TransCanada – Alaska’s Pipe Dream.
21 12 2008
Gov. Sarah Palin announces AGIA (the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act)
Over the past months, I’ve enjoyed the occasional rant from our resident Mudflats Department of Energy., known to you all as “SMR.” SMR is formerly employed within the oil industry and with a spouse still employed by an energy company. She describes herself as “just an ordinary Alaskan,” which is exactly what I am, and exactly what those who hold the real power in the state are, should we choose to use it.
SMR was born & raised in Alaska, and spent the majority of her adult life in Alaska. For ten years she worked for ARCO/BP/COP and is at home now with a toddler, following 4 years in the UK in the oil industry, but with no intention of going back to that industry at any point.
I asked SMR to write a guest post on Mudflats about an insiders view of Alaska’s proposed TransCanada gas pipeline. This pipeline project looms large in Alaska’s future on many fronts, and many feel that the fate of this pipeline project and the fate of our current administration are bound together for better or worse.
So a big Mudflats thank you to SMR and her first “official” energy rant.
~AKM
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Alaska’s Pipe Dream
by SMR
A great deal of Sarah Palin’s approval rating within Alaska is tied to her “taking on big oil” and its direct effect on the bank accounts of Alaskans. Governor Palin’s 80% approval rating, as well as her benediction by John McCain as the “foremost energy expert in the U.S.” were key to establishing credibility for her in the Presidential election race. The promise of larger Permanent Fund Dividend checks and the addition of energy industry jobs were, and are by many, assumed to be a natural out-growth of the actions of Governor Palin – and that goes a long way toward bolstering approval ratings.
Alaskans have, in their desire to secure more natural resource tax & royalty money for the state and themselves, as well as lucrative jobs within the oil industry, long dreamed of another pipeline for Alaska. In spite of the fact that Governor Palin now states, and would like Alaskans to believe, that we have a commitment to build a natural gas pipeline by TransCanada, we do not. What we have, instead, is an extraordinarily expensive subsidy commitment on the part of the State of Alaska, $500 million, to TransCanada to assist them with the planning and construction of said pipeline. The state license, awarded to TransCanada through a deeply flawed process, is not a construction contract, it is a commitment only to subsidize the planning, permitting and attempt to secure customers.
The TransCanada issue that plagues the state of Alaska is amorphous, changing every day; I have outlined & drafted, only to find that the field and the players have changed while I was hard at work. Perhaps, though, the word “amorphous” is too benign, and the TransCanada pipeline deal is Alaska’s own many-headed hydra of Greek mythology; we tackle one issue, only to find another growing in its place. We have come to terms with the $500 million subsidy from state coffers,
From House Bill 177: (1) subject to appropriation, state matching contributions in the form of reimbursements in a total amount not to exceed $500,000,000, paid to the licensee during the seven-year period immediately following the date the license is awarded; the payment period may be extended by the commissioners under an amendment or modification of the project plan under AS 43.90.210.
to then find that TransCanada wants more money,
From the Anchorage Daily News: “Bigger federal loan guarantees for the proposed construction of a North Slope natural gas pipeline is one way to address cost increases for the multibillion-dollar project, a TransCanada Corp. executive said Thursday.
TransCanada already has plenty of perks, a few Republican lawmakers said, including an exclusive state license to build the gas line, $500 million in state subsidies and up to $20 billion in federal loan guarantees.
Plus, federal coffers are strained from the global “economic debacle” right now, said state Sen. Charlie Huggins, R-Wasilla, who was a critic of the new state pact with TransCanada, inked just last week.
“It’s inappropriate, bad timing,” he said.
State officials have long said they would not award a license for a gas line project that was contingent on additional federal aid that hasn’t been secured yet.”
or the possibility of claims that may or may not derail the future of the TransCanada pipeline,
From the Anchorage Daily News: “The proposed Alaska natural gas pipeline is very long — 1,715 miles, to be exact.
And although we call it the Alaska gas line, more than half of it, or 965 miles, would be laid in Canada.
