Senate Bill 215 is a spartan two-paragraph piece of legislation that directs the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation to begin work on a pipeline connecting Cook Inlet infrastructure to Fairbanks as the first stage of development of an in-state natural gas pipeline.
“This gasline would be able to serve nearly as many Alaskans as a line from the North Slope to Southcentral, but at a much lower cost and within a faster time frame,” Paskvan said in a press release. “Families and business owners back home need to see a real project which will deliver lower energy costs and SB 215 moves piped gas faster than any other option on the table.”
The bill would draw on work already done under the mothballed Beluga to Fairbanks line studied by the Alaska Natural Gasline Development Authority and the Alaska Stand Alone Pipline. Because of lower costs of building a shorter line, using existing infrastructure and lower construction costs, the senators said they believe this plan would be the fastest, cheapest way to deliver natural gas to the Interior.
The Beluga to Fairbanks line had nearly reached a point where construction could have begun before fears of dwindling supplies in Cook Inlet shelved the project in 2010. The line was designed to be a bi-directional line that could ship natural gas north before it could be hooked up to a source from the North Slope.
Thomas said concerns about Cook Inlet drying up have been invalidated upon recent — albeit tentative — reports of major natural gas discoveries.
A early report by the Fairbanks North Star Borough’s study of gas distribution showed Fairbanks families and businesses could save more than $230 million with natural gas.
“SB 215 is an integral part of Interior Alaska’s energy solution,” Thomas said. “Combining a legacy pipeline from Cook Inlet to Fairbanks with short term energy assistance and a bridge project that quickly expands the use of natural gas in our community we now can provide the path forward to sustainable and affordable energy.”
At $120 barrel (divide by 42) the state makes $2.86 off every gallon of fuel sold. When I purchase 250 gallons of fuel oil I am putting $715.00 into the State revenue stream. When GVEA burns 200,000 gallons per day to generate electricity, we the people not they the co-op are putting $572,000.00 per day into the state coffers. This totals out to almost $209 million per year.
People in Anchorage, Wasilla, Palmer, Kenai, and Juneau are not paying this and they have not been for the last 40 years. This inequity needs to be corrected. PRONTO.
You also fail to comprehend the State does not get the oil for free. It oil in lue of cash. So the actual price to the State is not free.
There seems to be a tendency of all these proposals to not identify the cost of homeowners to replace existing systems. I'm sure no one is going to show up at my place and install a new gas fired boiler for free. Until the gas line is withing a short distance from my place I'm not going to run out and change systems.
What Thomas and Paskvan have accomplished is to bring reason and logic to a debate that has NOT been provided by the nitwits in the House (Republicans).
Cook Inlet has an estimated 250 year gas supply according to experts like USGS, EIA, DOE, Escopeta, Nordaq, and Buccaneer.
Just last summer one well drilled in the Kitchen Lights Unit found as much as 3.5 trillion cubic feet- enough gas for 30-40 years of existing railbelt usage.
Now here is the insane part. House Republicans want to build a gasline from the North Slope at a massive cost of over $8 billion dollars to take gas TO Cook Inlet. The gas from this boondoggle would be the MOST expensive in the USA.
P-2
Huh? Why would they do that? Why spend all this money to take gas TO a place that has gas? The legislation is HB-09. It seeks to destroy the 2002 citizens initiative that created ANGDA with the mission of building the people's pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez. Republicans want to hide much of what AGDC does in confidentiality, exempt AGDC from the state procurement code, RCA oversight, and prevent citizens from using the courts for oversight of the actions of AGDC. And they want to throw $200 million dollars of our money into this boondoggle- on top of the tens of millions already spent.
With this new Senate legislation, (a reality check) some of the massive gas reserves in Cook Inlet can be piped to Fairbanks. This pipeline would be smaller, and shorter, and much less expensive. It would also give Alaskans some redundancy. We do not want to be reliant on only one gas line as we convert to gas. Earthquakes happen...
Thomas and Paskvan deserve kudos.
Yes, I agree ANGDA's B2F-line is a very good idea, but a $200million investment NOW in LNG-rail solves $20billion worth of problems very quickly.
Surplus gas will show at railbelt from Cook Inlet this summer, and Nslope gas will arrive at railbelt when Santa Claus gets a gasline built D2F from Deadhorse. No matter where and when LNG arrives at railbelt AKRR is considered to be an anchor customer. 180-railcars can haul 500mmcfd to anywhere on railbelt, including supplying AMHS-ferries LNG-fuel from Whittier and Seward.
LNG-fuel locomotives hauling Alaska coal=== for export??... it's been done before.
http://www.energyconversions.com/media/BN7890tandemr290.jpg
AGDC needs to explain to the Alaska Public that HB-09 turns ANGDA into a zombie sockpuppet.
HB-189 allows AGDC to do whatever it wants in secret under a big-blankent confidentiality clause - FOREVER !!
Alaskans deserve better treatment than farmed mushrooms..
..I choose RESPECT!!
$8 billion for a relative handful of customers.
It does not pencil out.