Energy issues dominate Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce priorities
Published Tuesday, October 7, 2008
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — Six of eight Chamber of Commerce legislative priorities address the high cost of energy and support for advance work on a natural gas pipeline.
Most of the priorities were approved at a Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce board meeting Monday.
They included a call for progress on a natural gas pipeline; streamlining state permitting processes for natural resource development; and state funding for public transportation projects. Another position advocates development of nonrenewable resources such as oil, coal and gas.
A proposal urging prompt attention to upgrading transportation facilities along the proposed natural gas pipeline corridor, specifically between Fairbanks and the North Slope along the Dalton Highway, drew mixed response.
Fairbanks Natural Gas President Dan Britton said the corridor supports vital state economic movers already, with or without a new pipeline, and should be valued accordingly.
“That asset up in the North Slope generates all of the state’s revenues,” Britton said. “We should be asking for them now to support the existing work. We need to educate people that it isn’t a Fairbanks issue. It’s a state issue that drives the economy.”
At least one proposed priority will undergo revisions before being presented to the board again next week. The Alaska State Chamber of Commerce considers submissions from chambers statewide, identifying the top five issues as those it will lobby for.
“Certainly, a lot of these things relate to energy,” board chair Jack Wilbur said. “Almost everything relates to energy these days.”
The other two urge greater state focus on improving Alaska’s high school dropout rate and on managing fish and wildlife resources.
Chambers of commerce from across the state develop legislative priorities with “statewide impact, local relevance,” he said.
Some of the positions approved at Monday’s meeting are more or less carryovers from past years, Wilbur noted.
The Fairbanks chamber will soon develop local legislative priorities, which members can seek support for from the Interior delegation, he said.
The energy issues drew some debate.
Britton voiced concerns with several priorities, targeting specificity that could block other worthwhile energy projects from realizing chamber support. Several modifications were made to his satisfaction, he said.
“There is a lot of work being done right now in the energy industry, and a lot of options being looked at,” Britton said after the meeting. “Coming out heavily in support of one versus the other, the timing might not be right.”
Fairbanks Natural Gas delivers liquid gas by truck from Southcentral to serve about 1,200 customers in the Interior. Plans call for construction of a North Slope processing plant and supply from Exxon, which would be trucked south to Fairbanks.
Rep. Jay Ramras encouraged chamber members to support a small-diameter natural gas line, such as those proposed by Enstar and Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority. Those could feed Fairbanks faster than a large-diameter pipeline, which have been proposed by TransCanada and Denali—The Alaska Gas Pipeline, and provide the quantity needed to supply major utilities like Golden Valley Electric Association and Flint Hills Resources’ North Pole Refinery.
“Fairbanks is the most vulnerable urban community in the state,” Ramras said.
He said after the meeting that politics seemed to be at play, as wording was adjusted to make everyone happy.
“I didn’t see a bold direction for Fairbanks,” he said. “I saw a lot of safe language that doesn’t necessarily convey the urgency of how expensive energy is in Fairbanks. ... We need gas now.”
Community Discussion
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Let's see. Natural gas prices are collapsing as massive reserves of gas are being discovered within North America. This, of course, dooms the big line into Canada. Industry experts now call the TrasnCanada or CP deals "pretend" pipelines.
Fairbanks needs certainty, and low cost energy. The All Alaska Gasline still has a voter mandate, and superior economics. Gas prices are not crashing in the premium world markets.
It is amazing how folks can, with a straight face, pretend that a high cost, low volume bullet line is a panacea. It is not. A bullet line would provide Fairbanks consumers gas that is nearly as expensive as the current price of fuel oil. It also does nothing to replace oil revenue, which is projected to continue to decline with our falling oil production. Just read the DOE reports. Anyone with an ounce of sense can see the looming disaster for Alaska coming.
Tick tock. Tick tock. The oil is running out. 99% of Alaska's revenue is dependent on oil. Where will state government obtain the needed revenue to run the state?
Hello? Anyone listening?
DOE says TAPS will have only 500,000 bbls/day of through-put in only six years.
And do not think that the Permanent Fund will bail us out. It has lost about 8 billion dollars this year. That is almost enough money- just in what the corpus of the fund has lost- to have built a real gasline to Valdez as the voters have asked.
Today, our Permanent Fund is down to only 32.5 billion dollars. Earlier this year we had almost 40 billion.
If we start the All Alaska Gasline today, and stop listening to the nitwits and their insane, expensive, bullet line ideas, we could have a real gasline, cheap gas, and a replacement revenue source for declining oil production.
As energy price implode due to world economic turmoil the chances of the big gasline making it to Fairbanks slowly fade away. The 10% that the permanent fund lost could have built us our own in-state gasline that would be paying Alaska dividends for decades to come. Wait, that would take leadership, a quality that is severely lacking in our elected officials.
CEO, I have to agree with you on almost everything.
We can no longer afford the luxury of pretending that this state can afford to spend billions on a gasline. How long before the legislator reintroduces to use the fund for paying for government. How long before Alaska ends up having the highest state income tax in the nation. Anyone who thinks that industry will rush up to Alaska to build based on cheap gas, study the economy. By next year we should be in double figure unemployment. By the end of the Christmas sale season, we will be seeing business who depend on this shopping spree for their year's profit go bankrupt. The Feds are talking price regulation. The gasline has become a pipe dream and will rest for another thirty years.
Since the News-Miner moved the other related story off the main webpage, this is a repost. it is still Chamber related.
By omitting Bob Bird from the forum this afternoon, The Chamber has once again turned sour with their decision to adhere to an old, antiquated policy. They need to seriously revisit possibly a two-tiered plan for allowance to viable candidates for public office. I agree with the Chamber's stand on a percentage of the last election...so for the primary, Mr. Bird did not qualify. But Bob garnered 5.5% of the vote in the primary...which should be more than enough to participate in today's forum. So with Senator Stevens in Washington, Mr. Bird in the audience at the forum...Mayor Begich will debate...himself. Very short-sighted decision that needs to be addressed. But we have come to see this a lot from the Chamber. Maybe with some new leadership, it can become an organization that we can be proud of instead of a disgrace.
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