State legislators considering whether to award a license and $500 million in planning dollars to TransCanada Corp. on Sunday shifted their focus away from all the Alaska aspects of the pipeline to look at the Canadian challenges involved.
One message came through loud and clear — don’t ignore the Canadians, especially the aboriginal groups known as First Nations, who have a constitutional right to be consulted by the Canadian government on how a big project like the gas line might affect land they own or use for hunting and fishing.
Look at a map of TransCanada’s pipeline route — it runs from the Alaska border through the Yukon and British Columbia to Alberta — and you’ll see a patchwork of First Nations lands.
The lawyers, however, warned that it could take several years — longer than TransCanada has said — to gain full clearance for the pipeline, with plenty of potential for lawsuits and for the project to be used as “leverage” in unresolved aboriginal land claims cases.”
Another recent article in the Anchorage Daily News implies that our illustrious Governor and her staffer Marty Rutherford seem to believe that Conoco Phillips and BP are going to join forces with TransCanada to create the “Alaskan Dream Pipeline.”
From the Anchorage Daily News: “We believe it’s only a matter of time until all the parties come together to accomplish our mutual goal,” Marty Rutherford, deputy commissioner of natural resources, said at the recent “Energy in Alaska” conference.”
It is difficult for me to understand where the optimism from Gov. Palin and her minions comes from. Governor, Sarah Palin, who built her platform on transparency & accountability, succeeded Frank “The Bank” Murkowski, widely believed by Alaskans to be in the pocket of the oil companies. Since becoming Governor, Palin has gone to great lengths to bite the hand of the oil companies who feed her and her constituents. The most egregious of those actions have been the tax structure she has instituted, and the infamous TransCanada pipeline deal.
The tax structure issue is huge, and beyond the scope of this piece, whose purpose is to discuss the TransCanada issue. However, the ill-will fomented by the poor judgment of that action on the part of the Governor, and the financial environment that it has fostered within Alaska, cannot reasonably be considered either prudent, or in the best interests of Alaskans. As it relates to the TransCanada issue, it is the height of denial to believe that Conoco Phillips and BP are feeling either motivated or obliged to enter into any agreement with a State of Alaska governed by Sarah Palin and her merry band of mavericks, both appointed, and within the Senate.
Here’s the question from many Alaskans: Are ConocoPhillips and BP merely biding their time until Governor Palin and her anti-big oil ilk are out of office, at which point they will then write their own ticket, entering into a pipeline deal that is beneficial to them in terms of ownership and royalties?
I believe that should the TransCanada pipeline deal prove to be a train wreck, the State of Alaska will be begging Conoco Phillips and BP to build a pipeline, and the concessions that the State will be willing to make will make $500 million look like chicken feed. Further, citizens of Alaska, burdened with higher energy costs, depleted natural gas resources in Cook Inlet, and fewer oil industry jobs, will be crowding that bandwagon.
TransCanada has five years, with the possibility of extensions, to provide the state with the necessary plans, permits & permissions required to commence the building of their pipeline. However, neither TransCanada nor the State of Alaska are obliged to follow up on those plans. The State of Alaska is, however, obliged, thanks to the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA), and the license that it bestowed upon TransCanada, to reimburse TransCanada for up to $500 million in approved expenses incurred.
There are also, of course, financial subsidies (pork, anyone?) that the Federal Government has committed to the project. With Ted Stevens out of the picture and our country in an economic recession, does the possibility exist that the Federal Government will back out of their commitment? Does the fact that Conoco Phillips and BP, two of the three major producers on the North Slope, are pursuing their own plans for their own pipeline, the Denali Pipeline, mean that there will be no gas to supply the TransCanada pipeline? Does the current energy market render this entire project obsolete? I do not mean obsolete indefinitely, but rather in the current economic times.
Does the state have $500 million to throw at this project? No.
Does the Federal Government have $20 billion to throw at it? No.
