Sen. Begich tells legislators Obama supports Alaska gasline
Sen. Mark Begich praised the Alaska Legislature and President Barack Obama on Wednesday for their efforts in developing Alaska's vast natural gas reserves.
Speaking before a joint session of the Legislature, Begich said the President was a strong supporter of a natural gas pipeline.
"Soon you can expect new demonstrations of support by the Obama administration for the Alaska gasline project," Begich said.
He also said Congress was poised to increase federal loan guarantees and other support for the pipeline.
In an interview later, Begich said Obama has already put the project on his list of the top five green projects in the country. He also said the appointment of Alaska legislative aide Larry Persily as the new federal gas pipeline coordinator would boost the project.
Now, Begich said, he's hoping for an official designation of the pipeline project as being of "national interest."
"Our efforts right now are to convince the President to make it a national interest project," he said.
The massive project, which industry representatives have said is likely to be the largest project in North America when it is built, will take multiple permits, Begich said. A national interest finding could bring federal help in obtaining some of those permits, he said.
Begich thanked the assembled legislators for their "intense focus" during the session on a natural gas pipeline.
"I agree with those who believe it should be the private sector sponsors of a gasline, not politicians which determine the best project to deliver Alaska's enormous gas reserves to market," he said.
Begich was also the guest speaker at Wednesday's Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
TransCanada Corp. won exclusive state backing for a natural gas pipeline in 2008, as the state tried to jump-start the long-delayed project through the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act. A separate effort, sponsored by ConocoPhillips Co. and BP p.l.c., is also developing a pipeline, known as Denali. Both would run through Alaska and northern Canada to the Alberta natural gas hub.
Several legislators who opposed the TransCanada license have recently been saying the effort is likely to fail, in part because of recently developed reserves of shale gas in the lower 48.
Begich told reporters that Alaska's gas was still needed.
"There's a lot of shale gas, but for the long term we need it all," he said. "For the people who say we've kind of lost our ability because the lower 48 has so much gas, well, five years ago it was a whole different story.
"You can't plan things on a one year, two year or five year model."
• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at 586-4816 or patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.