National Post by Peter Foster.  Here’s a thorny question to pose as Prime Minister Stephen Harper moves about the Canadian North this week promoting Arctic sovereignty and use-it-or-lose it development: is the Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline dead? A year ago, Imperial’s CEO Bruce March declared that he was as optimistic about Mackenzie development as he had been “in five or six years.” As recently as January, Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice was talking about getting “framework issues” resolved and moving forward. But whatever fiscal terms the government has offered, Imperial and its partners apparently don’t like [...]

Alaska Standard.  For 30 years Alaskans have also held onto the hope that a gas pipeline would be built, providing a new economic boom and a long-lasting tax base that could replace the inevitable decline of state tax revenues based on oil production. Today Alaska seems poised to realize this dream, but major unresolved obstacles could easily delay or end this project. ...  With Sarah Palin’s (NGP Photo) resignation, it’s now up to Gov. Sean Parnell (NGP Photo) to develop a long-term fiscal plan for Alaska.  Another critical challenge Palin left to Parnell [...]

The Alaska Standard Readers Also Consider Alaska's "Pay to Play" OCS Challenge.  Our earlier Alliance story.  ...and, is Alaska taxing itself out of prosperity?

  Read below for the full language of AR No. 2009-195: "...Whereas, declining BRU field production...may be insufficient to meet its full gas requirement on some heavy peak use days...."     *     See our earlier comments on Cook Inlet Gas Supply: 7-13-09, 7-29-07, 7-30-09 ("Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em....")9, 8-2-09, 6-4-09 and 6-2-09, and 5-23-09 and 5-19-09, and 2-23-09, and 1-30-09 and 12-16-08.        *     CITIZENS AGAINST CO2 SEQUESTRATION by Lawrence Solomon.  The authorities in Canada promise to take this risk seriously and double-promise to design state-of-the-art carbon dioxide storage plants that won't [...]

Examiner.  Last February, Sarah Palin created the position of natural gas pipeline czar.  Sarah appointed Harry Noah, who was Executive Director of Mental Health Trust Lands. The position was charged with comparing costs of the options for constructing an in-state natural gas pipeline, or bullet line, to bring North Slope gas to market in south central.  Harry Noah is a miner without oil and gas experience.  Noah also has ties to Dep. Commissioner Marty Rutherford, Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR).  Rutherford was a former lobbyist for TransCanada.  She has worked [...]

Alaska Support Industry Alliance Op-ed by Dave Harbour.  Alliance eyes are properly focused now on the OCS.  OCS may be to 21st Century Alaska what the Trans Alaska Pipeline was to the last few decades.  Without OCS, our economy’s fate will rest only on the tenuous development of a gas pipeline or ANWR. Of the three, OCS is the most immediately promising. To make OCS reality, we must first face two big hurtles before us: First, we need to heed the Alliance’s promptings and have every employee, every family member and every neighbor write to the Interior Department before its Sept. 21 deadline for OCS lease [...]

The Economist.  Thanks to its posturing politicians, Britain will soon start to run out of electricity. What should it do?   (Image by Derek Bacon)    *     The Alaska Standard, By Alex Gimarc.  Dave Harbour’s article on ... proposed Arctic Regional Citizens Advisory Council prompted me to take a deeper look at his so-called five Arctic Climate Change Initiatives. Like any rock you pick up, you are surprised by what scurries out when the light of day is shining underneath.

U.S. Rep. Don Young (NGP Photo) writes in the Washington Times (8/9), “American energy marvels such as the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) are the real drivers of the American economy. TAPS didn't require a government mandate; it required the federal government to get out of the way. This pipeline would never be built today. TAPS was successful only because of the oil embargo and, more significantly, because the legislation curtailed the ability of environmentalists to file lawsuits to block the project -- an effort in which, unfortunately, they have become well versed.   * [...]

We thank Petroleum News Alaska for this report and wonder why it is not on the front page of major Alaska Daily Newspapers! The U.S. Minerals Management Service has determined that Shell’s new Beaufort Sea exploration plan is complete, thus starting a 30-day period during which the agency must carry out an environmental assessment of the plan. At the end of the environmental assessment the agency will decide whether to approve the plan, require modification to it or disapprove it, the U.S. Department of the Interior said today. “The responsible development [...]

Simpatico.  A Prince Edward Island man (James Halstrum) is hoping to cash in on a $1-million reward EnCana offered for information leading to the arrest of the bomber who has been targeting the company's natural-gas pipelines in northern B.C. by offering to share the prize cash with the culprit.        *       Vancouver Sun.  By the end of the month, RCMP in northern British Columbia will open a small mobile detachment in Tomslake, the town along the B.C.-Alberta border that has been the site of six pipeline blasts since October [...]

Washington Times by Thomas Pile.  While the nation's leaders focus on expanding government's role in our health care system, they are working simultaneously to chew away at another foundation of America's economic strength and our individual liberties -- affordable, reliable energy.  (Comment: It's hard to watch any more than a single ball being kept airborne by a great juggler; when we try to watch two or more balls, the whole activity turns into a blur.  Today, citizens are bombarded with so many juggled issues that it is easy to lose count [...]

  Financial Post.  The conversation in this town of 3,500 in the Western Arctic should be about aboriginal self-sufficiency, environmentally responsible Northern development and a new clean-energy storehouse with immense potential. After all, the proposed $16.2-billion Mackenzie Valley natural-gas pipeline project was supposed to be under construction by now.  Instead, the talk is about the regulatory bungling, federal government inaction and fading industry interest in what would be one of Canada's largest infrastructure projects.    *      Iranian News.  Nabucco Pipeline (wikipedia).  The main source of Nabucco's supply will be [...]

 Richmond Virginia Times-Dispatch Story Link, Dave Harbour Op-ed, August 7, 2009   News for Release: Thursday, August 6, 2009   Contact:  Melissa Taldykin         713-524-2388                            mtaldykin@consumerenergyalliance.org   CEA Alaska Director in Richmond Paper: “Let Alaska Jumpstart Economy" “We must unleash our world leadership in conservation and 21st century technology to develop our resources safely. We can stop the economic hemorrhaging caused by our dependence on foreign energy. To help do that, we must safely produce Alaska's energy while protecting its environment.” “Alaska's energy can help jumpstart our economy and provide [...]

Petroleum News Alaska, By Alan Bailey (NGP Photo).  Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has introduced the Domestic Energy Security Act of 2009, a bill that would grant coastal states a 37.5 percent stake in all rents, royalties and bonuses from oil and gas activities on the federal outer continental shelf. In Alaska, the state would receive 47 percent of these revenue sharing funds and Alaska Native regional and village corporations would share 33 percent of the funds, while 20 percent of the funds would go to coastal borough and community governments.  The North [...]

 2009 - Present Speeches (Under Construction)