I’m not suggesting that we should wait until natural gas costs have again skyrocketed to pursue a natural gas pipeline project, but I am suggesting that neither the market nor the economy can sustain this project at this time.
I cannot help but consider the TransCanada pipeline deal a pipe dream, both literally and figuratively; an act of bravado on the part of Governor Palin that will bleed our state coffers dry with nothing to show for it. Lucky Governor Palin – she will be long gone, having moved on to greener political pastures by the time that this story has reached its painful conclusion. Alaskans, those here for the love of Alaska, will be left to pay the price levied by the Piper and the rats that scurried in her wake, hypnotized by the music of her magic flute.
Thanks, but no thanks, Governor Palin. I’ll pass on your TransCanada pipeline deal that, as far as I can see, is not worth the paper it’s written on – except to TransCanada, who have made themselves a cool $500 million. And I’ll pass on your efforts to take on big oil, too. Alaska cannot afford you.
December 21st, 2008 at 4:31 PM
Sarah Who?
December 21st, 2008 at 4:35 PM
Thanks, SMR, great article and information. Sounds like a mess that Alaskans will be paying through the nose for regardless of the outcome.
As for ‘Lucky Governor Palin – she will be long gone, having moved on to greener political pastures’ I think she’ll be put out to pasture, but I don’t think it will be greener.
TransCanada sounds like it has had a ‘corrupting’ influence on the Gov.
December 21st, 2008 at 5:00 PM
SMR, great piece. Thank you. There isn’t a day that goes by anymore without revelations of stinky deals and cronyism throughout the federal state governments. Maybe the time has come for those things to change. And maybe they will, thanks to thoughtful people like you, who understand the ins and outs of these issues and can articulate them to the rest of us.
OT, but I’m watching the snow come down again in Seattle. I have never before seen such accumulation. It’s beautiful, but bizarre. What’s happening? The weirdest thing is watching people drive like idiots to the supermarket in order to stock up on 2-liter Fanta bottles and frozen pizzas. The line went to the back of the store yesterday. The neighbor just parked his chain-less pickup right across our driveway because he slid down the hill rather than park up top and walk the 200 yards down the hill.
I’m getting a lot of knitting done.
December 21st, 2008 at 5:05 PM
SMR – A very nice summary of the situation. Sounds like another “-gate” to add to the long list of issues created by SP’s incompetence. Would that it gets scuttled before any money gets spent and saves the taxpayers!
Wired Diff – About 10-12″ on the ground here north of Seattle in B’ham. A very good day to stay off the streets.
December 21st, 2008 at 5:07 PM
Thank you SMR.
It makes me sick at heart to read this summary.
How does it get so out of control?
We go along merrily, assuming our elected officials know more than we, and are working for our better interests….
*sigh*
December 21st, 2008 at 5:10 PM
BeeJay– From the living room window I have seen a snowboarder and a skiier (not x -country), not to mention many sledders go down our hill. Alaska Airlines has suspended service to Seattle and Portland. And B’ham ALWAYS gets it worse than we do. Thank goodness my son made it home from WWU before the deluge!
December 21st, 2008 at 5:11 PM
Yet another example of elected officials giving huge chunks of taxpayers’ money to already wealthy corporations. : (
December 21st, 2008 at 5:18 PM
smr – thank you for explaining this most serious matter concerning all Alaskans. It appears that the only pipe Sarah has a grasp of is the crack variety……..I dunno…….how do you people stop her???
December 21st, 2008 at 5:31 PM
SMR – Thanks~ wow, what a great piece!!! This needs to be distributed world-wide.
December 21st, 2008 at 5:34 PM
Thanks SMR, that was a great post!
It was well written and very informative. I look forward to other contributions in the future.
Like AKM and yourself, I am also “just an ordinary Alaskan”. But I have also understood from the very beginning that this TransCanada deal was doomed. And I have posted that several times on my own blog. As has Andrew Halcrow by the way.
