We need to build gas line ourselves ______________________________________________
adn.com
WALLY HICKEL
COMMENT
Published: April 19th, 2008 11:28 PM
Last Modified: April 19th, 2008 02:15 AM
There's a segment of our community that believes that whatever is in the best interest of the oil industry is in the best interest of Alaska. They've got it all wrong.
If they were right, we wouldn't have such a strong state budget this year and a $5 billion surplus. If they were right, the lobbyists and legislators who corrupted our legislative process would still be running Juneau.
The recent announcement by BP and Conoco Phillips to spend $600 million studying a gas line changes nothing. We've heard these announcements since 1980. They have studied it many times. But there is always a catch. There is always an attempt to delay or to gain total control over our natural resources.
For instance, in September 2000 the presidents of BP Alaska, Phillips Alaska and Exxon testified before Congress that they were going to file an Alaska gas pipeline application with FERC the following year, and gas would flow from Alaska in 2007. No such application was ever filed.
After BP and Conoco made their recent announcement, an executive of a major U.S. company called and said, "This is nothing but a stick in the eye of Gov. Palin."
The governor and the Legislature should see this latest pronouncement for what it is and stay focused on doing what's best for Alaska. And they should listen to the Alaska people.
A recent Dittman survey showed that 80 percent of Alaskans want the state to explore a line to Valdez, not a pipeline to the Midwest. And 75 percent of Alaskans believe that our constitutional right to receive "maximum benefit" from our resources means "jobs and in-state use" not "money for the state."
Here is what the latest proposal from the producers doesn't say:
• They didn't promise that our gas would reach the U.S. market. They said it would go to Alberta.
• They didn't reveal that Conoco Phillips owns a substantial percent of the Alberta tar sands with EnCana, and BP recently partnered with Husky Oil as their entry point into the tar sands.
• They plan to use Alaska's clean natural gas to cook crude oil out of Alberta's tar. The environmental community is alarmed and rightly so. This plan will pump large amounts of additional carbon into the world's atmosphere.
• The producers also failed to say they plan to use our gas liquids in Alberta's petrochemical complex. This alone will capture hundreds of jobs that should belong to Alaskans, and the state will lose billions in revenue. This month's Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority study estimates that if the gas liquids stay in-state the combined result will be $4.7 billion to $5.9 billion in annual revenue.
• Hardly mentioned, the producers expect Gov. Palin and the Legislature to support former Gov. Murkowski's failed scheme to guarantee fixed rates of taxation for decades, and they expect the state to give Point Thomson back.
We've heard all this before. We should build our own 48-inch diameter gas line to Valdez, use what we need in-state, and sell the rest to the U.S. West Coast and the premium markets in Asia. As Mayor Jim Whitaker of the Fairbanks North Star Borough says, "The state should build it, pay for it, and own it."
How long will it take? That question reminds me of the Alaska Highway debate. When I arrived in 1940, I spoke up for a highway to the Lower 48. Detractors, backed by Seattle shipping interests, said it might take 100 years.
A year later the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and the U.S. military built that highway in nine months. Don't tell me government can't build transportation infrastructure. The key is to have someone in charge who makes a decision for the benefit of the total.
If we begin now, a state-built, all-Alaska gas line can start delivering gas much faster than any of the cross-Canada options. The permits are in place, we have a surplus in the bank and the Alaska people are tired of being hoodwinked.
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Walter J. Hickel served as governor of Alaska from 1966 to 1968 and 1990 to 1994 and as secretary of the interior from 1969 to 1970. His latest book is "Crisis in the Commons: the Alaska Solution |
