Multiple Pipeline Applications Will Strain FERC's Resources

According to Joseph Kelliher, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission:

reviewing multiple projects "would greatly challenge the commission staff, the other agencies on the federal interagency team, and state agencies. Clearly, everyone must work together with the shared goal of getting a project built." (LINK to ADN story)

The "multiple projects" he refers to are the Denali Pipeline, and the AGIA / TransCanada project.

LNG Exports to Japan Challanged

Senator wants to stop Alaskan gas exports to Japan

By Tom Doggett (Reuters): A U.S. senator has asked the Energy Department to revoke a recent order authorizing energy companies to continue exporting liquefied natural gas from Alaska to Japan and other Pacific Rim markets. (LINK)

The Anti Free Market Senator is Ron Wyden of Oregon.   Read his press release HERE.

I guess according to Senator Wyden, Alaska LNG should be sold to the Peoples Republic of Oregon at a loss.

If Wyden and the people of Oregon want Alaska LNG - Step up and make a better offer. It's called the free market systems. 

Blog Stats

Little bit of validation from the fine folks at Google. Their ranking of "Alaska Gas Pipeline" sites goes like this #1. Denali the Alaska Gas Pipeline, #2 This Blog: Alaska-Gas-Pipeline.Blogspot.com. and third - the official State of Alaska Pipeline web site.

Ha! Thanks for visiting and thanks for my helpful friends who follow the blog and help me with my spelling. Thanks for all the site hits, it's like "Infinity" as Napoleon Dynamite would say.

One of these days the politicians will be out of the way and real people will do the real job of building thing.

Pipeline Progress - The Fact Come Out

From Keith Johnson :

Palin’s Pipeline: Pols’ Jabs at Big Oil Could Come Back to Hurt Them
Posted by Keith Johnson

But the state’s agreement with TransCanada doesn’t include any guarantees the pipeline will actually be built. And Alaska hasn’t locked up the gas needed to fill the pipeline. In that sense, Gov. Palin’s barekknuckle approach to the diversified international oil giants–steps like raising the royalty fees oil companies pay the state–may make it tougher for her to fulfill her domestic-energy promises. (LINK)

From the NY Times SERGE F. KOVALESKI and MIKE McINTIRE

Palin’s Pipeline Is Years From Being a Reality

The pipeline exists only on paper. The first section has yet to be laid, federal approvals are years away and the pipeline will not be completed for at least a decade. In fact, although it is the centerpiece of Ms. Palin’s relatively brief record as governor, the pipeline might never be built, and under a worst-case scenario, the state could lose up to $500 million it committed to defray regulatory and other costs. (LINK)

ConocoPhillips Gets Final Permit for New Coke Plant

From the Belleville News Democrat:

ConocoPhillips Gets Final Permit for New Coke Plant

ConocoPhillips Wood River Refinery has been issued an air permit -- originally challenged by the U.S. EPA -- allowing the refinery to move forward with plans for a new $2 billion coke plant.

The second coker at the Roxana refinery "will allow the facility to process Canadian crude oil and produce a wider variety of fuels," according to a news release today from U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Belleville. (Link)

Tar Sand Oil production and downstream projects like this coker in Illinois are the real driving force behind the Alaska Gas Pipeline. Lower 48 refiners need Canadian crude oil. The Canadian Tar Sand Oil producers need gas to process Tar Sand Oil into a synthetic crude product that can be piped to the lower 48.

Pipeline News

From GARY JACOBSON / The Dallas Morning News: 

        Palin's Alaska pipeline dream Not a Reality Yet:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin boasted this week that she stood up to Big Oil in advancing a decades-old ambition to bring natural gas to the Lower 48. But experts say she'll eventually have to sit down with the oil giants if she wants her pipeline dream to become a reality. (LINK)

From Barry K Worthington, Financing The World Energy Industry Requires $22 Trillion

Meeting the world's energy needs over the next several decades represents incredibly complex challenges on many fronts. These include access to the resource base for fossil fuels; availability of an adequate workforce, specifically engineers and skilled tradesmen; siting every variety of energy facility; dealing with climate change challenges; stability and predictability of regulation; and attracting $22 trillion ($22,000,000,000,000) into the sector. Never before, on a global basis, has the energy industry been expected to site, finance and manage the construction of infrastructure on this scale. It is doubtful that any other industry has ever been compelled to deal with this level of capital investment. (LINK)

Pipeline Progress

The latest on FERC, the Denali Pipeline and TransCanada from the Fairbanks News Miner.