Now my feeling is based mostly on the experience of watching many of these deals start gaining traction, seeing the cheerleaders take the field, and just as the crowd starts to warm up, suddenly one of the teams calls in sick.
I am at a point in my life where I can smell BS from miles away, and this thing absolutely reeks!
I have no idea if we will EVER see a natural gas pipeline built, but I KNOW it will not be this one. And I seriously doubt it can happen with Sarah Palin in office.
December 21st, 2008 at 5:46 PM
Why hasn’t the Alaska legislature stopped this women in her tracks? They have more than one issue they could use to scuttle this gov. She has two years remaining in her term, and then what, perhaps watching her sorry ass as she attempts to unseat Murkowski. And if she’s successful its more of the same, I don’t get it. Alaska, fix your problem or dispose of it and the sooner the better. Nice post SMR, I remember some of your earlier posts on these energy issues.
December 21st, 2008 at 5:59 PM
Holy Sh*t…this isn’t funny anymore. If someone with some brains doesn’t step in pretty damn quick, the whole state will be on welfare or worse. What a fricken disaster.
December 21st, 2008 at 6:05 PM
Great article, SMR!
Speaking of “Inducement”— any word on the birth of the next palin PFD-recipient? I believe Caribou Barbie was due to become a granny yesterday.
I wonder if there will even be a Permanent Fund Dividend next year what with all the $$$ Bible Spice wants to throw at TransCanada? Does Alaska ever not give a PFD??
December 21st, 2008 at 6:09 PM
Great post, SMR. Very informative.
I seem to remember some questions several months ago about Palin side-stepping some legal boundaries in awarding the contract to TransCanada. I haven’t heard much about that aspect recently and was surprised that the deal was struck without any further mention in the press about those questions.
Side note….I’m laughing my head off at Palin’s “12 days of Christmas”!! Thanks for the laughs!
December 21st, 2008 at 6:17 PM
There will be no bail out on this one. The Republicans don’t have juice any more. The pipeline is irrelevant. Wrong technology, wrong government, wrong governor, just plain wrong. Hope the AK legislature gets the picture soon. I think you should be looking at wind farms and surf farms. Not sure about the sun. It probably isn’t a good idea to destroy your tourism and fishing industries with a filthy gold mine. No more pork for AK. That’s how John McCain is going to get even.
December 21st, 2008 at 6:48 PM
SMR, thank you for taking a very complicated issue and making it understandable to those of us not well versed in the energy issues and complexities of building a pipeline in Alaska.
December 21st, 2008 at 6:56 PM
you should forward the article to the daily news.. we need to keep them honest(thanks SMR)! the pfd has probably lost more than we even know.. they say madoff is the tip of the ice berg (scary).. thankfully I sold some stock 2 years ago foreseeing this mess and now it’s worth only1/3of what it was..I don’t trust the Trans Canada deal something stinks once again..
December 21st, 2008 at 7:03 PM
Has anyone looked into the state of the natural gas resources in the lower 48?
I believe they are fairly substantial but have no basis for this. I ask this because there is a movement to convert much of our diesel use to compressed natural gas. I know T. Boone Pickens had retrofitted many of major police departments and several large shuttle services to this fuel over a decade ago to some rave reviews but then it sort of died. With a new very environmentally sensitive administration, will this strategy be part of the overall plan and if so, do we have the necessary reserves to provide for this?
December 21st, 2008 at 7:17 PM
Thank you SMR, for your report. I can “bolster” your argument re: the trouble that TransCanada will have getting permissions from First Nations here. There will be multiple National Energy Board hearings, and most likely they will result in judicial reviews, appeals, and more appeals. We’ve got some native groups seriously pissed off about local projects. If we’re looking at projects that will not even have any benefits for local native groups, there will be legal hell to pay!
December 21st, 2008 at 7:43 PM
that is EXACTLY what i said the day that woman was announced as VP candidate and i spent all night reading the legislation for the TransCanada pipeline, the supreme court filings on the gas leases, the PPT and everything.
thank you SMR. thank you AKM.
god help you all.
