Palin’s “Hungry Markets” Not So Hungry. (Updated – Andrew Halcro Weighs In)
15 06 2009
In several recent interviews, Governor Sarah Palin has told the country about the importance of getting “Alaska’s rich natural resources to hungry markets” in the Lower 48. And she’s been celebrating a new alliance between Trans-Canada Corp., and Exxon to build Alaska’s huge $26 billion dollar gas pipe line project.
In light of all this buzz, it was interesting that an article just came out in The Financial Post, with the ominous title “Demand for Arctic Gas Dries Up.”
The North American natural gas industry is “overbuilt,” pointing to weak prices for a long time, said [Steve] Letwin, Houston-based executive vice-president, gas transportation and international, at Canadian pipeline giant Enbridge Inc.
Years of worry about supply shortages because of the maturing of conventional supplies have been replaced by worries there aren’t enough customers for the 1,200 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in shale deposits — enough to last a century — found in the past three years, plus liquefied natural gas coming from offshore that is “needed like a hole in the head,” Mr. Letwin said in an interview.
The biggest problem according to Enbridge, Trans-Canada’s biggest competition? Insufficient demand.
Abundant natural gas in other locations in Canada, and Texas which are much closer to Lower 48 markets further chill the market for Alaska gas, according to Letwin.
We knew that despite the media flutter surrounding the latest Trans-Canada/Exxon deal, we’re years away from actually having a pipeline. When does Letwin think there may be some demand for Arctic gas from Alaska and Canada? Not until 2025.
It’s going to be a long couple of decades.
UPDATE:
For another take on the real story behind the new Palin-Exxon alliance, Andrew Halcro weighs in saying that “while Exxon scores positive points for siding with the state and progressing the pipeline project, they have left themselves plenty of room to jump off the AGIA train before the crash.” Read the whole piece HERE.
June 15th, 2009 at 4:01 PM
I am sorry Letterman apologized because she will never let this die. I am so sick of fake outrage by the right wingnuts. They will never be happy. They weren’t happy when Bush was in office, the ran both houses of Congress, the Supreme court, and all the radio stations.
June 15th, 2009 at 4:03 PM
McCain: Palin Most Knowledge Person in America on Energy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fRjtAK66as
June 15th, 2009 at 4:03 PM
McCain: Palin Most Knowledgeable Person in America on Energy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fRjtAK66as
June 15th, 2009 at 4:03 PM
zippety doo dah…zippety aaay
Gas pipeline threatening to turn our scenic river byway into a straight and narrow fast-lane death trap and our shoreline into a toxic waste construction zone. Good to see it delayed. Maybe we can come up with some sustainable economic ideas in the meantime.
So many better things to do in Alaska… like take the energy money and use to promote energy -efficient construction and conservation. Improve ferry service and support Alaskan residents and businesses. Promote healthy watersheds and sustainable wild fish stocks. Expand community gardens and farmer’s markets. Provide health care for all with a focus on prevention. Support small businesses and sustainable communities.
June 15th, 2009 at 4:09 PM
Well, Palin may have won this battle, but she just lost the war.
Does anyone think that Letterman will forget this incident? I am also sure that other late night comedians are really pissed about Palin telling them what they can say and do. Her day will come when she wants attention from these guys, and hopefully, she won’t get it. At least not the positive attention that she so craves.
June 15th, 2009 at 4:09 PM
Star: Where’s the outrage about Michelle being related to a monkey???
_____________________
Has anyone heard ANYTHING from Michelle about that idiot’s comment?
NO. And that’s the way SP should have handled this (except she just couldn’t. And didn’t.) Idjit woman
June 15th, 2009 at 4:10 PM
Oh cripe – that should have been OT
Going to the open thread now. Mea culpa – I’m sorry.
Nan
June 15th, 2009 at 4:10 PM
While we’re discussing fracking is a good time to watch Dennis Zaki’s alarming video from a Pebble Mine press conference.
http://www.alaskareport.com/
June 15th, 2009 at 4:12 PM
Isabella Says: made about Alaska governor Sarah Palin and her daughter Willow.
It’s so easy to fall into repeating things we know aren’t so, just because we hear it over and over.
gov Palin claims it was about daughter Willow. Letterman used the word daughter, no name.
Letterman re-addresses Palin: ‘I had no idea [Willow] was there’
http://tiny.cc/n43Li June 15, 2009
Here’s the full text of Letterman’s comments, which will be telecast tonight.
