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The state Legislature should appropriate money immediately to start building either a large-scale pipeline to Valdez or a bullet line from the North Slope to the Kenai Peninsula, according to former Sen. Ted Stevens.
At the same legislative hearing Thursday, former Gov. Bill Sheffield said the bullet line needs billions in state funding.
“If you had a gas line coming to Southcentral Alaska,” said Sheffield, it would create jobs and lower the cost of living.
Sheffield said lawmakers could take the “$4 billion or $5 billion” needed to build a bullet line and Alaskans would get inexpensive fuel. Or the state could pay for 49 percent of the pipeline and provide bonding for the rest, he said.
Stevens said he didn’t want the state to build the pipeline, but to invest in it. This would show the oil companies the state wants the pipeline built.
Former Gov. Frank Murkowski said he supports a bullet line and immediate action, but he did not call for an immediate subsidy. He said if it “pencils out,” it could be good for all Alaskans. He said a state investment equivalent to the state’s royalty share of gas would be appropriate.
The overriding question is how much of a state subsidy is required to get “cheap” fuel? We don’t know.
Before legislators appropriate billions for a project that is not designed yet, they ought to be able to answer that question.
Legislators will tell you that they’ve made great progress over the past year in developing an energy policy for Alaska.
What they haven’t done is make the difficult decisions required to make an energy policy more than words on paper.
Here is one example of a difficult decision that has yet to take place.
The state House voted 38-0 this week that it intends for Alaska to get half of its electricity from renewable resources by 2025. That’s great. It would mean doubling the amount of renewable energy, if the existing hydroelectric sources are counted as renewable.
The state Senate is considering a bill to raise the ante. Let’s get to 50 percent from renewable power in 10 years, the senators say.
If only it were that easy.
It was a year ago that former Gov. Sarah Palin announced at a press conference that the state should set a 50 percent renewable goal for 2025.
In the intervening months, many state officials have repeated those words like an empty campaign promise, providing no real details as to how to turn fantasy into reality.
If the state is serious about the goal, the governor and legislators need a real plan with projects that have to be approved and funded.
All we have now is a dream, along the lines of “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could get 50 percent of our electricity from renewable sources in 15 years?”
The answer, of course, is yes, but it won’t be cheap. And we don’t have anyone in state government in the role of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard who can say, “Make it so.”
Today, natural gas provides about 54 percent of electrical generation, while hydro is 24 percent, oil and “petroleum residual” amount to 19 percent and coal is 3 percent. Wind, solar and biomass account for 0.2 percent of electrical generation.
To change that balance by reducing the percentage from fossil fuels is, like most policies in Alaska, easier said than done.
Take the Golden Valley Electric Association and its power supply as a for instance. The utility has 300 megawatts of potential power generation, with 20 megawatts now coming from renewable sources.
“Adding another 130 MW of renewable generation by 2025 would not only be impossible, but extremely expensive, especially since we don’t anticipate adding any new generation until 2020 or so,” says Brian Newton, the president of the member-owned utility.
You’ll remember that the Senate bill proposes a radical change in the statewide power mix by 2020.
GVEA has a goal of getting 20 percent of its peak demand from renewable sources by 2014, which would mean an addition of 20 to 25 megawatts, he said.
I don’t know what the situation is for the other major utilities, but I suspect that a major commitment will be needed for a large-scale hydroelectric project, such as the Susitna project.
Until the Legislature and governor make a difficult decision of that sort, a major switch to renewable power doesn’t stand a chance.
But, all that being said, even if we never again voted for an incumbent, who would we replace them with? It seems like the only candidates we get for office, are made from the same mold. The average, Jo Snuffy, can't afford to run for office and doesn't have the name recognition to start with. Maybe it would do more good to reduce the number of people in our legislature. Just keep eliminating every year until they quit squirming and actually get down to business! We may wind up with a governor and a dozen aids. Rather like King Arthur and his Knights of the round table.