December 21st, 2008 at 8:25 PM
Good to see SMR – who always write wonderful comments on any subject – taking the floor.
I cannot see the Federal Government giving
billionsany funding to this project with no market for its pipeline. What a rum business case they must have presented to Mrs Palin! And she bought it!!December 21st, 2008 at 8:43 PM
What a scam! 500 million to figure out if the project will work or not? Perhaps that money would be better spent on other needs in Alaska and I can tell you quite sincerely I am not interested in seeing any federal funds (that would be MY money) going into this hair brain scheme.
Can you Alaskans get her out of office?
December 21st, 2008 at 8:47 PM
As a Canadian the following excerpt , is what I have been posting since I heard about the pipeline. Our First Nations who have settled their treaties, are no different than any sovereign nation. They must be negotiated with individually, NOT through the Canadian government. Good luck with that.
The are totally against this pipeline and would have to be paid millions to change their minds. It just simply is not feasible. The rest or the natives, who have not settled their land claims remain under the Canadian government and are what is reffered to in the excerpt;
The message came through loud and clear — don’t ignore the Canadians, especially the aboriginal groups known as First Nations, who have a constitutional right to be consulted by the Canadian government on how a big project like the gas line might affect land they own or use for hunting and fishing.
Look at a map of TransCanada’s pipeline route — it runs from the Alaska border through the Yukon and British Columbia to Alberta — and you’ll see a patchwork of First Nations lands.
The lawyers, however, warned that it could take several years — longer than TransCanada has said — to gain full clearance for the pipeline, with plenty of potential for lawsuits and for the project to be used as “leverage” in unresolved aboriginal land claims cases.”
December 21st, 2008 at 9:07 PM
Thank you for this information – I have been very curious about BP and Conoco working on their own plan for a pipeline, which indicated to me that they do not have complete confidence in the TransCanada project.
December 21st, 2008 at 9:29 PM
SMR: Well done!
Thank you for a well thought out essay on the Pipeline. This is such an important issue for the state of Alaska. All through the election I was shaking my head, and wondering why there was no discourse on this subject. It is my understanding, that Sarah Palin has made a few enimies, and that Exon is none to happy with her. I would say that unless she brings Exon to the table, nothing will happen. Conoco and BP will just wait her out and then, bring the big guns together, and do what they want with it. I hope the people of Alaska wake up and smell the coffee. It’s a shame.
December 21st, 2008 at 9:51 PM
Well, I certainly understand this a lot better than before. What I don’t understand is why every Alaskan publication hasn’t been screaming headlines about this along with dire warnings about Alaska’s future. And if that had been done, SP wouldn’t have been able to sell herself as an “energy expert.” If a governor in the lower 48 did this, s/he’d be run out of town on a rail with investigations up the ying yang and headlines in papers in every state.
Alaskans for Truth seems like an appropriate forum for this. Right now (of course, they’re just getting their feet wet) they are just addressing Troopergate and associated issues. They seem efficient and know how to use the media to blanket the state in a call to action, and it looks like that’s what this issue needs.
Alaskans need to be even more aggressive in forcing their politicians to do their bidding. I suspect that the Alaskan desire to be polite, and reticence to confrontation with authority was a big reason the MSM didn’t go after SP during the election: If her own state wasn’t bashing her on all this stuff, maybe we haven’t got the whole picture…
December 21st, 2008 at 10:13 PM
Thank you SMR-
Very insightful article, you put together the basics in layman’s language that was easy to grasp. I assume the gas companies do not want to [articipate because Palin was screwed team in terms of price, right?
I don’t understand why the Legislature didn’t build in safeguards to protect the state’s investment.
