A Citizen’s Guide

To the editor:

While attending one of the gas line hearings in May, I visited the displays of the various oil companies. I needed to get an answer to something I have wanted to know for a while.

First I asked the ConocoPhillips fellows at their booth. “Something I’d really like to know is this: What is the geological age of the oil on Alaska’s North Slope?” The Conoco boys didn’t know the answer, so they called over a gal from BP. She admitted she didn’t know either, but, cell phone to the rescue. She whips out her cell phone and calls an engineer at BP, and gleefully announces, “It’s about 200 million years old. The Sadlerochit formation (the one that has the oil), is Triassic (a geologic era), and somewhere around 200 million years old.” Read the rest of this entry »

Dozens of local residents turned out Thursday for a special question and answer session with Interior lawmakers about the administration’s proposed natural gas pipeline contract.

Most spoke critically of the proposed contract, and many urged the lawmakers to take their time studying the proposal.

“It needs to be done right, and not fast,” said Tammy Wilson of North Pole.

Residents expressed concerns about the proposed contract’s provisions relating to Alaska hire, the freezing of tax rates, the use of arbitration to resolve disputes and the lack of firm commitments to build the line.

Others questioned the state’s ownership role in the project and its ability to regulate a project in which it is participating.

A few urged the lawmakers to move forward with the contract.

“For 29 years this has been talked about,” said Chad Gerondale of North Pole, who carried a newspaper from 1977 about gas pipeline plans. “There’s going to have to be some concessions made by everybody.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Alaska Gasline Port Authority will have a chance to present its project to the newly formed Senate Special Committee on Natural Gas Development.

Sen. Ralph Seekins, R-Fairbanks, on Thursday invited the port authority to present its proposal for development of North Slope natural gas to the committee, which Seekins chairs.

“That project, as well as any other project, deserves their day,” he said.

Seekins also said he would request that the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee ask consultants hired by the Legislature to further study the port authority’s proposal.

Seekins made the statements Thursday afternoon in Fairbanks at a special meeting hosted by Interior lawmakers on the proposed natural gas pipeline contract with BP, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil.

Lori Backes, a port authority employee, thanked Seekins for the invitation. Read the rest of this entry »

JUNEAU—The Bush administration is leaning on state lawmakers to pass legislation that would advance a proposed multibillion dollar natural gas pipeline, which would be North America’s largest ever construction project.

In letters to the Alaska House and Senate dated June 27, Vice President Dick Cheney urged prompt action during the upcoming special session.

“You have it in your hands to help ensure that the Alaska Gas Pipeline ultimately furnishes dependable, affordable, and environmentally sound energy for America’s future,” he wrote.

Adding to the pressure was an announcement Thursday from the federal energy department, which said plans were in place to expedite the federal permitting process once a final contract is signed.

House Speaker John Harris, R-Valdez, said lawmakers also want to see the gas brought to market, they just want to make sure Alaska gets a good deal. Read the rest of this entry »

The Alaska Gasline Port Authority objected Wednesday to recent commercials’ characterization its proposed natural gas pipeline project as a “pipe dream.”

The authority’s board of directors said the television commercials’ claims—that the authority lacks the pieces needed for its project—amount to “dirty politics.”

“This is being put forward to put in disrepute a very viable project,” said board chairman and Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker.

Whitaker claimed the ads, which were bought by the nonprofit Alaska’s Future, amount to a pitch from two energy companies negotiating with the state of Alaska on terms for a trans-continental gas pipeline. Both companies, BP and Exxon Mobil, have said they are members of Alaska’s Future.

But the energy companies did not pay for the ads, said Rhonda Boyles, an organizer for Alaska’s Future and a former mayor of the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Read the rest of this entry »

Vice President Dick Cheney is eager to help get Alaska’s gas flowing, according to Gov. Frank Murkowski.

Speaking with members of the Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday morning in Fairbanks on a list of statewide topics, the governor said he spoke with Cheney on Monday and that the vice president asked what he could do to help bring about a natural gas pipeline.

The vice president said that building the pipeline is a U.S. national security interest, Murkowski said.

The governor said he told the vice president that the pipeline is now in the hands of the Legislature.

A Cheney spokesperson did not confirm or deny the conversation and wrote in an e-mail that it was not their practice to discuss the vice president’s talks with other leaders. Read the rest of this entry »