Cairo Smoldering Rebellion in the Land of the Pharaohs ...and steaming up the Nile a year ago, absorbing antiquities; photographing everything from feluccas and sunsets to herbal essence and rug manufacturing, birds, people and ruins; noting the goodness, depression and desperation of the decedents of Ramses, Alexander, Cleopatra and Ptolemy.  Today, tourists are stuck for the time as the Internet, telephone service and airline transport is suspended -- while the Egyptian civilization determines how it will continue forward out of its present chaos.  We are sure that tourism, a major [...]

Rigzone.  It is "perfectly reasonable" to expect that Shell will receive a pending permit to drill off Alaska's northern coast withinabout a year, the co-chairman of a U.S. panel investigating the Deepwater Horizon spill said Wednesday.William Reilly (NGP Photo), testifying before the Senate Committee on Energy and Commerce, was pressed on the panel's recent report, which raised concerns about the safety of drilling in the Arctic. The panel had questioned the oil industry's and the Coast Guard's ability to respond to a spill in those areas. ADN by Sean Cockerham.  Conoco [...]

Calgary Herald: On the eve of an expected federal approval on the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, Minister of Industry Bob McLeod (NGP Photo) said the Conservative government should pay heed to proponents of the $16.5-billion project requesting loan guarantees to backstop the massive project.   1.  Yesterday, we noted the Obama Administration attack on Alaska's economy continues under guise of new conservation policies for ANWR and development of new 'ocean policies'.  (Please scroll down).  Also, yesterday (Alaska Dispatch by Patti Epler), A federal judge has thrown out the state's case against the [...]

 ...sponsored by the Alaska Support Industry Alliance with a Who's Who of Energy Speakers.  Your author will introduce Jack Belcher (NGP Photo), this morning, Managing Director of the National Ocean Policy Coalition (See agenda here).  His coalition is focused on the White House effort to 'zone' the oceans, which could provide a huge new overlay of regulation over all human activity on- and off-shore that affects the oceans in objective and subjective ways.  See our earlier comment here.  We'll bring you more reports later....  -dh     Later.... Today's vibrant [...]

 Governor Sean Parnell's State of the State Speech (Text) Our Comment:  If the Legislature doesn't improve Alaska's tax structure this year they will threaten an early end to operation of the Trans Alaska oil pipeline and delay gas pipeline progress for at least another year.   (See Patti Eppler's Alaska Dispatch story: Senate Finance Committee co-chairman Bert Stedman said the final report isn't expected until June, two months after the session is over.  Senate President Gary Stevens hedged on the notion of a special session to deal with oil taxes, saying that was the [...]