|
Torgerson, Green, head to Washington, D.C. to lobby energy bill committee No one is getting exactly what they want in federal energy legislation; gentlemen’s agreement stipulates no amendments Kristen Nelson PNA Editor-in-Chief
Just one of the provisions requested by the Alaska Legislature — a ban of an over-the-top pipeline route — is included in both House and Senate versions of the federal energy bill, Patrick Coughlin told the Joint Committee on Natural Gas Pipelines Aug. 19.
Coughlin, special consultant to the Senate Resources Committee, said in an overview of the federal energy bill that it is his understanding that the ban is not subject to change in conference committee because the same provision appears in both versions.
Coughlin said conference committee staff in Washington, D.C. continues to work on the bill during the Congressional recess. The next meeting of the conference committee is scheduled for early September, he said.
Joint committee chair, outgoing Sen. John Torgerson, R-Kasilof, said a deliberate effort was made to get identical language banning an over-the-top pipeline route in House and Senate versions. “Our hope,” Torgerson said, “is that it wouldn’t be” subject to change in the conference committee.
“Nobody got exactly what they wanted” in the energy bill, Torgerson said. He said he has heard that there is a gentlemen’s agreement that no amendments will be offered.
“It would kill the bill if they opened it up to amendments,” he said.
Over-the-top only thing in both bills A ban on the over-the-top route is the only gas pipeline item requested by the Alaska Legislature that is in the House version of the bill, Coughlin said.
The House version of the bill opens the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration and development; the Senate version has no ANWR provision.
The Senate version of the bill provides an alternative to the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Act allowing for expedited construction and operation of an Alaska gas pipeline. The Senate bill also reaffirms ANGTA, Coughlin said, and allows for modernization of the natural gas pipeline system authorized by ANGTA.
The Senate bill provides two financial incentives: a Department of Energy loan guarantee of as much as $10 billion for project financing, with the provision that project sponsors must provide 20 percent of the financing; and a tax credit at an inflation-adjusted price of $3.25 per thousand cubic feet where the gas would enter the current system in Alberta.
Committee to lobby Congress Torgerson and Rep. Joe Green, R-Anchorage, the committee vice chair, will be in Washington, D.C., in September to lobby in favor of two proposals of support adopted by the committee, one supporting tax incentives and the other the new statutory provisions for an Alaska gas pipeline, both items in the Senate version of the bill.
The committee will make recommendations to the next Alaska Legislature and Torgerson circulated draft recommendations calling on the next Legislature to retain the joint committee.
“We are going to D.C. in an attempt to garner assurances that the final committee bill, now being discussed in a congressional conference committee, retains all of the current provision of the Alaska Pipeline Act,” said Torgerson in statement. “We don’t want to see any changes to this delicately balanced legislation, which could further impede the construction of this pipeline.”
| 