The organizers of the 15th annual Relay for Life would like to increase the number of teams in the 24-hour event to raise money for the American Cancer Society.
To that end, those who might like to form new teams are invited to the Noel Wien Library Monday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. to learn all about it. There are already 38 teams signed up and there is room for many more.
“We want people to know that while it’s called a relay, it really is a fun outing where the vast majority walks the track during the course of the event,” says Karen Mahlen, the publicity co-chair of the event.
“When they aren’t taking their turns walking the track you can usually find them enjoying the music and other entertainment, visiting the other team campsites, participating in the many fun activities and games we have scheduled, or just relaxing at their own team campsite enjoying the camaraderie during the event.”
In addition, teams that are already registered for the relay are welcome to drop by and see what is planned for this summer. The event takes place June 4-5 at the West Valley High School track.
Pat and Ailese Gamble moved 23 times during his career in the Air Force as the fighter pilot worked his way up to the rank of four-star general.
His introduction to Fairbanks was in 1996-97, when he served as the senior commander at Elmendorf Air Force Base and made regular trips to Eielson Air Force Base.
Their next move is from Anchorage to Fairbanks, when Pat takes over as president of the University of Alaska.
“We used to have a real good time coming up to Fairbanks, especially in the winter, when nobody wanted to visit, because we were so well received,” he said to university staff members in a presentation early this month at UAF when he was being considered for the job. He said he found a spirit here that he wasn’t used to seeing in other places.
Gamble, who is to follow Mark Hamilton, as UA president, said he and Ailese both think Fairbanks is a “delightful town to spend some years in.”
With all that moving behind them, he said the realization that they want to stay in Alaska came upon both of them not long after he became head of the Alaska Railroad in 2001.
“We were here six months when I came to the railroad. My wife walked in one day and she said,’ this is it.’ I knew exactly what she meant. She wanted to stay in Alaska. That was great with me because I also wanted to stay in Alaska.”
Gamble told UA staffers that he is not an instructor, but “I can run an organization and I can build a team.”
The Gambles have one son, Jeff, who is a high school teacher in Texas.
I don't agree with everything you stated, but you made me think about how the university faculty has to have a minimum of a college education to instruct. At least the board chose someone with a college education, and with credentials that cross industries (that a u president would have to work with), the u has managers and directors without a college education (go figure????). He may not have stated his love and passion for teaching, but I think he believes strongly and supports your profession and colleagues.
The editor of “Tire Review” magazine has weighed in on the bill to require snow tires in Alaska, bemoaning the lack of enthusiasm for the bill by its sponsor, Republican Rep. John Harris.
Jim Smith, the tire industry writer, writes on his blog that “it appears Rep. Harris isn’t quite up to the task of helping his fellow Alaskans understand the value of winter tires.”
He supported Harris for introducing the winter tire rule and chided him for backing off:
“Seems Alaskans are better at New Hampshire’s state motto – Live Free or Die – than New Hampshirites. After the uproar – “You’ll get my all-season tires when you pry them from my cold, dead hands” – Rep. Harris turned tail and pulled the bill from further consideration.
“Apparently Alaskans are content to rack up trips to the hospital and/or body shop rather than swap out for clearly safer tires,” says this stud of the tire publishing biz.
It’s too soon to say exactly what the Obama administration education proposal will mean for Alaska, but there are some indications in the document “A Blueprint for Reform,” released Tuesday.
The administration is abandoning the impossible dream of No Child Left Behind– that every student in every school be deemed “proficient” four years from now – and substituting another impossible dream – that every student in every school be deemed ready for college and a career by 2020.
As a rule, education planners do not agree with the ancient teacher who discovered that not every student, when led to the fountain of knowledge, will take a drink. A realistic goal would be to give parents and students the opportunity to prepare for the future, as that would help match performance with expectations. Setting an impossible goal at the start, by contrast, merely serves to weaken the credibility of the entire plan, even the parts that are reasonable.