June 15th, 2009 at 4:24 PM
@Nan:
I saw it on CNN; because the SC legislator immediately apologized and Michele Obama is classy, it didn’t become a huge brouhaha. What hypocrites those Palinbots are-
June 15th, 2009 at 4:26 PM
Aussie Blue Sky,
This is from Wiki re using Compressed nat. gas for autos. Interesting to see the leading countries using it!!
Compressed natural gas (methane) is a cleaner alternative to other automobile fuels such as gasoline (petrol) and diesel. As of December 2008, the countries with the highest number of CNG vehicles, ranked numerically, were Pakistan [11], Argentina, Brazil, Iran and India. The energy efficiency is generally equal to that of gasoline engines, but lower compared with modern diesel engines. Gasoline/petrol vehicles converted to run on natural gas suffer because of the low compression ratio of their engines, resulting in a cropping of delivered power while running on natural gas (10%-15%). CNG-specific engines, however, use a higher compression ratio due to this fuel’s higher octane number of 120–130
June 15th, 2009 at 4:28 PM
“McCain Thinks Palin Knows More About Energy Than Anyone Else in the United States”
Guess McCain was wrong about Sarah – again.
June 15th, 2009 at 4:28 PM
Isn’t it a little stupid to hold your big “CBS Must Fire Dave March” the day after Dave makes his second apology? I’m thinking that we ought to start a pool, guessing (no online betting here) as to how long Sarah will keep it going, how long it takes for Dave to fire off another Palin joke, how many people actually show up tomorrow (New York’s demographics aren’t exactly Sarah Palin’s demographics).
My guess is that Sarah will find a way to keep it going this week; Dave will be a gentleman and wait for her to do something else stupid (next week), number of people will be far less than the number they report. (Going way out on a limb, here).
June 15th, 2009 at 4:28 PM
Aussie Blue Sky,
I posted the Dennis Zaki link on the blog the other day. It’s not getting enough attention.
June 15th, 2009 at 4:33 PM
Has anybody figured out how much petroleum will be necessary to build the pipe line?
Fuel for engines etc. But also fuel for mining ore and producing the pipe, the construction equipment, housing for and heat etc for workers. Offices, electricity, equipment and paper for the bureaucrats that will push the paper work throughout.
This is going to be a huge carbon foot print just to build and maintain.
June 15th, 2009 at 4:44 PM
This skyscraper has been powered by gas turbines since its completion in 1972. I worked in this building in the ‘eighties and there was a power strike so millions of office workers were sent home – but not us.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/140_William_Street
June 15th, 2009 at 4:47 PM
inJuneau:
Of course you know better than I– you live there. Thanks.
June 15th, 2009 at 4:55 PM
However, I still think we aren’t coming close to considering all the options for delivery of Alaska’s natural gas (or the energy from it). Electrical power is provided over long distances. I wonder if high voltage power lines could provide power to Canadian or northern American cities. Liquified natural gas gets shipped across the globe.
The only option Halcro thinks is relevant is natural gas pipeline to the midwest.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:35 PM
Speaking of natural gas and Alaska:
Could Enstar get LNG cheaper (from somewhere like Asia) than what we’re paying here for Cook Inlet natural gas? I wonder if Enstar has a fiduciary responsibility to seek a lower cost gas supplier– Cook Inlet natural gas is twice as expensive as it used to be.
China is purchasing wholesale natural gas from the Pacific Rim for less than 4 dollars per million cubic feet– much, much less than what we’re paying for Cook Inlet gas. Could we get a better deal here too? Prices are down– perhaps now is the time to seek a long term supply contract.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:38 PM
LNG to Asia, the only way!
June 15th, 2009 at 5:43 PM
AGA statement: “critical AKn resources will help all Americans more cleanly run homes & power way of life.” More@http://tinyurl.com/ljm7lo
She must have written the latest twit, I mean tweet.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:59 PM
Did I just here on NPR that the 9th Circuit Court just spanked Exxon?
June 15th, 2009 at 6:02 PM
About the Valdez.
June 15th, 2009 at 6:11 PM
nswfm CA Says:
June 15th, 2009 at 5:59 PM
Did I just here on NPR that the 9th Circuit Court just spanked Exxon?