December 21st, 2008 at 10:31 PM
SMR, thank you for the clear, concise sum-up of the disaster that is the TransCanada Pipeline. I had to stop by and comment. It doesn’t surprise me that this is happening, but it is discouraging. In my state, we have a four hundred million dollar deficit right now, so the governor is cutting aid to the cities. This is the same governor who pushed to get taxes raised on our poorest county to bailout the Twins’ owner, Carl Pohlad and build him a new stadium. We also bailed out the Gophers, building them a new stadium as well. The total of the two bailouts is over four hundred million. I keep thinking how nice it would be to have that money go to the deficit instead.
Anyway, excellent job, SMR. You laid out the facts clearly so that anyone can understand them. I just hope Alaska’s government does the right thing. Hey, Les, can you do anything about this?
Oh, and a shout-out to all the old, familiar faces. Good to ’see’ you.
December 21st, 2008 at 10:45 PM
asiangrrl!
Great to see/hear from you! I wondered how you were doing-
I heard about the MN stadiums; funny how the threat of moving gets cities to cough up the funds…
December 21st, 2008 at 10:52 PM
CO almost native, hey. I got really burnt out on poltics after the election, plus Palin makes me want to punch something.
The stadiums: Hennepin County Board had to approve it at first as they are the only county paying for the stadiums. The four guys approved; the three women did not. To make matters worse, the guys said the women didn’t get it because it’s a guy thing. To which one of the women replied, “No, it’s a money thing.”
Carl Pohlad is worth billions. Billions. In the meantime, two of our local performing arts group have to temporarily close their doors, and our theater that got the Oscar for best regional theater two or three years ago has folded completely. Very sad.
December 21st, 2008 at 11:08 PM
asiangrrlMN (22:52:09) :
CO almost native, hey. I got really burnt out on poltics after the election, plus Palin makes me want to punch something.
I understand completely; I keep in touch on Mudflats because it is politics, but it’s more-
I am so sorry about your theaters; I hope they are able to scrape up funding- maybe Pohlad should subsidize them…
December 21st, 2008 at 11:10 PM
CO Almost Native, I don’t think they will survive. It’s a cold hard fact that arts don’t really matter, well, at all, but certainly not in a time of recession. I mean, governmentally-wise, not personally. I love sports, but I will not be stepping foot into either new stadium.
I still read the blog from time to time. I gotta get my dose of Alaskan politics.
December 21st, 2008 at 11:18 PM
asiangrrlMN (23:10:47) :
As a teacher, I know how important the arts are to complete development of the brain, let alone the soul-
I agree on avoiding the stadium; fortunately, our sports palaces are paid for- by a combination of private and public, while there was money to spend.
I am going to follow this pipeline; I doubt it will ever be built…
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:28 AM
These are the kind of articles that need to be seen in the media.
This was a great article, well researched and honest.
Sarah Palin will be a disaster if she runs for any public office out of state.
She is being haled by the Republican party as their savior in ‘12.
She needs to be held accountable by the people in Alaska and I’m begging people in the state to make these types of errors of her judgment known outsideof Alaska.
All we hear is what she wants us to hear. I heard her soundbite on her supposed raise and her comments about her time as Mayor of Wasilla. She was misleading because in the end she did get a raise, twice.
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:17 AM
SMR, great post on the “pipe-dream”! I can’t believe JM called Barbie a “energy expert” with this BS going on. And I have to give major credit to Canada for consulting with the First Nations, as Alaska doesn’t seem have this consideration/right for the Native peoples. So, Barbie has already given the 5K? If not why can’t the Leg. vote against it, and stop this mess in its tracks? Or have a special vote for the people to give their say?
Very good article SMR.
Someone mentioned the “maldoff” thing and something happened to me this week and I wonder if it was connected? I got my dog Pet ins. in March through Vsurence-Perrfect Pet and I researched them and saw nothing but good things about them. On 12/17 I got a notice they were canceling ALL insurance policies12/19! And I do have a recent claim as my poor girl had to have a ear surgery. I don’t know if I will be reimbursed. As of the other day, I couldn’t find anything on the “tubes” about this company going down, but I suspect, Maldoff is involved. Any ideas? Anyone?
