To: Taikun who wrote (54822 ) 10/25/2004 4:31:35 PM From: Snowshoe Read Replies (1) | Respond to >>Stevens said the line would demand virtually all the output from the world's steel mills for a year.<<ncseonline.org The impact of an Alaska natural gas pipeline on employment and revenues in the steel industry could be significant. The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) supports the project, though it has been neutral with respect to routing and financing issues. It estimated, for example, in a statement attached to a letter to then-Senator Frank Murkowski, who was then ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, that the project could generate “up to 10,000 work years ofdirect employment from North American steel supply. In addition almost 4,000 additional work years would be used to manufacture pipe from steel.”34 This estimate was based on the use of 3 to 5 million tons of steel. By comparison, in 1999-2000, “three North American steel pipe producers supplied over 1,000,000 tons of steel for the 2,000 mile Alliance Pipeline running from Northern British Columbia to Chicago,” which AISI claimed to be “the most technologically advanced and largest pipeline construction project ever in North America.”35 The total production of steel in the United States has recently been about 100 million tons per year, with imports adding roughly 20-30 million tons to meet U.S. demand.