Some of the reporting on the Obama plan says the goal is to have all students ready for “college or a career,” but the federal document says “college and a career.”
“We will call on states, districts and schools to aim for the ambitious goal of all students graduating or on track to graduate from high school ready for college and a career by 2020,” the education department said.
I imagine that our school district professionals will have to learn lots of new acronyms, abbreviations and education jargon to comply with the bookkeeping requirements of this proposed revision. At first glance, it seems to continue the emphasis on standardized tests to measure achievement on basic skills, a movement that has gone to extremes, consuming more time and effort, while other aspects of learning suffer.
The Obama plan says that the top performing schools, districts and states will be known as “Reward” institutions, while those at the other end of the spectrum will be “Challenge” states, schools and districts.
Alaska has its share of “Challenge” schools and it will need new plans to deal with them, if this proposal is adopted by Congress. That will mean new regulations and administrative practices. The federal proposal also says there will be “tribal specific standards and assessments,” though details on how those might be applied in Alaska are not known.
“States will identify Challenge schools that are in need of specific assistance. The first category of Challenge schools will be the lowest-performing five percent of schools in each state, based on student academic achievement, student growth, and graduation rates, that are not making progress to improve,” the federal blueprint says.
“In these schools, states and districts will be required to implement one of four school turnaround models, to support better outcomes for students.”
“Schools that are not closing significant, persistent achievement gaps will constitute another category of Challenge schools. In these schools, districts will be required to implement data-driven interventions to support those students who are farthest behind and close the achievement gap.”
“Challenge districts whose schools, principals and teachers are not receiving the support they need to succeed may also face significant governance or staffing changes, including replacement of the superintendent. Both Challenge districts and states will face additional restrictions on the use of ESEA funds and may be required to work with an outside organization to improve student academic achievement. "
Some time in 2014 natural gas will be condensed into liquid and loaded onto a tanker docked in Kitimat, on Canada’s Pacific coast, about 650km (400 miles) north-west of Vancouver. The ship will probably take its cargo to Asia. This proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, to be built by Apache Corporation, an American energy company, will not be North America’s first. Gas has been shipped from Alaska to Japan since 1969. But if it makes it past the planning stages, Kitimat LNG will be one of the continent’s most significant energy developments in decades.
Five years ago Kitimat was intended to be a point of import, not export, one of many terminals that would dot the coast of North America. There was good economic sense behind the rush. Local production of natural gas was waning, prices were surging and an energy-hungry America was worried about the lights going out.
Now North America has an unforeseen surfeit of natural gas. The United States’ purchases of LNG have dwindled. It has enough gas under its soil to inspire dreams of self-sufficiency. Other parts of the world may also be sitting on lots of gas. Those in the vanguard of this global gas revolution say it will transform the battle against carbon, threaten coal’s domination of electricity generation and, by dramatically reducing the power of exporters of oil and conventional gas, turn the geopolitics of energy on its head.
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/alaska-beat/259-march-15/4456-an-unconventional-glut
It's easier to move the market to N-slope gas than building a pipeline to the tarpits of Alberta.
Did you know that there is a certain world-class market sector that will buy billions$$ of LNG direct at Deadhorse and a gasline of only twenty-miles in length is needed ??
Hint: it won't be a subsea gasline.. :-)
I told Bill Walker about this idea, and if you dig deep into my previous postings here in the Noseminer you will find more hints. I'll leave it up to Bill Walker to reveal this plan when he thinks the timing is right.
...pull my finger (;-P)
A six-mile-wide asteroid is believed to have crashed into what is now Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago, triggering a blast that spread death and destruction around the globe.
UAF scientist Michael Whalen is part of a research team that offered a new analysis to support the theory that an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. A report on their work was published in the journal Science March 5.
