Time to take a stand on climate change? 01/10/2010
Alaska legislators want information to determine a strategy on responding to climate change actions and the use of the ESA in AK
The stakes are high and the rhetoric climbing in the debate between those who want to apply the Endangered Species Act for the protection of wildlife potentially threatened by a warming climate, and t...

Mining News: DEC takes lead on water pollution rules 11/22/2009
EPA formally OKs four-phase authority transfer to state to administer wastewater discharge permitting under Clean Water Act
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formally approved Alaska's application Oct. 31 to administer the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program. The approved state program is called...

Mining News: Parnell lauds Alaska permitting process 11/22/2009
"The state will continue to defend our permits that we issue, and our permitting process. That is the least I can do as governor"
Alaska Governor Sean Parnell reflected on Alaska's rich mining history and vowed to defend the state's mining regulatory process and to oppose unjust attacks on the industry during an address to miner...

Cook Inlet gas pricing heading for Juneau? 11/22/2009
RCA responds to a legislators' state energy policy action that seeks regulatory clarity over the pricing of Cook Inlet utility gas
Could a hot potato in the form of guidelines for Cook Inlet utility natural gas pricing be heading for the Alaska Legislature? During a public meeting of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska on Nov. 12...

Risk analysis gets low marks from NAS 10/25/2009
National peer review recommends Alaska take a top-down look at oil and gas failures costliest to state, get industry cooperation
An oil and gas infrastructure risk assessment methodology developed by a contractor for the State of Alaska has received failing marks in a review by the National Academy of Sciences. After Prudhoe B...

Gas prices, availability, now and then 09/27/2009
Alaska Oil and Gas Congress hears pessimistic, optimistic views on future for Arctic gas; told it can't be highest-priced commodity
Natural gas prices are low and supply is plentiful. What does that mean for a proposed Alaska gas pipeline which could begin shipping gas in 2018? The 5th Annual Alaska Oil and Gas Congress, held in An...

Arctic Directory: MACTEC awarded airport contract 09/20/2009
MACTEC said May 7 that it has been awarded a two-year contract with the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, to provide environmental services at Ted Stevens International Airpor...

Oil Patch Insider: Exxon not named No. 1 green company; Profit must top $340 a barrel before ACES takes 75% 09/13/2009
"Forbes names ExxonMobil green company of the year." That, or something very similar, is a recent headline on thousands of Web sites and blogs. Did we miss one of Forbes magazine's lists, I asked myse...

Mining News: Suit worries natural resources industry 08/30/2009
Trustees for Alaska sues state, claiming DNR and the Legislature created a scheme to skirt public comment of water use permits
Alaska's resource development community is responding en masse to a civil suit filed by environmental law firm Trustees for Alaska that contends permits issued by the Alaska Department of Natural Reso...

Risk to reward 08/09/2009
Exploration takes breather, but project development has North Slope buzzing
If you've been to Alaska's North Slope in the last few months you know that beds and trucks are in short supply and Deadhorse, the center of oilfield activity, looks like a boom town. "There are more...

Alaska Legislature looks at gas tax 07/19/2009
The Alaska Legislative Budget and Audit Committee has issued a request for proposals for economic analysis and modeling for Alaska natural gas taxation, estimating up to $500,000 for a contract to run...

Oil Patch Insider 06/07/2009
When you're down, you're down...; war of words on gas line progress under Gov. Palin
Reeling from low commodity prices, the Canadian petroleum industry got some soothing words from Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, author of his province's widely condemned royalty overhaul. Under the new r...

Oil Patch Bits: MACTEC awarded airport contract 05/17/2009
MACTEC said May 7 that it has been awarded a two-year contract with the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, to provide environmental services at Ted Stevens International Airpor...

Tesoro completes turnaround at Nikiski 05/17/2009
Tesoro Corp. has completed its turnaround at the Nikiski refinery. The company said in February that it planned a full turnaround at its Kenai Peninsula refinery, beginning in April or May and lastin...

AGIA funding, reports an issue in Juneau 04/26/2009
Administration agrees to provide reports to legislators at end of April, October; unspent FY 09 AGIA funding goes to in-state line
AGIA, the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, was not formally on the agenda in the Alaska Legislature this year, but Gov. Sarah Palin's plan to jumpstart a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to mar...

Seeking more clarity on Cook Inlet gas 04/26/2009
RCA wants input on the scope of a standard gas supply contract and on the question of regulating Cook Inlet gas storage facilities
Faced with increasing concerns about the future sustainability of Cook Inlet utility gas supplies for Southcentral Alaska residents, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska is trying to clarify a couple o...

State gas tax discussion continues in Senate 03/22/2009
Stedman wants gas tax under ACES re-evaluated; administration doesn't see need to change, barring receipt new info from producers, pipeline; McGuire suggests study of issue in interim
Barring new information the Palin administration believes that Alaska's existing production tax system works for natural gas as well as for oil. Legislators, however, aren't so sure. Commissioner of...

House committee moves ACMP rewrite 03/15/2009
Coastal zone bill scheduled for second Senate committee; governor's ANGDA, in-state gas bills not yet scheduled for hearings
The Alaska Legislature has passed the midway point of this year's session, and bills reworking the Alaska Coastal Management Program have yet to be heard in second committees of referral, while bills...

FERC, Murkowski on Alaska gas project 03/01/2009
Alaska's senior senator draws reaction to assertions that single line, fiscal certainty needed now; FERC wants TC Alaska pre-file
Alaska's senior U.S. senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, addressed the Alaska Legislature Feb. 19, the day before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission submitted its seventh semiannual report to Co...

More Cook Inlet gas storage needed 02/22/2009
DOG wants to issue new storage leases for facilities that would bolster winter gas supplies and improve gas field economics
Alaska's Division of Oil and Gas has been looking into the possibility of additional gas storage facilities in state land in the Cook Inlet basin, division Director Kevin Banks told the Senate Resourc...

Coastal districts want ACMP control 02/22/2009
Administration, industry oppose plan to establish coastal policy board with authority to approve district management plans
The Alaska Coastal Management Program is back in the Alaska Legislature - and at least one legislator, Rep. John Harris, R-Valdez, who went through the major rewrite of the program in 2003, is not hap...

FERC accepts certificate surrender 02/15/2009
Remaining partners in 1977 conditional certificate holder Alaskan Northwest Natural Gas Transportation Co. owned by TransCanada
The meatball is no more. On Feb. 6 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accepted surrender of the conditional certificate Alaskan Northwest Natural Gas Transportation Co. received in 1977 for an A...

UAF pushing to fast-track energy center 02/01/2009
The University of Alaska Fairbanks wants to fast-track plans for building a $30 million center that can be used for energy research. The university wants to build a 31,000-square-foot facility dedicat...

Fire Island wind farm work this year 02/01/2009
Cook Inlet Region Inc. hopeful state's first major wind far will be running in late 2010; Corps of Engineers doing public review
Construction crews should be busy on Fire Island near the western tip of Anchorage this summer, and the state's first major wind farm could be up and running there late next year. So say officials wit...

Arctic Directory: GCI gives broadband gift 01/25/2009
In 2008, GCI donated a $30 million broadband to the University of Alaska system. University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton said the gift is essential to the university's mission of education, rese...