“I want to talk about the future,” former Governor Bill Sheffield said as he began his lecture to the Chamber of Commerce Business Roundtable Thursday. And without affordable energy, the future he painted for Alaska’s present and future citizens was bleak.
“We are on the edge, and many communities are already over the edge, of an energy crisis in Alaska — we have an energy crisis in Alaska,” Sheffield said. “Too many of our residents are struggling with how to deal these days with bills to heat their homes and cook their meals and that add up to the price of a monthly mortgage.”
Gov. Sheffield then gave a rundown of Alaska’s energy troubles.
“We all know what bush communities pay for basic comforts,” Sheffield said. And in Fairbanks “people have to burn so much firewood that their air quality is in the sewer.”
Cook Inlet gas supplies are expected to be depleted by 2015, Sheffield said. He said Alaska already lost over a hundred high-paying jobs on the Kenai Peninsula when the Agrium fertilizer plant closed its doors in 2007 due to a lack of Cook Inlet natural gas supplies.
The “$80,000-a-year jobs disappeared,” Sheffield said.
The Fairbanks-based Flint Hills refinery is running at reduced capacity. The facility used to send 130 rail cars a day with jet fuel, gasoline and Naptha, Sheffield said.
“Now there are 20 cars five days a week,” Sheffield said, the cost of energy being a huge factor in the decline.
All this and more “and it is only going to get worse,” Sheffield said.
However, the former governor didn’t leave the audience without hope.
“We have the solution before us,” Sheffield said. “It is an in-state natural gas pipeline.”
Specifically a smaller-diameter “bullet line” as opposed to a proposed 48-inch diameter pipeline from the North Slope through Canada or down to Valdez, Sheffield said. The state can and should finance the bullet line itself to reduce tariffs on the gas it would carry to Alaskan customers, he said. The line could cost between $5 billion and $7 billion.
“This is something we can do,” Sheffield said. “We must have the political will to do it.”
Gas to Fairbanks and Cook Inlet would eventually spawn industries to supply natural gas liquids to rural villages, Sheffield said. An entire petrochemical industry could grow up around a bullet line. Depending on the contents of the gas in the pipeline Alaska could be home to plastics manufacturers.
The gas from the bullet line could cut heating and cooking energy prices in Fairbanks by more than half, Sheffield said.
And why should Southeast Alaska care about cheap energy in South central Alaska and the interior? Sheffield said that as the infrastructure and industry in Alaska adapts to the new gas supply shipments could be delivered to the region by way of compressed natural gas or natural gas liquids.
The bullet line could be finished as early as 2019, Sheffield said. However, that is still four years short for Cook Inlet. Sheffield said industry is already looking at ways to ship natural gas to Cook Inlet.
“Here we are sitting on a mountain of gas and we are buying it from Canada and shipping it here,” Sheffield said. Alaska has 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves with experts expecting more to be found, he said.
“Gas is for Alaskans and oil is for the state budget,” Sheffield said. “Let’s get on with it.”
• Contact reporter Russell Stigall at 523-2276 or at russell.stigall@juneauempire.com.
Comments (24)
Add commentThe 48inch pipe to Valdez
The 48inch pipe to Valdez with bullet lines to Anchorage and Fairbanks is a better plan but this idea is good also...lets do it.
Who benefits?
Any time an old grifter like Sheffield is involved, you have to ask who benefits. Follow the money.
I sure as hell wouldn't pick a corrupt old pol like Bill to tout for my project. He's the most inept manager ever, and always plays favorites instead of rewarding competence. Look at how he mismanaged the Port Of Los Anchorage debacle.
Why would anyone pay any attention to what he says?
It's time
It's certainly time for politicians to...'vote', or get off the pot. We use state and fed dollars for hydro projects, why not do the same for this gas line project. Get some affordable energy to our people in the interior. We might benefit too.
Alaskans vs Big Oil
The oil industry will want a free oil line to salt water, and a free LNG facility so they can export our gas. They have no interest in the plight of the little interior Alaskans.
If we want to take care of Alaskans, we'll need to see to it ourselves.
Most of our politicians, especially Parnell, are bought and paid for by the oil industry, so it's pretty clear whose interests they're looking out for.
Billions to build a line for
Billions to build a line for gas for the small market of alaska? Who will pay for that, the state? Bill, go back to your Anchorage port job.
Great concept,
Now, if it just dosn't get talked to oblivian. Time to take action, how many dam years has the road been talked about? If in the begining everyone took a bucket of dirt to the end of the road and dumped it there, One could drive to Skagway and get your bottles filled by now! (I know, I know,) just making a point about all talk and no action.
