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Governor asking for state pipeline coordinator DNR also wants to begin plat, title work along proposed right-of-way in preparation for an application Kristen Nelson Editor-in-Chief
The governor has asked for funding for a new position — a state gasline pipeline coordinator — who would head up the state’s gas pipeline permitting efforts.
Commissioner of Natural Resources Pat Pourchot told PNA Jan. 26 that, subject to legislative approval of the governor’s budget request, the state gas pipeline coordinator would eventually head up an office similar to the one the state now has for oil pipeline oversight and oil pipeline permitting.
Other departments, like Environmental Conservation, Fish and Game and Transportation and Public Utilities, would participate in the effort. It would be, he said, “one shop with an overall quality of work plan and permitting schedule.”
Each agency still has its own permitting authority, Pourchot said, “but it’s all brought together so that you work with applicants in a common factual reference, a common work plan effort, a sequencing of permits and use common field work … and would move into oversight … during construction and we would have the team approach similar to what we did back in the ‘70s with oil.” JPO tied to oil pipeline work Pourchot said that State Pipeline Coordinator Bill Britt’s work is reimbursable primarily from Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. or pipeline permitting, “so we really don’t have latitude to just go start a gas effort within the JPO.”
The state would also like to see a joint state-federal effort gas, he said, but the federal agencies first have to decide who’s in charge of this effort. The Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Act established a federal inspector’s office, Pourchot said. It was a standalone office which was eventually rolled into the Department of Energy and then just went away.
“So the Department of Energy, theoretically, has this authority,” he said. The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management is the federal lead agency for the JPO. And the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has authority over pipelines and tariffs.
Pourchot said it will take an application to trigger full state and federal action, but the state wants to get started on some right-of-way issues now.
The administration is asking for money so that DNR can get started on title and status plat work along the pipeline. Hydrology work and geological hazard work can also be started before an application.
“We’re hoping to do a lot of this work in advance of an application,” Pourchot said.
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