Alaskan gas pipeline deadline extended

Source: chron.com

Alaska is giving companies two more months to submit bids to build what could be a massive pipeline to ship natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope.

According to the Associated Press:

Gov. Palin has been pushing hard for the new pipeline.

The deadline was pushed from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30 because more companies have begun to inquire about the project, and the state has received feedback calling for more time to prepare a complete application, said Nan Thompson, a member of [Gov. Sarah] Palin’s energy team.”It’s going to provide an opportunity for other interested parties to put together responsive bids,” Thompson said. “The application asks for a lot of detail and we wanted to give more applicants more time to do a better job.”

Applications became available July 3, not long after Palin signed the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act into law.

This could be a huge project. The North Slope has about 35 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves, according to the U.S. Geologic Survey. There’s 8 BCF of gas that is simply recirculated back into the ground in Prudhoe Bay oil fields daily because it has nowhere to go and the U.S. doesn’t just flare this stuff (it also helps maintain field pressure).

If it happens there will likely be plenty of Houston connections. There are plenty of pipeline companies based here that could be candidates to build and operate it, and two of the three major North Slope producers, ConocoPhillips and BP are either based here or have North American HQ here. Then there are all the pipeline engineering firms, natural gas traders, etc. that call Houston home. A delegation from Alaska was in town earlier this year to meet with companies about the project.

But as the AP story points out, the two-month deadline extension could either be a good sign or a bad sign:

Republican state Sen. Charlie Huggins, chairman of the Senate Resources Committee, said he hopes the extension is not buying the administration time because there’s a lack of interest in the project.”Normally this means you’re not getting any or many responses under the provisions that are laid out,” Huggins said. “The optimist in me says if the administration is doing this, they are doing it in the best interest of the state, so I have to assume they are doing the right thing.”

More Palin for VP talk

A deaf Ear?

I was contacted by Sheila Toomey of the Alaska Ear of the Anchorage Daily News on August 17th with the brief message: “Who are you?” in the message line and nothing else other than her email signature/contact information in the body. I thought that was kind of strange considering the source so I replied back with just my email signature and contact information. The reply was was “Thanks. But who’s paying for your services re Palin?”. I answered that no one paid me, it was my own site. I sent that message at 10:17am of the 17th but on the 19th Sheila published this on adn.com:

“PALINTOLOGY … That’s the name of a Web site devoted to Sarah-love. Or, as the site defines the word: “the science dealing with Alaska’s first female governor.” It’s a repository for those ain’t-she-the-gorgeous-Republican hope stories making the media rounds lately.

It’s produced by Alaska Multimedia Productions, an Anchorage-based Web production company. Wonder who’s paying them to do it.

This is in addition to the site mentioned a couple weeks ago that’s pushing Sarah for vice president. Vice president? Not hardly.

But Ear is prepared to predict the spin works well enough that she gets tapped to make a speech at the 2008 national convention. Then we’ll see if she has legs.

OK, that didn’t come out right. You know what Ear means.

See www.palintology.com.”

 

 

“Who’s paying them to do it?” Come on, Sheila. You knew the answer to that question.

And my response to the “Why?” I got from her this morning (obviously after her write-up was published):

“Short answer: She’s my hero and a role model for women everywhere.

Long answer:

I met Sarah a few years back when she was mayor of Wasilla and I was interning for a morning radio show. She was a frequent guest and as I got to know her, I really grew to admire her as a person and a public servant. I told her then I knew she would go far and would love to campaign for her in any of her future endeavors. I was invited to her announcement-to-run party and managed her website for a bit and came up with the palintology.com idea as a way of following her career. I told her of the idea and asked for her ‘blessing’ and she approved. I haven’t spoken with her since the election and have no idea if she’s seen the site or what she thinks of it but I consider her a mentor and an exceptional role model and I really think she and her accomplishments should be more widely known.”

I had no idea of the write up until I stumbled across it during a search on ADN this afternoon. My inquiry to Ms. Toomey sent this morning about why she was asking has gone unanswered. Maybe she was just filling a word quota for the day.

Palin for VP on KTUU

Giant Killer

Posted by REID WILSON

In 2006, former mayor Sarah Palin (R) beat a sitting governor in the Republican primary in Alaska, then beat a widely popular former governor in the general, and not by a small margin. Someone is having some fun now, matching Palin up with embattled Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. The results? Palin beats Stevens 59%-36%.

It’s not bad when, after just half a year on the job, you boast 84% approval ratings and just 5% disapproval ratings, as Palin does. More importantly, for Democrats, Stevens’ approval rating is just 44%, compared to 40% disapprove.

In other polling news, Congressman Bobby Jindal (R) has a huge lead over his nearest competitor in the race to replace Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) in Louisiana. Jindal is taking 63% compared with State Sen. Walter Boasso’s 14%. Add New Orleans Gov. Ray Nagin to the mix and he pulls just 11% to Jindal’s 60% and Boasso’s 10%.

New Orleans has a very fast turn-around from filing to the election. The filing deadline is September 6th, and the general is October 20th. If Jindal somehow falls below 50% before the 20th, a runoff takes place November 17th. At the moment, though, it looks as if Jindal’s days in DC are numbered, and that he will take up residence in Baton Rouge shortly.

Source: Time-Blog

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