Alaska jobs report shows some growth in oil, gas industry
Associated Press, January 23, 2019
Alaska’s oil and gas industry experienced modest growth last month as some sectors of the economy have continued shedding jobs, according to a state jobs report. December employment numbers released Friday by the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development show some losses from the recession are slowing, Alaska’s Energy Desk reported. “The negatives have, generally speaking, gotten considerably smaller, especially in negatives like oil and gas, which was a big, big loser,” said state economist Neal Fried.
Our Take: It’s been a long time, four years to be exact, since we’ve seen a headline like this. #wereback
Related:
State says North Slope oil and gas activity is at its highest level in 20 years
Major producers building carbon pricing into future plans
Elwood Brehmer, Alaska Journal of Commerce, January 22, 2019
The list of oil and gas companies with global influence that support some form of carbon pricing continues to grow. Alaska’s “big three” producers — BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil — are all now a part of that group. ExxonMobil announced in October that it would be donating $1 million to Americans for Carbon Dividends, a campaign led by former U.S. Sens. John Breaux, a Democrat, and Trent Lott, a Republican. ConocoPhillips doubled down on that donation in December with a $2 million pledge to Americans for Carbon Dividends over the next two years. BP executives have been trumpeting the expression “dual challenge” for several years, referencing the company’s belief that worldwide energy production will need to continually increase at the same time global carbon emissions must be drastically reduced. “In decades to come there needs to be 2.5 billion people lifted out of poverty and there’s going to be another 2 billion added to our planet, so there is a deep need for energy, and we need to do it better with less emissions,” BP Alaska President Janet Weiss said during a Jan. 18 speech at the Meet Alaska contractor trade show in Anchorage.
Our Take: This is a very well written piece that highlights differing views on carbon tax and other issues related to climate change policy. It also highlights the difference between those who are doing something about the issue with their own money (private sector companies) and those who want to tax them to get funding to subsidize their projects and policies that don’t work (Rose colored glasses at REAP).
