Comment:  In an Op-Ed column Sunday (ADN), Senator Mark Begich (NGP Photo) stood up to the  Administration in advocating a more robust domestic oil and gas leasing program but then supported enlargement of a regional advisory council process that increases bureaucratic delay and expense associated with Outer Continental Shelf exploration and development programs.  Village leaders claim an advisory council would give them a ‘voice’, ignoring the reality that all citizens already have a ‘voice’ in the due process that is bred into the genetics of all state law and rule-making and throughout the permitting process.  The advisory council concept would have the effect of leaving some citizens with ‘voices’ and blessing others with ‘Super Voices’.  Founders of the U.S. and Alaska Constitutions, indisputably, had no intent of discriminating against one category of citizen in favor of another.  While the good Senator may find popular coastal support for this new and costly ‘advisory’ bureaucracy the bigger it becomes the more inviting it is to those dedicated to defending constitutional principles.  
  
"As we act to make development safer in America and transition to cleaner energy sources," Begich said, "we must increase the amount of oil and gas we produce within our borders for our own national energy security. That’s a bottom line for me in national energy legislation under consideration in Congress today.
 
"And it’s why I disagreed with President Barack Obama’s Oval Office speech last week when he said, "… we’re running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.
 
"In fact, Alaska has three prime spots available right now: the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the enormous oil and gas reserves beneath our Arctic coastal waters.
 
We compliment Senator Begich on his domestic energy position.  We have long observed that: without huge, new ANWR, OCS or other onshore discoveries, the Trans Alaska pipeline cannot remain viable for even another ten years–jeopardizing Alaska’s economic survival; and, new gas reserves would enhance the economies of scale of an Alaska Gas Pipeline project, competing as it shall in this brave new world of shale gas and LNG plenty.  Our agreement with Senator Begich ends with his advocacy of ‘Super Voice’ advisory councils.  Readers can review our earlier comment on the advisory council concept here.  -DH