A UAF press release says:
Scientists first proposed the asteroid impact theory of dinosaur mass extinction 30 years ago. The discovery of a massive crater at Chicxulub [CHICK-shuh-loob], in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula in 1991, strengthened that hypothesis. The Chicxulub crater is more than 120 miles wide—about the distance from Fairbanks to the Arctic Circle—and scientists believe it was created when an asteroid more than six miles wide crashed into Earth 65 million years ago. The cataclysmic impact—a million times more powerful than the largest nuclear bomb ever tested—triggered massive earthquakes, atmospheric discharge and oceanic upheaval. The ensuing mass extinction ended both the reign of the dinosaurs and the Cretaceous period, which gave way to the Paleogene period. This theory, having steadily accumulated evidence, was thought to be a near-consensus view.
Recently, however, in a series of articles, researchers posed an alternate hypothesis for the mass extinction. Some scientists claim that long-term volcanic activity at the Deccan Traps, in what is now India, caused acid rain and global cooling, gradually making life untenable for the dinosaurs and other large animals. They also suggest that the Chicxulub impact occurred some 300,000 years before the mass extinctions.
The alternate hypothesis spurred Whalen and other Chicxulub impact proponents to respond. The current Science article dispels the Deccan Traps hypothesis, arguing that the geological record favors the Chicxulub impact event theory.
“It’s as tight a case for a synchronous chain of events as we can find in the fossil record,” Whalen said.
Whalen is an associate professor at the UAF geology and geophysics department and the Geophysical Institute. He first began studying the Chicxulub site in 2002. His expertise is in carbonate rock, or limestone—a handy specialty, as limestone forms the layers above the Cretaceous-Paleogene geological boundary in the Chicxulub crater. He studied a 2001 core from the crater and compared it to seismic data gathered in 2006. His analysis offered insight on the geography of the area prior to impact, how it changed during the impact and the eventual infill of the crater by limestones deposited after the impact event.
Another impact.
Will definitely eliminate human caused environmental damage.
Be not worry, your new free health care will make sure you survive in good health.
As for the news press release,
It sounds like a computer generated post in DNM's chat rooms.
kisup
In a speech last week to an energy conference in Houston, Jim Mulva, the chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips, said that if oil is “The Prize,” as noted in the title of Daniel Yergin’s book on the industry, then natural gas is “nature’s gift to the people of the world.”
In his remarks, Mulva talked about the “rebirth of a once-dying industry,” referring to the reversal of fortunes for the natural gas business in the Lower 48.
He didn’t mention Alaska North Slope natural gas in his prepared remarks in Houston, but it’s worth noting that all of the factors combining to make natural gas cheaper and more available in the Lower 48 work against the economics of a major gas pipeline from Alaska.
In a press conference that followed, he said the industry is facing weak demand at the moment, but it will increase over time. He mentioned Alaska gas as a possibility, along with the other options.
Mulva said that natural gas consumption peaked in the U.S. nearly 40 years ago, but now production is rising, prices are down, reserves and growing and “we foresee a century of domestic supply.”
Mulva, speaking to the Cambridge Energy Research Associates conference, said some experts see the day when the U.S. will become a major exporter of liquefied natural gas.
He said the application of technology and innovative thinking have been key to the new energy picture.
Here is an excerpt from his speech on the background and the future prospects for natural gas:
There are few remaining conventional gas prospects here. At least, not in the areas where we are allowed to drill. So the industry turned to the less-desirable unconventional reservoirs. These typically have “tight” rock, which does not flow nearly as well.
To make this rock productive, over a 60-year span we developed new and sophisticated technology. Completion techniques, hydraulic fracturing, drilling and seismic imaging all advanced. As a result, unconventional gas is now a key part of U.S. reserves.
Then in the 1980s, we realized that coal formations, which often contain so-called “mine gas”, might be made productive. A new process called “cavitation” enabled the gas to flow. We also became better at finding the best sites to drill.
