Posted on 09/02/2008 4:40:21 AM PDT by thackney
It’s official. Gov. Sarah Palin has signed bills passed by the Alaska Legislature in special session in early August starting TransCanada Alaska on its way toward a proposed gas pipeline from the North Slope to market and providing relief for Alaskans from the high cost of energy.
The governor signed bills for an energy rebate and related measures Aug. 25.
On Aug. 27 at an Alaska AFL-CIO conference in Anchorage she signed the bill approving the issuance of an Alaska Gasline Inducement Act license to TransCanada.
TransCanada, although it won’t receive its AGIA license for 90 days, has already started weather-sensitive work in Alaska, with the goal of completing an open season within two years. The terms of AGIA provide that the state only pays a share of reimbursable expenses after the AGIA license is issued; because legislators did not make the legislation effective immediately it takes effect in 90 days as provided by the state constitution.
TransCanada has authorized aerial photography, engineering and environmental gap analysis in support of the open season project.
TransCanada Vice President Tony Palmer said Aug. 27 after the bill-signing that the company is doing weather-sensitive work in Alaska this summer and expects to let a contract for office space this fall, probably in Anchorage or Fairbanks.
Work in Canada, where TransCanada subsidiary Foothills Pipe Line already has weather-sensitive information, is for pipeline and compression design, he said.
Palin: law a step forward
Palin called the bill granting the AGIA license to TransCanada Alaska “a huge step forward on a new road to making that natural gas pipeline a reality.” Getting the AGIA license approved by the Legislature “was not pretty; it wasn’t easy or quick,” and took a lot of support from “many of you here in this room,” Palin told the AFL-CIO audience.
She said their help would be needed again, because legislators didn’t pass money for training to prepare Alaskans for gas pipeline work.
Legislators will get another chance to pass training dollars when they reconvene in January, she said.
PFDs to be issued early
The energy cost relief bill and the accompanying appropriation bill signed Aug. 25 provide a one-time payment of $1,200 to Alaskans eligible for the 2008 Permanent Fund dividend. It raises the maximum amount of loans that can be issued by the bulk fuel bridge and bulk fuel revolving loan funds to communities and cooperatives by 50 percent. It provides for changes in the Power Cost Equalization Program, raising the cap on which PCE payments are made from 52.5 cents per kilowatt hour to $1 per kilowatt hour. And it suspends the state’s motor fuel tax from Sept. 1 through Aug. 31, 2009. PFD distribution typically begins in October, but the governor said Alaskans who signed up for direct deposit for their PFD would see the PFD and the $1,200 one-time energy payment deposited Sept. 12. “In rural Alaska, particularly, many people are facing a choice between feeding their families and heating their homes, and they could use this payment from the state’s energy-generated surplus to cover some of those bills,” Palin said in a statement.
The governor also signed a proclamation declaring September as “Energy Efficiency Month” in Alaska, encouraging Alaskans to lower their costs by using energy more efficiently at work, home and on the road.
She couldnt find an American company to do this?
Now I know why McCain picked Palin...
I have nothing against Canada, and do not fear for national security with this deal (thank God it wasnt signed over to Communist China), but I am sure there are American companies who could do the same task...while keeping $$$ in America and not re-distributing it elsewhere
But no other company in the world has more Cold-Climate Natural Gas Pipeline experience than TransCanada.
Alaska Pipeline Project
http://www.transcanada.com/company/alaska_pipeline_project.html
The Alaska Pipeline Project proposes to move natural gas from Prudhoe Bay in northern Alaska to North American markets. The pipeline would stretch approximately 1,715 miles (2,760 km) from Prudhoe Bay in Alaska to Alberta. It would follow the route of the existing trans-Alaska oil pipeline and the Alaska Highway, and continue through northern British Columbia to link with the pipeline grid in north western Alberta.
TransCanada’s subsidiary, Foothills Pipe Lines Ltd., has been working on the Alaska Pipeline Project since it was first proposed in 1976. Continental gas prices halted the project years ago, but the need for natural gas continues to grow, and the Project can aid in meeting demand.