Wrong Guy
Boy is he the wrong guy to be stumping for this project. He could easily turn a supporter into an anti. Just look what happened at the Port of Anchorage while under his management.
Some people just don't know when it's their time to fade away into history.
HB4
HB4 is what he is talking about. Look here: http://www.akmvp.com/
HB4 will not do a thing to help "Alaskans" other than the ones hired to spend the $400 Million to plan this debacle.
The price for the smaller line is actually $7,500,000,000 +- 30%! So we now know it is over $10 billion.
OK the line does go by Fairbanks, "BY" Fairbanks the price quoted does not include a smaller line to Fairbanks from the gasline or the "Saddle Plant" needed to make the gas usable for Fairbanks. The price for the saddle plant and the small Fairbanks line is estimated at another $200 million.
In actuality this line goes from the Slope to the existing Anchorage gas system. Again all "Alaskans" are left by the wayside.
Ask your elected official to ask what the price of HB4 actually entails and how many communities are hooked up for the quoted cost of the smaller gas line.
Wrong guy, wrong line
Sheffield is as right about this gas line as he was about the Port of Anchorage. The guy loves a boondoggle, bless him.
Here's the story on ASAP: It's not going to deliver gas statewide, it's not going to export gas, and when you break down the numbers, it's actually going to RAISE energy prices for most of the communities it effects. Take a look at HB4 -- it spends $400 million just to plan this thing (before we ever start to build -- that's another $10+ billion), removes all oversight (no judicial review, no legislative review), exempts the whole thing from public records laws... no wonder Sheffield is a fan.
Does anyone really think we're going to build MORE than one gasline? Check out the MVP website posted above. It breaks down the real differences between the 48-inch line and the bullet line.
William Sheffield, chgd. with
William Sheffield, chgd. with corruption and perjury, Impeachment hearings....you name it.
The empire is not reporting
The empire is not reporting on things that are happening in the legislature folk.
Parnells latest elimination of public oversight:
" State agencies no longer need a Department of Environmental Conservation permit to use herbicides and pesticides on state property and rights of way". "agency called the permit process “burdensome”
Make sure you check out ktoo.org daily if you want to stay informed because ktoo is doing a far better job than the empire.
http://www.ktoo.org/
Comment
As Mayor Sullivan said right before Governor Parnell took him to the woodshed for doing so, the best way for Alaskans to obtain LNG is by importing it from wherever it can be obtained at lowest cost. A pipeline from the NS will always be more expensive so long as the quantities are so small (until the Alaska Railbelt has 10 million people).
I agree that Bill Sheffield is the wrong promoter because of his record.
Well connect meber of the good old boys
is about all I can say favorably about Sheffield. His track record at the Port of Anchorage only has one ongoing theme: unforeseen cost and engineering problems. He single handily has over tripped the cost for the Port of Anchorage project while he lobbies the legislature to provide funding so Anchorage can reap any future profits.
Sheffield was a past chairman of the Alaska Railroad and continues as a director. That is the same rail road that seems to need continued funding from the State to keep operational.
As others have said lets follow the money on this Sheffield idea. I'm betting Bill is looking for another job and the gas line could be his prey.
I`m sorry but Bill is wrong
I`m sorry but Bill is wrong on this. Even if it`s expandable to 1 bcf a day it`s not enough to provide a low in-state tariff,..and it will only bring profits to Conoco who will export the dry gas from Nikiski again.
Then we`ll watch a big line go by while our kids are "married to high prices" from Sheffield`s little high-tariff, dry-gas line.
If it doesn`t bring wet gas liquids down from Prudhoe Bay it will do Alaska infrastructure development no good other than the hard rock mining industry. That`s not what I call affordable gas when I watch cheaper gas go flying by outside my door. That is denying Alaska the benefit of "economies of scale". That is one benefit we will lose if we abandon AGIA, which may be the best thing for Alaska, as that would allow us to pursue a LARGE volume line of WET gas to the market, taking cheap gas off as it comes down through the heart of Alaska, right beside the TAPS line. Sheffield is wrong,..and I`m afraid he`s being used by keeping certain facts from the old guy. This is Alaska. When it comes to our gasline, "Go big or GO HOME".
"new" oil?...I don`t think
"new" oil?...I don`t think so. How about "old oil" they sat on? Exclude Pt. Thomson too!!
