Salazar ends first year vowing reforms 01/10/2010
US Interior Secretary says he'll announce reforms in how energy leases issued on federal lands, how endangered species protected
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar started on the job a year ago pledging to clean up an agency hit by scandals and assailed by critics as under the sway of the oil and gas industry. Starting his second y...

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...

Tugboat hits Bligh Reef 01/03/2010
Coast Guard probes collision with infamous rock; Alaska oil tankers delayed
A tugboat used to help manage oil tankers at Valdez ran aground two days before Christmas, spilling diesel fuel into Prince William Sound and mildly disrupting Alaska crude shipments. The mishap has g...

State intervenes in Beaufort Sea litigation 12/27/2009
The State of Alaska has filed a motion to intervene in an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit by the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope...

ANGDA resolves EIS project description 12/27/2009
Authority's board approves moving ahead with Beluga to Fairbanks gas line permitting work, exclusive agreement on propane project
The Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Management appear to have come to an agreement on a project description of ANGDA's Beluga-to-Fairb...

FERC OKs Oregon LNG port; state to appeal 12/27/2009
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal at Coos Bay on the Oregon Coast. Appeals are planned by both the state administration and environ...

RCA holds workshop on gas storage issues 12/13/2009
Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage, Enstar, electric utilities, wrestle with how third-party storage should be regulated, role of RCA
Regulation of third-party natural gas storage is an issue which could hold up construction of such a facility in Southcentral Alaska. Third-party gas storage, with gas injected during warmer months an...

ANGDA, agencies, at odds on EIS process 12/06/2009
Corps of Engineers has issues with description of Beluga-to-Fairbanks gas line; BLM doesn't think ANGDA has authority to go north
Federal agencies are butting heads with the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority over its project description for the proposed Beluga-to-Fairbanks or B2F gas line and over its authority to permit...

RCA OKs North Fork 11/15/2009
Commission gives green light to natural gas supply contract with Enstar
In what must be record time, driven presumably by growing concerns about tightening Southcentral Alaska utility gas supplies, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska issued a letter order Nov. 5, approvin...

Rules for wells deeper than 1,000 feet 11/01/2009
AOGCC says its regulations will apply to wells in the Bristol Bay area because of likelihood of unexpected oil, gas encounters
The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has determined that there is "sufficient likelihood" that wells drilled in designated townships in the Bristol Bay area would "encounter oil, gas or othe...

Mining News: Nonprofit does not mean public interest 10/25/2009
Environmental groups benefit from blurring of distinctions as age-old concept of common good is subverted in self-interested trend
It seems that with the passage of time the concept of the common good, the general welfare and the public interest, all variations of the same theme, have become so diluted as to make them indeciphera...

State of Alaska sets ESA issues strategy 10/25/2009
The State of Alaska is taking a three-pronged approach to wildlife protection and development issues: It will intervene in court cases where the state has issues at stake and it will work more closely...

RCA to adopt net metering regulations 10/25/2009
New regulations provide incentive for investment in renewable electric generation, allowing consumers to put power into utilities
Renewable power generation may be coming to your neighborhood. And it may be built by your neighbor, thanks to proposed regulations that would require Alaska's largest utilities to allow hookups by su...

AOGCC requirements; DNR permits 10/04/2009
Geothermal wells will be drilled with Department of Natural Resources permits, but drilling must meet commission requirements
The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission held a hearing Sept. 23 on a commission motion to require an AOGCC drilling permit for any well with a total vertical depth greater than 1,000 feet in sp...

Tax tussle rages 10/04/2009
Tens of millions at stake as lawyers argue trans-Alaska pipeline's value
The state, major oil companies and a trio of local governments are locked in an epic battle over how much the trans-Alaska oil pipeline is worth for property tax purposes. The parties recently complet...

Alaska, BP sign $1.7 million settlement 09/27/2009
State pollution regulators said company failed to provide adequate spill containment around some North Slope holding tanks
BP has paid the State of Alaska more than $1.7 million in penalties to settle oil spill containment violations at the Prudhoe Bay, Endicott and Badami oil fields. The violations generally focused on u...

Pacific Energy IDs buyers 09/13/2009
State of Alaska considers asset purchase but backs off, figuring to inherit property
The State of Alaska briefly considered buying some of the remaining Cook Inlet assets of imploding California oil and gas producer Pacific Energy Resources Ltd., but ultimately decided against it. Kev...

RCA OKs Chugach natural gas supply contract; first since '01 08/30/2009
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska has approved Chugach Electric Association's new gas supply contract with ConocoPhillips. The contract, the first utility gas supply contract that RCA has approved s...

The geothermal dilemma 08/30/2009
DNR has geothermal authority; AOGCC has technical drilling expertise
There's been growing excitement in Alaska the last few years over the possibility of using geothermal energy to create power. At Chena Hot Springs power is being generated using hot springs water. Bu...

RCA considering Enstar tariff rate hike 08/09/2009
Commission suspends tariff for investigation; separates it into revenue, rate design dockets; Alaska AG invited to participate
Enstar Natural Gas Co., the local natural gas distribution utility, applied to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska in June for a 4.9 percent increase in its revenues and to change 97 percent of its cu...

State intervenes in case 07/26/2009
AG: Appeal against Chukchi Sea lease sale could have major impact in Alaska
A judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska has allowed the State of Alaska to intervene in an appeal by the Native village of Point Hope, the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope a...

RCA sets technical conference on CI gas 07/19/2009
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska decided during its July 15 public meeting to hold a technical conference in late August, to gather ideas on Cook Inlet utility gas pricing. The commission is trying...

State defends BP suit 07/19/2009
Company trying to 'delay, complicate' Prudhoe spill case, state lawyers say
Lawyers for the state are opposing BP's efforts to toss out part of a lawsuit seeking potentially huge damages stemming from Prudhoe Bay oil spills in 2006. They argue attorneys for BP Exploration (Al...

Mining News: Finding rekindles Ballot Measure 4 fires 06/28/2009
APOC identifies more than 20 campaign violations by 'Gillam Group;' member accuses initiative opponents of similar improprieties
The opposing sides of Ballot Measure 4, the failed ballot initiative that opponents said targeted development of a mine at the huge Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum deposit in Southwest Alaska, have mov...

State seeks to intervene in OCS litigation 06/21/2009
Newly appointed Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan has moved to intervene in a federal case in which the Native Village of Point Hope is asking the courts to rescind leases issued by the U.S. Minera...