Decision time for rails {Alaska-Alberta proposal ready to launch feasibility study, needs C$40M}

Petroleum News ^ | Week of January 13, 2013 | Gary Park

[SeminoleCounty]

Wonder how Churchill is feasible...as it is only usable 3-4 months out of the year, and, would have to be expanded to handle petro shipments. Also, the town is small, and probably not enough workers...some will have to be brought in at cost

More reason for Keystone

[diogenes ghost]

This would be a boon for Alaska. There is no rail service into the state, all freight comes by ship or rail. To build a connector from this line to connect with Alaska RR at Fairbanks would be a no-brainer.

Great thing for both countries.

[Rebelbase]

“There is no rail service into the state, all freight comes by ship or rail. “

????

[diogenes ghost]

"????"

Correct statement.

AND their freight that arrives via ship from, say Japan, must arrive on a US flagged ship with US crew. This requires LOTS of extra handling and costs go way up.

The railroad would indeed be a GREAT thing for them.

[Tucker39]

More power to them, just as long as Tax Cheat Warren Buffoon and his toy railroad doesn’t somehow get to worm his way in and get to transport one drop of crude!

[SierraWasp]

I can dig it!!! Let’s Roll!!!

[wardaddy]

I am a former cargo ship owner.....several break bulk and roro

Any flagged ship unless barred can deliver goods from a foreign port to US

And with any crew they want

They only need US flag to go between US ports unless waivered in emergencies like relief efforts

[thackney]

This would be a boon for Alaska. There is no rail service into the state, all freight comes by ship or rail.

The rail-barge-rail shipments from Washington to South-Central are pretty effective now. I don't see this making much change for Alaska, just oil for the pipeline.

[thackney]

AND their freight that arrives via ship from, say Japan, must arrive on a US flagged ship

I used to live in Alaska. The majority of stuff comes up from Washington.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The Jones Act applies only in the case of US port to US port.

[ElkGroveDan]

As long as the oil finds its way onto the global market we will all benefit from it.

[ElkGroveDan]

the idea could succeed based on the movement of containers and trains carrying products such as iron ore, coal, base metals, grains and fertilizer, making remote resource exploration and development more feasible.

"Ay? I don't like that idea."

[thackney]

As long as the oil finds its way onto the global market we will all benefit from it.

True that is, but this proposal would take Canadian Oil to the L48 West Coast.

[ElkGroveDan]

True that is, but this proposal would take Canadian Oil to the L48 West Coast.

And thus it becomes part of the global market.

[okie01]

I doubt the 240 car train....passing sidings probably can’t handle them...

Which is why they're planning a double-track line.

[diogenes ghost]

"Any flagged ship unless barred can deliver goods from a foreign port to US."

Then explain why.....

In January '12 a waiver was granted to the Russian icebreaking tanker 'Renda" for emergency shipment of gasoline from N. Japan to Nome. Nome was iced in at the time and could not get normal intrastate barge shipments.

[wardaddy]

The Russian vessel M/V Renda picked up 400,000 gallons of gasoline in Dutch Harbor Alaska to take in ice bound emergency to Nome Alaska along with the diesel fuel it had already picked up in South Korea

It needed the Jones Act waiver to carry from US port to US port.

But not from a foreign port to the US.

I think they tried but failed to do so after Sandy due to unions and Democrats protesting of foreign flagged non union crewed ships ferrying supplies to NJ and NY harbours from southern US relief sites.

think for a second, why would you ever think only US flagged vessels with US (Merchant Marine) crews can ply US ports...there are nowadays only 191 US flagged cargo vessels worldwide, in 1955 there were 1200. ...there are over 200 cargo ships and tankers in US Gulf ports right now as we speak is my guess...I'm sure there is some port traffic site I could find...there are not enough and they are way too costly to compete...in my shipping days I only saw US flagged ships as relief vessels, research and Jones Act vessels...never intercontinental anymore

have you seen merchant marine union scale....whew...it's 10 times Filipino I can promise you and of course replete with hours regs which will mean double crew and so forth...no thanks

here is a site synopsis of the Renda situation:

JONES ACT WAIVER ALLOWS RENDA TO DELIVER EMERGENCY FUEL SUPPLY TO NOME, ALASKA By Lysander Johnson posted in Recent Maritime News on Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Russian-flagged 371-foot tanker RENDA, escorted through over 300 miles of ice-covered seas by U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker HEALY, reached Nome, Alaska on Saturday, January 14, with 1.3 million gallons of unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel. Pumping the fuel into the town pipeline began safely during the few daylight hours on Monday. Normally, Nome residents would have received their full winter fuel supply by barge months ago, but a November storm made their final barge delivery impossible. Nome faced running out of fuel supplies before March or April if not for RENDA coming through with the first winter sea delivery ever to Nome. One solution was a very expensive fuel delivery by air, and that's exactly what might have been the only solution if it were not for a Jones Act waiver allowing the Russian vessel to operate in both Dutch Harbor to take on 400,000 of gasoline, and in Nome to deliver that gasoline as well as the diesel that RENDA had first loaded in South Korea.