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Slowing the bullet State wants ANGDA to hold off on EIS until results come for route analysis Eric Lidji Petroleum News
The Palin administration is asking the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority to consider alternate routes for a natural gas pipeline to serve markets within the state.
The request came out during an April 8 debate between the ANGDA board of directors and Harry Noah, the in-state gas line coordinator recently appointed by Gov. Sarah Palin.
The debate revolves in part around which route a pipeline should take into Southcentral.
Palin charged Noah with coordinating the various efforts to bring gas to Alaska markets, a group of projects ranging from standalone pipelines to spurs off a larger mainline.
The two groups furthest along on this process are Enstar Natural Gas, a private utility looking at a “bullet” line from northern Alaska, and ANGDA, a public corporation looking at a spur line that could be extended if a mainline fails to materialize.
One of the larger debates around efforts to bring North Slope natural gas supplies into local markets is whether to follow the Parks Highway — a route preferred by Enstar — or whether to go down the Richardson and Glenn Highways — preferred by ANGDA.
Over the past year, Enstar began studying its route, while ANGDA contracted a firm to study the environmental impacts of its route, a key step needed to sanction a project.
Now, Noah wants to compare the two routes, looking at things like total project costs, number of people served, environmental impacts and potentially insurmountable hurdles.
Noah said the variety of work being done on the in-state gas pipeline is uncoordinated, leading to the state possibly wasting funds by duplicating the work of private companies.
“And we’re trying to provide a forum to pull all those activities together,” Noah said.
ANGDA worried about delays ANGDA chose the Richardson Highway route based partially on a 2006 analysis from the U.S. Department of Energy, compiled with input from both ANGDA and Enstar.
The Palin administration backed the route last year. In July 2008, Palin announced a partnership between ANGDA and Enstar focused on a line down the Richardson, which she called “the route believed to be the best for the state” because it reached a large population, several military installations and state land in the Copper River basin.
In the months since, the Palin administration never asked ANGDA to deviate from pursuing a pipeline along that route, according to ANGDA Chairman Scott Heyworth.
“You speak of duplicating the process,” Heyworth told Noah during the April 8 meeting. “You’re the one, I guess, that would be duplicating the process with the EIS, not us.”
Noah said the various players keep “presupposing” they have the best route.
“If the preponderance of information is so overwhelming that the route (down the Richardson) through Glennallen is the best one, why are you worried about taking a look at this alternatives analysis and just pulling this information together?” Noah asked.
Heyworth said ANGDA isn’t worried. It just doesn’t want to be delayed on its mission.
In-state open season ANGDA is gathering information in advance of the open season on the mainline, the time when pipeline builders look for long-term commitments from shippers and customers.
ANGDA wants to hold an “in-state open season,” where local utilities unite to buy a long-term supply of natural gas to satisfy in-state demand for possibly several decades.
Harold Heinze, chief executive officer of ANGDA, said his group hopes to have the environmental impact work and right-of-way application completed by summer 2010.
Noah said he just wants to compare the studies completed by Enstar and ANGDA, and bring back an analysis in May or June. He also wants ANGDA to consider expanding its environmental studies to cover the entire distance from the North Slope to Southcentral.
ANGDA agreed to cooperate with Noah and to consider expanding the study, but only as long as the work wouldn’t delay its timeline to be ready for the open seasons in 2010.
Despite several heated moments, the debate ended on a fairly cordial note, with Board Member Don Benson saying the pipeline coordinator was important for bridging the divide between the public and private efforts to build an in-state gas pipeline.
Heinze and Noah agreed to meet within the following days to discuss a path forward.
The question of ousting The meeting came after weeks of rumors that the Palin administration wanted to change the leadership of ANGDA because of dissatisfaction with the direction of the agency.
The issue came up in an April 2 meeting of the Senate Special Committee on Energy.
Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, asked Joe Balash, the Governor’s special assistant for oil and gas, if the administration tried to force a leadership change at ANGDA.
“We have gone through some difficult experiences over the last year in terms of trying to get cooperative efforts between parties,” Balash said. “They’ve happened in fits and spurts and false starts and that’s been a point of frustration. And it may be the easiest way to overcome some of those obstacles is to change faces, change the individual personal dynamics that are going on in order to move forward. And if that’s the way to get to progress, then that’s something that the administration wants to be able to consider.”
ANGDA is a public corporation of the state created by voter mandate and governed by a board of directors appointed by the governor. Palin will soon face the choice of renewing or replacing four of the seven members on the board whose terms expire in June.
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