TransCanada holds certificates under the Northern Pipeline Act (Canada) which enable us to build the Canadian part of the Alaska Pipeline Project faster and cheaper than other alternatives. TransCanada has been – and continues to be – focused on advancing the project when the market conditions are right and commercial agreements are in place.
TransCanada submitted an application for license to construct the Alaska Pipeline Project under the Alaska Gas Inducement Act (AGIA) in late 2007. Read the Executive Summary or visit the AGIA website to view the complete Application for License.
Did any US companies submit bids? If not then I would have to amend what I earlier wrote.
I mean, this isnt like the Dubai Ports thing...where Bush claimed no American company could handle our ports, but a petro-terrorist state who helped fund the 9/11 attacks, could?
It is troubling that we would not have an American company who could handle such a project. Yes, it would be obvious that a Canadian company would be very experienced in such projects.
I think it’s obvious you have a problem with Gov. Palin.
Read it and get a clue Nancy!
vaudine
ConocoPhillips with BP also submitted a proposal that would be smaller and start later, along with some others with even weaker proposals.
Gas pipeline projects compared
http://www.adn.com/money/industries/oil/pipeline/story/370133.html
More at:
http://www.adn.com/money/industries/oil/pipeline/
I also have problems with Gov. Palin (and none of them have to do with her children).
Is it against the rules to criticize Gov. Palin’s job as Mayor or Governor?
We live in a world that requires bringing in the best available technology to get the most effecient ideas.
The award to Transcanada was an international competitive bid. The previous deal was awarded without competitive bidding and was currupt. Palin had it thrown out.
This is real reform.
The pipeline via Canada gets it done. The other deal would have had the disadvantage of having to compeat in the LNG market..tankers and all that. This pipeline will flow directly into the existing North American pipeline network without additional cost.
Hmmm. Palin signs a bill that the construction trades unions want and will put a lot of their members to work.
NObama signs no bills and will probably get every union and the AFL-CIO endorsements.
Go figger.
The previous deal by Gov. Frank Murkowski with the North Slope Producers was not the LNG design. The LNG from Valdez was a competing idea to both projects.
Alaska Piping Up...Again
http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2005/11/alaska_may_be_p.html
November 4, 2005
As of this month, and after Alaskan Gov. Frank Murkowski's much closed-door negotiations with oil company representatives, Alaska has offered a contract to the three major North Slope producers — ConocoPhillips, BP Plc and Exxon Mobile Corp. — to build and operate a 3,400-mile pipeline that would transport the region's natural gas supplies to the Lower 48 states. The state's proposed terms for building a $20 billion natural gas pipeline could both boost U.S. supplies of the fuel as prices surge and take 10 years to build, according to Bloomberg.
The proposed pipeline would run through western Canada to the Midwest, delivering about four billion cubic feet per day; it would operate for decades. According to the Anchorage Daily News on Oct. 7, Murkowski said the contract designates four points where gas could be siphoned for local use, or even for shipment through the North Pacific "in liquefied natural gas tankers": the Yukon River, Fairbanks, Delta Junction and Glennallen. The state is offering to be a 20 percent owner of the pipeline with an investment of at least $4 billion.
Looks like we got a little “foreign policy experience” going on here.
The unions would have gotten work regardless of whether Palin gave the contract to an American or Canadian company. I’m not impressed that, given the options, she sent a half a billion US tax dollars over the border.
But maybe that’s just me.
As governor, Palin has a responsibility to choose the best overall deal for the state of Alaska.
Period.
It is up to the American companies to step up with a competitive offer. Nobody is going to spoon feed them.
The lions share of the jobs on the pipeline will be American.
To me, they seemed the most logical to get it done the quickest, since they already hold the certificates under the Northern Pipeline Act (Canada).
no, but don’t make up silly ones like complaining that a pipeline that goes through Canada will be built by Canadians.
contrast with Obama’s claim to “revisit” NAFTA during the primary and not really mean it. Talk to Iran and give them $200 million but screw Canada and Iraq.
The dems in the legislature didn't like it. Palin campaigned against it. She won.
Then they negotiated a new deal.
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