Mackenzie Project Delayed Again!  Financial Post,  CBC, Calgary Herald, Vancouver Sun    ADN - AP.  Gov. Sean Parnell (NGP Photo) said miners face an uphill battle against federal regulators, and his office is "fighting with everything we've got" against the feds and "overzealous" environmental groups.   (See Governor Parnell's earlier defensive effort to oppose the Federal government's pattern of abusive rulemaking, litigation and anti-civilization initiatives:  Juneau.  Parnell challenges EPA resource rulemaking.     *    Governor fights Corps of Engineers NPRA decision.     *     Parnell opposes NOAA's Beluga designation.   [...]

"Remember the Alamo!" "Remember Pearl Harbor!" "Remember Bunker Hill!" "Remember the Maine!" "Remember 'Nuts'!" The Mexicans, Japanese, Spanish, Germans and British--once our enemies--became our friends because we prevailed.  Had we not prevailed, America's democracy would have vanished long before now.  Today, our own Federal leaders are attacking the institutions of freedom through propaganda and demonization, over-regulation, delay tactics and executive orders that evade Congressional oversight and constitute the acts of modern-day despots.   The American citizen is an endangered species, suffering economic death by a thousand cuts at the hands [...]

Calgary Herald by Shaun Polczer. Get ready, because today's going to be a Big Day for oil and gas types in Alberta. In fact, the next 48 hours promise to be a barnburner that's going to set the tone for the next decade or so as far as the importance of petroleum in this province.  Around 3 PM MST we're going to get the goods on the latest Alberta land sale, where an area the size the Netherlands is up for bid. Speculation is rampant that EnCana, Shell, Esso or all of [...]

Alaska Dispatch by Rena Delbridge.   ...two new bills hit the Senate on Monday, delivering, as promised, a major change to the state's oil and gas tax structure as a pipeline open season approaches.  The bills, SB 305 (.pdf), and SB 306, would tax oil and gas separately instead of as a combined resource. Senate President Gary Stevens (NGP Photo-l) , R-Kodiak, took the unusual step of referring the bills to only one committee. Typically, bills are sent to three for hearings.  Some lawmakers -- most vocally, Sitka Republican Sen. Bert Stedman (NGP Photo-l) [...]

We began the day yesterday with former Anchorage Mayor Rick Mystrom's briefing on an an Alaska Railroad extension that could ameliorate gas pipeline logistical costs; we ended it with the Iditarod Mushers' Banquet  (Stories and Photos coming....) Tomorrow will be another big day in Washington: tune in over the weekend and find out why before you read about it elsewhere. Alaska Dispatch by Rena Delbridge.  The state has directed an estimated $142 million toward gas line development in the past six or so years. Now Gov. Sean Parnell is asking the [...]

  Today's News Observation: "Some politicians are busy trying to find detours around energy roadblocks government has created.  Other politicians are still busy creating energy roadblocks."      -dh   Calgary Herald by David Akin and Jason Fekete.  ... "We're trying to ensure major resource projects are not unnecessarily slowed down by duplicative procedures," said Environment Minister Jim Prentice (NGP Photo), regional minister for southern Alberta.  There's potentially $85 billion worth of oil and gas projects to be built in northern Canada over the next decade, including the Mackenzie Valley and Alaska pipelines, [...]

Canadian Press by Lauren Krugel.  An official working on Alaska's proposed US$30-billion Denali pipeline says there are benefits to moving the project ahead without the help from the state government, which its competitors have secured. ... "No proponent has an exclusive right to build pipelines in the United States or Canada," Bob Bleaney, general manager of Denali Canada, told the Canadian Institute's Arctic Gas Symposium on Tuesday.   ...  "Denali is proceeding outside of AGIA. We think that actually is a benefit for our project because we're not tied to those particular conditions and [...]

Alaska's economy deteriorates with lower energy production as higher industry taxes nip at the heels of departing jobs and undermine all gas pipeline projects.  Blissfully obese, the bureaucracy and budget crave more and consume our savings.  Unfunded government pension liabilities increase the debt burden to our children and threaten retirees.  Each well-intended elected official has a plan and each plan points to a different path.  Citizens with no intent to invest their own money clamor for public funding of their pet projects.  Predatory federal policies flanked by environmental activist allies [...]

E&E News (2/26, subs. req’d) reports, “Sen. Lisa Murkowski (NGP Photo) will introduce legislation next week barring the president from creating or expanding any national monuments in Alaska without first obtaining congressional approval. ... "Sixty percent of land in Alaska -- some 220 million acres -- is already under federal control, large swaths of which are protected as monuments, parks and wilderness," said Murkowski spokesman Robert Dillon. "That makes it exceedingly difficult for the state to realize its full economic potential." ADN by Lisa Demer.   Twenty-one Alaska lawmakers, including half the state [...]

Master Resource by Dave Harbour.  At the NARUC Winter Meeting in Washington D.C. last week, a Study Group composed of regulatory commissioners, consultants, government and university economists, and non-profit association sponsors released their energy research report: ANALYSIS OF THE SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF MAINTAINING OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION MORATORIA ON AND BENEATH FEDERAL LANDS.  (See our earlier NGP Moratoria Stories here, here, and here.)  (Assessment of the Combined Relative Impacts of Maintaining Moratoria and Increased Domestic Onshore and Offshore Oil and Gas Resource Estimates).   *   Related PNA story on Moratoria [...]

TransCanada's Tony Palmer (NGP Photo) to Address Alliance This Morning (Story coming tomorrow.) Federal Register: In 2005, in the above-referenced docket, FERC enacted regulations under the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act which established the procedures for conducting open seasons for the purpose of making binding commitments for the acquisition of capacity on Alaska natural gas transportation projects. TransCanada Alaska Company LLC (TC Alaska) has recently filed its request for approval of its Open Season plan for its Alaska Pipeline Project in Docket No. PF09-11-001. Denali—The Alaska Gas Pipeline LLC has publicly [...]