As a result of all these steps, unconventional gas and coalbed methane helped stop the decline in U.S. gas reserves during the 1990s. Demand began to grow. ConocoPhillips increased our North American gas exposure, and so did others.
Meanwhile, another technology came along – horizontal drilling. Today, lateral extensions up to 8 miles are possible. A single well can have several, spread like the fingers of your hand.
These techniques are expensive, and feasible only in certain situations. But again, technology opened new horizons.
Now, another truism. Never underestimate human ingenuity. It occurred to the industry to reexamine shale – a common source rock that was too tight for production. But horizontal drilling exposed more rock to the wellbore. And fracturing enabled gas to flow. This opened new drilling trends and revolutionized the industry. And rather than being expensive, shale gas is often the low-cost source, commercial at $4 to $7 per Mcf (thousand cubic feet.)
The same success now appears possible in Canada. And these technologies can be applied elsewhere. Exploration for tight gas, coalbed methane and shale gas is under way in more than a dozen other countries. More will follow.
Consider the ramifications. The world uses 107 trillion cubic feet of gas a year. Proven conventional reserves are 6,500 TCF, a 60-year supply. With undeveloped conventional resources, there is potentially more than a century of supply. Now, adding unconventional gas expands total resources to more than 38,000 TCF, or multiple centuries of supply.
But this may only be the beginning. Up to 700,000 TCF of methane hydrates lie beneath the ocean floor and the Arctic. They have never been produced commercially, but research is getting us closer. It may even be possible to liberate the methane by pumping carbon dioxide into the formations. That would be a dual energy and carbon storage solution. ConocoPhillips is in the early stages of researching this.
The full magnitude of nature’s gift is now apparent. Natural gas is more than a bridge fuel. It is part of the long-term energy solution. There is an old U.S. saying, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” It basically means, “Appreciate what you have been given.”
But we face two big obstacles in delivering the gift of natural gas. We must overcome the opposition of the hydrocarbon deniers. And government must find the political will to address long-term energy needs pragmatically.
http://www.physorg.com/news187186888.html
The key parties in the proposed natural gas deal involving Fairbanks Natural Gas, the Alaska Gasline Port Authority and GVEA plan two public presentations Tuesday on the arrangement.
The first is set for noon at the Noel Wien Library. The second is at 6 p.m. at the Carlson Center.
The port authority plans to buy Fairbanks Natural Gas, a private company. GVEA is planning to purchase liquefied natural gas for 15 years. It would be shipped on a fleet of trucks from the North Slope.
GVEA would be the largest customer of Fairbanks Natural Gas and its pledge to buy fuel would provide the financial underpinning for the deal. The company would continue to serve its other local customers and expand its coverage.
The GVEA board has been reviewing proposed terms of the contract.
GVEA would switch from oil to LNG for its newest North Pole power plant.
On Wednesday, a presentation is to be held at 6 p.m. at North Pole City Hall.
Among the political questions related to this proposal, there are two at the forefront.
These include the purchase price of Fairbanks Natural Gas and how that was determined and whether fuel can be delivered to GVEA at the expected price once the treatment and transportation systems are in place.
Supporters of the deal are banking on the notion that the options under discussion for getting natural gas to Fairbanks by a pipeline, large or small, are not going to become a reality within the next decade or so.
What the hell is GVEA getting involved in this for.. they need to get their rear-ends down to Healy and get the coal plant working that was promised 10 years ago...
How much has been wasted on this?? Are we going to let them do it again?? NO WAY... get some new blood in GVEA...
reduce the wholesale price of royalty crude being sold to the Fairbanks Refineries.
And make sure the price reduction on at the retail.
As I understand it, on June #1 low sulphur will will replace all number #2.
Naturally the price will go up just like it did when diesel was switched because you must by 5 gallons to the the heat of 4. OUCH!
The local gas company opposes the change because the price is pegged to oil!
-----uwuop