Walker asks Trump for help with AKLNG

KRISTEN NELSON

Petroleum News

Citing the value of an Alaska liquefied natural gas project for the U.S. economy, Alaska Gov. Bill Walker has written to President Donald Trump asking for the president’s blessing and for support with federal agencies.

Attachments from the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. list a plethora of federal statutory and regulatory changes which AGDC said would “ease fiscal and regulatory hurdles to monetizing Alaska’s North Slope natural gas and create new pathways for in-state natural gas infrastructure development.”

“As you seek to rebuild our country and make critical investments in our future, Alaska stands ready to assist with an ideal infrastructure project of major national and international significance,” Walker wrote.

The governor said the infrastructure to bring North Slope natural gas to market “would result in greater American energy independence, provide a multi-year national economic boom during construction, and generate hundreds of good paying jobs, all while improving our international trade deficit and our strategic importance in the world as international markets become more dependent on American energy.”

Walker reviewed project highlights, and told the president that Japan, “a major LNG importer ... looks very favorably on Alaskan LNG,” based on imports from the state beginning in 1969. The governor noted that Alaska Native corporations support the project, as do the majority of the state’s citizens, but said that because of the size of the project “and the potentially lengthy permitting and construction process, favorable financing is critical.”

He said the ways the federal government can support the project are “budget neutral and can include relatively minor amendments to an existing federal loan guarantee previously passed for an Alaskan gas pipeline project” along with “some changes to regulations that would provide Alaska with greater oversight of the existing and well-established pipeline corridor.”

AGDC provided a list of changes needed to the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act of 2004, including revised definitions and an increase in the amount of the loan guarantee of up to $40 billion. Additions to the act are also requested, including a statement that “the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Project qualifies for federal tax-exempt status,” an exemption for the project from “all federal wetlands compensatory mitigation requirements of the Clean Water Act,” and a requirement that a record of decision be issued 30 days after issuance of the final environmental impact statement for the project, and that all federal agency permits and authorizations required to begin construction be issues within 30 days of the record of decision.

AGDC has also proposed executive branch regulatory actions, including changes to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authorities, and rescinding Environmental Protection Agency’s use of the Aquatic Resources of National Importance in Alaska.

They also request the Alaska project be exempted from regulations of the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration which might require the project to pay costs incurred by PHMSA and a direction to that agency to provide no objection to certain proposed conditions for pipeline coating and block valve spacing.

There are also numerous directions and changes aimed at the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service.