6-billion megaproject.  …  Consider Clark’s demand for a “fair share” of pipeline profits, an issue that’s triggered a nasty war of words with Alberta Premier Alison Redford (EJ Photo-R).  Redford is angry that Clark has suggested Alberta’s domestic oil royalties could possibly be shared with B.C. in return for this province’s support of the pipeline, which would connect Alberta’s oilsands to our coast.  No one should be surprised Alberta would be hostile to another province trying to siphon away its natural-resource revenue.  So Clark was asked if she would be open to other sources of pipeline revenue. For example: is she willing to consider a B.C. pipeline tax? 

 Tomorrow is Energy Day in Houston!


Andrew Halcro (NGP Photo-L) writesAndrew Halcro, ACES, AGIA, alaska oil taxes, duty to produce, just shoot me already, Photo by Dave HarbourThe "Duty to produce" is the idea that the state has the contractual power to force North Slope producers to start selling their gas.  …    There is no way Alaska courts are going to force the producers to sell natural gas. 


Current Events Seem As Strange As Atlas Shrugged Fiction

by

Dave Harbour

In an ADN Op-Ed by Don Smith, he argues for reducing spending to accommodate diminished oil production and, perhaps increasing mining taxes which would inject more uncertainty into the calculus of mining investments.  The words of this republican candidate will give no clarity or comfort to either oil or mining investors.

See Prosperity Alaska’s Candidate Comparisons Here

In an ADN Op-Ed by Berta Garner, she says rightly that Alaska’s oil production decline must be reversed but offers no solution which would increase oil investment in this politically volatile, logistically complex, climactically disadvantaged, high cost state.  While giving lip service to mining as being ‘important’, she strongly hints that mining and fish resources are mutually exclusive.  The words of this democrat candidate will give no clarity or comfort to either oil or mining investors.

These ADN Op-Eds were mischaracterized as ‘point-counterpoint’ opinions.  Most of our readers might agree that at least on oil and mining issues, the gulf between this republican and democrat was not very wide or deep.  

A theme running through all the stories today is that of government officials pretending to know how to outthink a private sector and a free market.

Last night I attended the second of the "Atlas Shrugged" series movies and recommend it to our readers.  While those with progressive leanings will snicker and make fun of the basic messages embedded in the movie, an objective viewer might well see disturbing similarities being played out in the real world, symbolized by the many stories of government-citizen tension amply illustrated in these pages over the past decade.  Recent examples include the above references to a British Columbia’s Premier, the controling characteristics of two Alaska legislative candidates and a movement to create a new ‘duty to produce’ which would make contracts meaningless and laws as meaningful as shifting, volitile windstorms.  And that is the tip of the iceberg to those of us familiar with federal actions in both Canada and the U.S., initiatives by local regulators and politicians and by the judicial systems who’ve punished many projects and citizens with judicial precedents embedded in Alaska’s "Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing," and Canada’s "Duty to Consult".

Those willing to remain seated, as I did, after the show, meditating, watching the credits scroll down, were rewarded with one last message before the screen went black.  While I did not write down each word, that last Ayn Rand message was similar to the one below.     -dh  (See other reviews: WSJ, FORBESCNN, NR, Part I Trailer, Current Part II Trailer)


WSJ: The Solyndra Memorial Tax Break. The truth is stranger than the Atlas Shrugged ‘fiction’.  -dh

(For those who missed Fox News’ "Green Agenda".)

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed.   -AR