Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting, 8-21-09 Testimony: Dave Harbour, Retired Commissioner, Regulatory Commission of Alaska   Madam Chair and members of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force:   I am Dave Harbour, a retired Alaska regulatory commissioner.  I publish an energy website and serve as a volunteer member of the Consumer Energy Alliance Board of Advisors.    Since you wish to recommend Ocean policy that is based on science and facts I offer you these additional recommendations on ‘process’ as a former Alaskan regulator.    First, On Timing.   There are few [...]

 More Mackenzie Valley Oil and Gas History, by Peter McKenzie-Brown.      *     PNA by Alan Bailey.  TransCanada and Enstar are investigating the feasibility of establishing a Cook Inlet gas storage facility.    

Geology News.  Someone has been bombing natural gas pipelines in Northeastern British Columbia. Some believe that it is a case of eco-terrorism against EnCana Corporation.    *     News Miner, by Dermot Cole (My hero)--Both the TransCanada and Denali pipeline projects are now predicting that they will file for a certificate of public convenience and necessity with the federal government in October 2012.        *     New York Times by Clifford Krauss.  Natural gas prices plunged on Thursday to levels last reached in 2002 after an Energy Department report showed that the amount of gas in [...]

 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.   * [...]