ADN Opinion.  Some recent gas pipeline news from Canada has Alaskans wondering whether our big North Slope project faces renewed competition from elsewhere in the Arctic. Canada’s Mackenzie Valley project has now cleared a half-decade-long review of its environmental and social impacts. The $16 billion project had been stalled by the intensive review. At 1.2 billion cubic feet a day, Mackenzie would be a little more than a quarter the size of Alaska’s project, and its gas is scheduled to hit North American markets sooner. Some key companies in Alaska’s natural gas scene — Exxon, Conoco Phillips and TransCanada — are also involved in the Mackenzie project.

ADN, by Sean Cockerham.  Lawmakers making their way to Juneau for Tuesday’s start of the 2010 legislative session expect a bruising fight over whether to roll back Alaska’s oil taxes.  …  "We have no control over economics worldwide, we don’t have any control of the federal taxes. But we do have control over the state taxes and at some point in time during the session this will come up," said House Speaker Mike Chenault (NGP Photo-l).

Tim Bradner Opinion (NGP Photo).   State Superior Court Judge Sharon Gleason rapped the state on the knuckles big time last week over procedural flaws in its 2008 decision to terminate the Point Thomson Unit, a group of oil and gas leases east of Prudhoe Bay where a big gas field was discovered years ago.

Calgary Herald by Dena O’Mera.  More than $43 billion will be invested in Canadian pipelines over the next 15 years to feed an energy-hungry North America, most transporting bitumen from controversial oilsands projects to refineries in the United States, and natural gas from shale plays in British Columbia to industries on both sides of the border."

PNA Publisher Kay Cashman writes:  "…in today’s issue of Petroleum News there is a brief about the launch of our new, international, online magazine, called Greening of Oil. The site address is www.greeningofoil.com — it went live last week."  We compliment Kay on this new adventure and urge our readers to check this Houston Chronicle energy blog page which recognizes the new magazine.  For more information, here’s the official announcement.