December 22nd, 2008 at 3:39 AM
Thanks SMR for your insight to the oil debacle. It’s another train wreck scheduled for the Palin Express–unfortunately, we’re the passengers.
For those who have an interest in this subject–Andrew Halcrow (see AKM’s Blog roll for his link) has been dogging Palin on this issue since they both ran for governor. Once a Republican legislator, and current business person (owns Avis franchise), Andrew ran against Palin for Governor. Poor Andrew, everything he has for-told for the past 2 years has been vindicated, yet he is the one who gets labeled “sour grapes”. He has every right to say “I told you so”. You can find lots of background info there in his archives, anyone so desires.
December 22nd, 2008 at 3:48 AM
For AKM, I’m testing out my new gravatar —we’ll keep this hanging on the mantel for you.
Joys of the Season you and all Muddies.
December 22nd, 2008 at 4:51 AM
@crystalwolf — we had to settle Native land claims before the Trans-Alaska Pipeline could be built. The result was ANCSA — the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. I think it passed Congress in December of 1971. Alaska’s Native people got 44 million acres of land and just under a billion dollars to extinguish native land claims. Village and regional native corporations were also formed. Some of the regionals are now among the most successful corps in Alaska. (Wildly successful!) And a few village corps are rich. But a lot of Natives are still very unhappy with the way the whole deal went down. It’s pretty complicated.
The LNG pipeline was first proposed by former Governors Wally Hickle and Bill Egan in 1982. It was called the Yukon Pacific project. We have a 2-1/2 foot tall stack of books here that details the whole project, including exactly what would be built. It would have gone from the Slope to tidewater in Valdez. Yukon Pacific Corp did the studies, had most of the permits in place and had preliminary markets lined up in Asia, and it didn’t get built because the $8-10 billion bucks to build it was deemed too expensive during a crummy economic period.
The SO and I are both construction workers. We’re both hoping for one more real big project before it’s time to pull our pensions. The popular bumper sticker here a few years back read, “God, grant us one more boom; we promise not to piss it away.”
Anyway, I’ve been wondering when the First Nations people in Canada were going to pipe-up about this proposed gasline going through their land…
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:22 AM
Thanks SMR. Great post.
My question – in what parallel universe did SP gain the education, understanding of huge financial undertakings and indeed any knowledge of energy?
What on earth are Alaskans and the Legistlature thinking of trusting this farce of a Governor with a project of this magnitude?
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:55 AM
What is the address that we can all mail a lump of coal to ????
December 22nd, 2008 at 6:15 AM
Great rant SMR! I would be incoherent with bunches of very colorful words thrown in!
Seems like a sweet deal! For the CANADIANS!
What a mess! Personally if any of our federal dollars go to this project right now I am starting a letter writing campaign. Now is not the time to even look at this mess that sounds like lawsuits from here to nowhere to me!
Asiangirl we lost the Seattle Super Sonics this year because we said NO to a new arena. The people here were fed up with funding stadiums and arenas at the expense of all of the projects that are a much higher priority.
It was a long fight but I feel the people of Washington did the right thing. I am one of those people that feels sports should pay for their own freaking stadiums period! If they can pay one player the salary of a government then they can build their own dream! IMHO
December 22nd, 2008 at 7:45 AM
Our very own hillbilly – Jerry Jones – just built his own monument to ego………..displaced longtime homeowners by emminent domain – said the stadium was “for the good of the Community”……..same thing Bush did when his Daddies buddies gave him the sweetheart deal on the baseball team…..surely there is a special little place for these ass-wipes when check-out time comes………
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:28 AM
the Canadian’s are already are building a gas line down the middle of Canada to Chicago
so why the competition with Alaska which is much farther away,, the Gov should know this. Todd watches Ice Road Truckers. it was on that show. I believe that is where this gas line was going to the Midwest. or have they changed the route??