———————————————–
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Exxon Mobil Corp. was ordered Monday to pay about $500 million in interest on punitive damages for the Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, nearly doubling the payout to Alaska Natives, fishermen, business owners and others harmed by the 1989 disaster.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090615/ap_on_bi_ge/us_exxon_valdez
June 15th, 2009 at 6:34 PM
Just read transcript of Letterman’s apology… Gee whiz, I wish everyone would let it go. Letterman doesn’t deserve this. Imagine what Wooten and Monegan have had to go through being on Palin’s hit list. Keep miles away from this vindictive venemous woman.
http://weblogs.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/blog/2009/06/bulletin_david_letterman_apolg.html
June 15th, 2009 at 6:40 PM
someone earlier mentioned that there was no correlation between fracking and earthquakes.
As someone who lives in a mining area and who has family living in areas where ground water has been pumped out in unrealistic amounts, there’s a geologic term known as “subsidence”.
In the groundwater deletion areas, this is obvious with major sinkholes suddenly swallowing home literally overnight.
In coal mining country (where I live), subsidence happens all the time when old mine shafts, underground retention areas, etc., give way. Locally there’s a small quake and then all sorts of contaminated water flashfloods into local creeks and streams and eventually to major rivers (this happened a few years ago to the Ohio River after the Big Sandy debacle).
Anyway, here’s how it goes, specifically with “fracking”: the shale layers are literally fractured/blasted. What happens as a result? The shale layers collapse. There are NO old-time mining timber frames to hold up the roofs. The shale layer collapses, what happens to what’s above? You guessed it….
It’s common sense, which apparently is in short supply to the mining companies and governments.
June 15th, 2009 at 6:42 PM
I really thought since the beginning of the Trans-Canada involvement in the gas pipeline that the gas would end up going to the Alberta tar sands fields and give them the energy that they are lacking to process the tar sands into oil. There was a big write up in Nat Geo a few months ago regarding the extraction of oil from the tar sands and it mentioned that much more natural gas was required that was currently available to heat the sands and liquefy the oil.
The proposed trans canadian pipeline runs right thru the tar sands area; there was talk years ago of running it thru the tar sands extraction mines and then whatever was leftover would run thru a pipe to the midwest. Sounds to me like it might just all be used in Alberta.
Funny, using natural gas to heat up tarry sands and liquefy petroleum products.
When I was in 8th grade I called Exxon in Colorado and they sent me a box of oil shale rock. My teacher and I heated it up, after crushing it, and then ran it thru a cold water jacket and condensed the oil from the vapors from the heated rock. It took much more gas to run the heater that heated up the crushed rock to release the oil molecules than oil that we ended up with from the process. I think the tar sands are like that; it requires massive amounts of energy input (natural gas for heating) to extract a minute amount of oil from the sands.
However, if there is a current “glut” of natural gas in the lower 48,perhaps this is how our gas should be used; to extract petroleum. On another note, it would be worthwhile for everyone to read about the environmental degradation surrounding the pristine Athabaskan River region of Canada due to the oil and tar sand mines. The Gov’t has pretty much turned a blind eye towards environmental catastrophe as long as the sands are producing oil and making money.
June 15th, 2009 at 6:57 PM
I would personally not be in favour of anything that faciitates further oil sands development. The environmental devastation in Northern Alberta and Saskatchewan already happening is bad enough. But as long as the price of oil is above a certain threshold, and the price of natural gas is below a certain threshold, it will make economic sense (to the producers, not in the long run for humans, I emphasize). We need to globally reduce the demand for oil. Period.
June 15th, 2009 at 7:03 PM
I should have said, for humans, waterfowl, mammals, insects, amphibians, or any other life-forms, including those yet to evolve!
June 15th, 2009 at 7:10 PM
Thanks Aussie, I was driving and commenting while at the stop lights.
June 15th, 2009 at 7:11 PM
Unless the information about Gino has something to do with The pipeline or any other substantive governmental matter, I really don’t care to hear another word about her. To listen further or post about her personal life, simply encourages more attention to her. Such attention is best reserved for positive people with positive things to say, not immature, self-absorbed egomaniacs. If we all just ignore the silly woman, she will not only not win another term as governor, but will never come close to running for President. My motto for the future is “Sarah Who?”
June 15th, 2009 at 7:14 PM
nswfm CA–They’re also making them pay the 5.9% interest back to Sept. 1996 when the original award was granted by the court. Of course, the evil company will prob. appeal that all the way back up to the SCOTUS… URG!