(From the comments on the article). “Prudhoe is an elephant field. Like all elephant fields it has many sub-fields of oil within the oil zone. IMHO the only worthwhile thing Frank Murkowski did as governor was declare the Prudhoe satellites as one field for tax purposes. Prior to the ACES tax structure we had the Economic Limit Factor, ELF. Under ELF 81% of the oil coming from Prudhoe and Kuparuk had ZERO production taxes. Accounting slight of hand and juggling the sub-fields within the main Prudhoe structure was allowed under ELF. Since discovery, a huge sub-field of the original Prudhoe field has never been tapped. It is at the eastern extremity of the field and contains @ 600 million barrels. It is in close proximity to roads and pads and infrastructure and could be tapped at any time. This 600 million barrels has been warehoused for over forty years. I guarantee you that the majority of new production in the next five years will come from oil that the oil companies have known about for forty years contained in this sub-field. On this field alone, the Republican oil tax bill will cost Alaska 10-12 Billion dollars in lost tax revenue. In addition it allows for the same kind of accounting slight of hand and juggling of sub-fields that occurred under ELF. Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". Our republican legislators take peanuts in campaign contributions from big oil to keep themselves in office. In return, they are giving away the farm. In my opinion this is insanity. The Republicans are letting the oil companies write the tax bill of their dreams and Alaska will suffer for it. Our schools will really suffer. Within a decade of this bill Alaska will have an income tax. Within a decade of this bill, Alaska will be tapping the permanent fund to pay for basic government. All other issues the legislature deals with pale in comparison to oil taxes. The fastest way to put oil in the pipeline is to put a reserve tax on those portions of known reserves in the Prudhoe structure that have not yet been tapped. Simple as that. It is our oil. If big oil does not want to put some straws in the cup, then they need to pay. ACES needs to be tweaked at the high end, otherwise leave it alone”. http://www.adn.com/2013/03/03/2810490/tax-breaks-for-news-fields-could.h... (they sat on Pt. Thomson oil as well...we going to call that “new” oil for tax giveaway purposes?
If we build a LARGE volume
If we build a LARGE volume export line... it will speed the development of this oil..and associated gas for the LARGE GASLINE BILL!!! https://www.google.com/search?q=+Gubik+mother+of+Prudhoe&ie=utf-8&oe=utf...
Some good reading here if you
Some good reading here if you have time..and a little patience.. it`s pretty dry stuff,..but amazing in it`s proportions..about the volumes of hydrocarbons left to be found and produced with the right stimulus. That stimulus is a large volume WET GAS line to Valdez.
When you look for more gas for the LARGE gasline, MORE OIL WILL BE found, to put into TAPS! (exploration is exploration)
Not having a large gasline at this point is a detriment to putting more o9il into TAPS. It`s called restraint of trade. https://www.google.com/search?q=+Gubik+mother+of+Prudhoe&ie=utf-8&oe=utf...
Gov. Sheffield on demand
You can see Governor Sheffield's presentation here: https://vimeo.com/61371117
Bad Gas
Will you give us your word Gov? ....."As long as the Wind Blows, The Grass Grows and the Sky is Blue."
Here is a list of reasons
Here is a list of reasons that this STRATEGICALLY inadequate bulletline, is not in the long term interests of ALL of Alaska. Where are these points being discussed or debated in Juneau?...they are not. They are all wrapped around the other scam,..the two billion a year giveaway to the industry for what they have to do anyway. http://www.akmvp.com/stop-hb-4
NoRoadfugitive; there will
NoRoadfugitive; there will only be one gasline built. It can`t be a soda straw to the two biggest conventional gas fields on the North American continent. That would not be in the "highest" or "best benefit" category. We can`t do this halfway..it needs to be able to take advantage of "economies of scale" that will come with a large-volume line. http://www.akmvp.com/stop-hb-4
...cont`d...
edited by author...
Bill always means well..and
Bill always means well..and he has some friends who "put him up" and his " people`s democrat" hat on, to try to garner support for this white elephant of a project.
Might as well call this the Conoco bulletline, because it`s obvious to anyone it "won`t pencil out" without an export portion..of which Conoco has the only plant handy that will JUST HAPPEN TO BE be at the TERMINUS of this inadequate dry gasline, going down the wrong route and cutting half of Alaska out of the picture. (they didn`t even include Fairbanks gas or value-added jobs to the picture!!!).
Here are the facts,..if you really want to learn them. http://www.akmvp.com/stop-hb-4
If it bypasses Valdez it will
If it bypasses Valdez it will not bring affordable gas and gas products, or jobs and a better standard of living to all Alaskan communities. For god`s sake it bypasses Fairbanks and that vital link to the interior, the HEART of our state!