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:39 AM
so someone please explain to me just what Gov Palin gets out of making this deal? surely not just a high approval rating? there’s got to me more to it
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:48 AM
Thanks everyone for the supportive comments. I don’t have the superpowers (like AKM) that allow me comment on individual comments or questions, but I will say a few things —
You all are real troopers for reading the whole thing. I think it went slightly beyond the 500-750 words that AKM suggested… but really the issue is far too complex to do it justice in even the length that I ended up with. The bottom line is that anyone who is interested in getting to the facts of the matter can quite easily find out that it is all a case of the empress’ new clothes quite easily. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the local press was willing to put together something that definitively outlined that, but if you parse or extrapolate info from their articles it’s all there in black & white. Check out this link for more: http://www.adn.com/money/industries/oil/pipeline/
As someone above posted, Alaskans really really really want this, so they do not have the desire to see it clearly. If they’d have wanted to look at it clearly & objectively they’d have seen through the TransCanada pipeline issue long ago.
I agree that Andrew Halcro has plenty posted about this, and he is a good resource for info about this issue. I was not living in AK when he ran against SP for gov, so can’t say what it was that led to the general consensus that he has an anti-Palin agenda. As far as I’m concerned she is a really really atrocious Governor — I have no anti-Palin agenda, just a truth agenda, as I think Halcro does. If seeking the truth results in opinions that do not support Palin, well, I think that there’s plenty of info out there now that points to Palin & Truth = oxymoron.
My final words: educate educate educate — the info is all out there, tons of documents, and a reading of the House Bill (http://www.gov.state.ak.us/agia/agia/pdf/agia_docs/HB0177F.pdf)
that I referenced will make you sick, the waste of $500 million with a bottom line that neither the state nor TransCanada are actually obliged to build a pipeline:
(e) If the commissioners and the licensee agree that the project is uneconomic or an arbitration panel makes a final determination that the project is uneconomic, the licensee shall, upon the state’s request, transfer to the state or the state’s designee all engineering designs, contracts, permits, and other data related to the project that are acquired by the licensee during the term of the license upon reimbursement by the state of the net amount of expenditures incurred and paid by the licensee that are qualified expenditures for the purposes of AS 43.90.110.
And doesn’t it make you nervous when there is verbiage like this, kinda Bush-Cheney like: Sec. 43.90.420. Statute of limitations. A person may not bring a judicial action challenging the constitutionality of this chapter or the constitutionality of a license issued under this chapter unless the action is commenced in a court of the state of competent jurisdiction within 90 days after the date that a license is issued.
And of course there’s the promise on the part of the State that they will hurry along any permitting or court cases that impact the pipeline process. That makes me nervous, how about you???
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 AM
Excellent post SMR….somethings just need more than 750 words to get it all said and this is the case here.
Thanks. It’s worth reading several times…
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:59 AM
SMR, thank you so much for your post. As someone else commented, it really helps to understand a very complex subject. I can understand the people of Alaska really want this to happen, but at some point surely reality has to set in. I simply cannot believe that Alaskans are going to continue to buy her outright lies. The woman wouldn’t know the truth if it hit her in the face! And by the time everyone realizes the $1,200 check is not in the mail again, well I just hope it is not too late.
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:22 PM
SMR,
What an enlightening post. I had been trying to follow this on Andrew Halcro’s blog but some bits of the puzzle were always missing for me. You filled in those blanks and I now feel that I understand this whole debacle so much better.
What doesn’t surprise me is SP’s complete ineptitude. How could anyone, having seen her performance on the campaign trail, entrust her with 500 million dollars of Alaskas’s money? This woman doesn’t seem able to run her household (honestly), let alone run a state. And in the long run, it will be the Alaskans who suffer. This woman makes my blood boil! She is just so unqualifed for the position she holds. I can certainly understand your anger.
SMR, always read your posts. Is it still Calgary for the move?
December 22nd, 2008 at 4:06 PM
Here, here!! More skunk cabbage and fewer pipilines (and those nasty subsidies), I say.
December 22nd, 2008 at 4:07 PM
Fewer pipelines, also–also.