Looking for collusion?  Check out China and the NRDC.  Alaska China Deal is Dead. 

In Home, News by wp_sysadmin

Alaskan Oil Shipments to South Korea Show Growing U.S. Reach
Sheela Tobben, Bloomberg, July 24, 2019

Alaskan oil shipments to South Korea are picking up, in another sign of the growing U.S. influence on the global market.  Two tankers, each able to hold a million barrels of oil, are delivering cargoes this month into Yeosu in South Korea after filling up at the Valdez terminal, the loading point for crude from Alaska’s North Slope fields. These shipments will raise the Asian nation’s intake of supply from the U.S. state to 2.75 million barrels so far this year, the most in government data going back to 1992.

 

China Collusion Claim Compromises Green Group
National Center for Public Policy Research, July 23, 2019

“NRDC’s opposition to America’s fossil-fuel development comports with China’s goal of hamstringing its chief global rival. The Paris Climate Agreement heavily restricted U.S. energy development, which is exactly what NRDC and Beijing want.”

With Capitol Hill still fixated on long-discredited allegations of collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia, the National Center’s Bonner Cohen is focused instead on simmering allegations of collusion between a green American nonprofit and Red China.  In an article written by Kevin Mooney for the Washington Free Beacon, Bonner – a senior fellow with the National Center – says that emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit indicate that the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) was hard at work with the Obama Administration State Department to involve the United States in the climate change negotiations of the Paris Agreement. This seemed to lead to what Bonner says had all the “hallmarks of a treaty” without the necessary advise-and-consent involvement of the U.S. Senate.

 

AGDC president outlines path forward; China deal is dead
Elwood Brehmer, Alaska Journal of Commerce, July 24, 2019

Interim Alaska Gasline Development Corp. Joe Dubler insists that Alaska is still making unprecedented progress towards a long-sought natural gas pipeline project despite the fact that the lead agency on the effort is downsizing significantly.  “I think we’re closer now than we’ve ever been” to making a gasline project happen, Dubler told House Resource Committee members on July 19.  AGDC officials informed the Journal July 10 that the quasi-state agency would be ending its work to secure customers and investors for the roughly $40 billion Alaska LNG Project, as well as closing its public and government relations department. The remaining eight or nine employees will focus on completing the ongoing Alaska LNG environmental impact statement process the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. FERC published the project’s nearly 3,700-page draft EIS June 28

 

From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy:

EPA PARTNERS WITH CONSERVATIVE STUDENT GROUP TO PROMOTE ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION: The EPA announced Wednesday that it signed a “memo of understanding” with a nonprofit conservative student group, called the American Conservation Coalition, to enhance environmental education in schools.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the “first-time” agreement is intended to prepare students for careers in environmental fields, and to encourage young people to get involved in issues like combating marine litter, improving recycling, and reducing lead exposure.
“EPA is proud to work alongside ACC to inspire the next generation of environmental leaders and advance solutions to today’s pressing environmental challenges,” Wheeler said.
Something is missing from the syllabus: The American Conservation Coalition visited Capitol Hill this week to lobby Republicans to pursue legislation to address climate change, but Wheeler did not mention climate change as a shared challenge in his statement.

Our Take:  Benji Backer, the President and founder of The American Conservation Coalition, was recently in Alaska, speaking to Alaskans about his ideas for addressing climate change without harming the economy.  Go Benji!!