June 15th, 2009 at 7:18 PM
128 Gramiam Says:
June 15th, 2009 at 7:11 PM
Unless the information about Gino has something to do with The pipeline or any other substantive governmental matter, I really don’t care to hear another word about her.
I agree. Can we keep things on topic, please?
June 15th, 2009 at 7:48 PM
Here’s the info on the court decision today: http://www.adn.com/exxonvaldez/story/831867.html
June 15th, 2009 at 7:53 PM
and just thinking about the carbon footprint constructing this pipeline will have…YIKES!
June 15th, 2009 at 8:16 PM
@justafarmer #123:
We haven’t had earthquakes related to the shale oil pilot projects in Colorado, but there have been clustering of severe health problems: cancers and other diseases. Companies say there’s no connection, but they are still refusing to disclose what chemicals are used. The other big issue is the amount of water needed- we don’t have enough here in the High Plains Desert. I think the state will refuse to issue any more permits, until these major problems are addressed.
June 15th, 2009 at 8:32 PM
OT:
Letterman is on; his intro was hilarious- “how many of you are here to see if I insult someone else?” Said anyone could use a bag of his hate mail if they couldn’t rent a beach chair. Compared the reactions to the Iranian election to his own situation…classic David Letterman.
June 15th, 2009 at 8:35 PM
Ben Muse’s site on Arctic Economics has always been an interesting reference. Click on the Oil and Gas tag.
25% of the World’s Undiscovered Oil and Gas North of the Arctic Circle? Maybe, Maybe Not.
June 15th, 2009 at 8:37 PM
@CO almost a native:
I can definitely understand the health probs. I’ve seen it in the fish in the Ohio River since the 1960s (don’t eat what you catch!).
But I’ve also experienced the little quakes and the subsidence. Far as I’m concerned, fracking will definitely cause subsidence and, as a result, sinkholes and/or quakes depending on the local geology.
June 15th, 2009 at 8:45 PM
From June 2008: “…the (court) decision could sour already testy relations between the oil industry and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a Republican. “I am extremely disappointed,” she said in a statement. “The Court gutted the jury’s decision on punitive damages.”
I wonder, after getting into bed with Exxon in the AGIA deal last week, will this cause Palin to leap right out of bed again and applaud this court decision? Or will she be her same old hypocritical self, and be a silent partner to Exxon when she should really speak up?
(as in so many other issues that affect individual Alaskans that she remains silent on, or says one thing and does another)
June 15th, 2009 at 8:49 PM
I Like Gramiam’s suggestion. — “Sarah Who?” –
June 15th, 2009 at 9:18 PM
my last post tonight (waaay late here…)
When I bought my Kentucky Home farm, I asked for a title search. None of the lawyers here knew what that was! I directed the lawyer to look for any and all liens AND who owned mineral rights. If I did not have mineral rights, the land deal was off.
Guess what????
All of the mineral rights to my farm were leased out back the 1960s for $1 an acre a year.
Guess what?
The mining company NEVER paid a DIME EVER on any of those leases (NEVER!), but the leases were still legally valid four decades later.
Except i instructed my lawyer to get that bogus lease vacated. Which he did and in the process learned that all of HIS lands were also held hostage by this lease and just about everyone of his clients.
Forewarned is forearmed,
June 16th, 2009 at 6:16 AM
“The two primary rivers which will be affected are the Susquehanna and Ohio.”
well actually I am talking about the piece that runs through Wayne county up into new york. crosses right through the delaware
but sure sus-q county has alot more activity. and so does broome in NY.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:39 AM
We don’t want your natural gas, Sarah. Have you tried to sell it to Russia?
June 16th, 2009 at 12:54 PM
EnCana Corp. CEO Randy Eresman said on Monday the company has shut-in wells producing a couple of hundred million cubic feet of natural gas in each of Canada and the United States because of low prices for the fuel.
[snip] Speaking to reporters at an investment conference, Eresman said EnCana, North America’s largest natural gas producer, has chosen not to bring some new wells on stream and has shut in other wells where it costs more to produce the gas than it can be sold for.
“In some cases, we’re getting below the lifting costs. You more or less have to shut them down,” he said.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/fp/EnCana+shuts+wells+prices/1699652/story.html
comment: that there would be your hungry market being “not hungry”