by wp_sysadmin | May 31, 2024 | Home, News
Today’s Key Takeaways: Alaska Senate Shake Up? Hundreds of years of oil, gas, and coal supply in U.S. Back to court for AKLNG. Expiration date for Red Dog =thousands of lost jobs and billions of dollars for Alaska Natives. Manchin leaves Democratic Party.
NEWS OF THE DAY:
In a West Anchorage shake-up, Rep. McKay files for Senate and former Sen. Costello files for House – Anchorage Daily News (adn.com)
State Rep. Tom McKay, an Anchorage Republican, said Thursday that he will run for Alaska Senate against Democratic incumbent Sen. Matt Claman, who represents a West Anchorage district.
Former state Sen. Mia Costello, a Republican who lost to Claman in 2022, declared she would run for the House seat currently held by McKay.
After Sen. Click Bishop, a Fairbanks Republican, announced Wednesday that he did not intend to seek reelection to the Senate, two candidates formally filed for the seat Thursday, including Tok Republican Rep. Mike Cronk and Fairbanks North Star Assembly Presiding Officer Savannah Fletcher, a nonpartisan candidate.
OIL:
Fossil Fuels: An Expanding Resource
Robert Bradley, Institute for Energy Research, May 31, 2024
Depletable resources deplete—which would seem to mean less and less for the future with ongoing production. But the actual statistics of oil, natural gas, and coal show the opposite. The more that is extracted, the more there is to extract. This is not the biblical story of the fishes and loaves. It is the result of resourceship, or entrepreneurship applied to resources in free economies.
That is the finding of IER’s 2024 North American Energy Inventory: “Since 2005, oil production in the U.S. has increased by 149 percent and natural gas production has more than doubled.”
Looking ahead: “The U.S. now has 227 years of oil supply, 130 years of natural gas supply, and 485 years of coal supply.” And when these time horizons are reached, expect high, even higher, reserve and resource figures given free-market supply and demand, or the liberty to locate, extract, and consume resource
READ MORE
GAS:
Environmental groups file new challenge to yet-unbuilt Alaska LNG export project
Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon, May 31, 2024
The new lawsuit, the third filed in the past year, cites expected harms of natural gas activity and shipping to Endangered Species Act-listed populations
Two environmental groups filed a new legal challenge to the Biden administration’s approval of a yet-to-be-built project that would send the Alaska North Slope’s vast reserves of natural gas to markets.
In a petition filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club argued that federal agencies failed to properly consider harms that the massive natural gas project would cause to Endangered Species Act-listed animals living in the affected marine areas: polar bears, Cook Inlet beluga whales and Eastern North Pacific right whales.
The petition was filed against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, along with the agencies’ parent departments, the Department of the Interior and Department of Commerce.
The Biden administration last year renewed an approval of exports from the project, which has been pursued in various forms since the 1970s but never built. The current plan is being promoted by the state-owned Alaska Gasline Development Corp. It proposes a 42-inch-diameter pipeline running about 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope to tidewater at Cook Inlet, where a new facility would convert the product to liquefied natural gas and load it onto tanker vessels for export to Asian markets.
The Biden administration’s most recent approval, which follows numerous other permits and approvals over the years, was based on flawed biological reviews, the environmental groups argued.
READ MORE
MINING:
In Northwest Alaska, an economic engine runs low on ore
Nathaniel Herz, Northern Journal, May 30, 2024
Red Dog mine has sustained hundreds of jobs and generated billions of dollars for Alaska Natives. It’s set to close in 2031 unless its operator gets environmental permits and decides to expand.
Alaska’s most powerful elected officials reacted with outrage last month when the Biden administration announced it was rejecting a state agency’s plan to build a new road across remote Northwest Alaska, to access an array of mining deposits.
Mining company officials and their political allies had touted the road, and the mines that could be built alongside it, as economic lifelines for the thinly populated region.
But talk to most local leaders and their fears are centered elsewhere: specifically, on a mine that’s already in existence: Red Dog, located 75 miles north of the regional hub town of Kotzebue.
The development produces roughly 5% of global zinc supplies. Nearly 1,000 people who are shareholders, or family of shareholders, in the local Indigenous-owned corporation, NANA, worked for the mine’s operator or for mining contractors last year.
Their earnings totaled about $63 million, and historically, the mine has generated more than one-fourth of the wage and salary payroll in the local borough, which has a population of 7,400.
Payments from Red Dog also account for 80% to 90% of the borough’s yearly revenue.
But Red Dog has an expiration date: Teck Resources, the Canadian company that operates the mine on land owned by NANA, says there’s only enough ore to keep its operations running until 2031.
For years, Teck has been studying new deposits about 10 miles from the existing development, which could sustain production for decades longer.
But it says it needs six more years of study to prove that the deposits are worth mining. And the company’s proposed federal permits to access the area have been delayed, prompting growing anxiety among local government and business leaders about the economic harm that could result from a gap in production.
The risk extends far beyond Northwest Alaska. A provision of the state’s landmark Native claims settlement legislation requires NANA to share much of its Red Dog revenue with other Indigenous-owned corporations spread across the state’s rural villages.
Many of those corporations subsidize community stores and fuel businesses — often the only ones in a village — with the money shared with them from Red Dog.
READ MORE
POLITICS:
THE NEWS THIS FRIDAY – MANCHIN FILES AS AN INDEPENDENT: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin said Friday he has left the Democratic Party to become an independent with no party affiliation, our Ramsey Touchberry reports.
“Today, our national politics are broken and neither party is willing to compromise to find common ground,” Manchin said in a statement. “To stay true to myself and remain committed to put country before party, I have decided to register as an independent with no party affiliation and continue to fight for America’s sensible majority.”
A spokesperson confirmed that “nothing will change with caucusing with the Democrats,” a move that allows Manchin to keep his gavel.
Manchin’s party affiliation switch comes amid speculation about his political future and long-shot third-party runs for other offices. He shot down conjecture on Wednesday that he would mount a last-minute campaign for governor, an office he previously held. And although he’s also previously declined an independent Senate run, his latest move fueled rumors of another bid for statewide office. Read more on that here.
From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy, May 31, 2024
by wp_sysadmin | May 22, 2024 | Home, Multimedia
In honor of the brave souls who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. May their courage inspire us to live with purpose and gratitude. We express gratitude for the bravery of the fallen American soldiers. Wishing everyone a Memorial Day filled with reflection and appreciation for our heroes.
Headlamp will return on Wednesday, May 29th.
by wp_sysadmin | May 20, 2024 | Home, News
Today’s Key Takeaways: Shell relinquishes leases in Chukchi Sea. Poor policy jeopardizes Alaska mining potential.
OIL:
Shell relinquishes offshore leases in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea
Dan Jolling, AP, May 10, 2024
The only company to drill an exploratory oil well in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea following a 2008 federal lease sale confirmed Tuesday it has relinquished nearly all of its leases.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC formally relinquished all but one of its leases in the waters off Alaska’s northwest coast, spokesman Curtis Smith said Tuesday.
The news was not a complete surprise. An exploratory well drilled in 2015 did not find commercial quantities of oil. Shell announced in September it was suspending exploration in Alaska waters.
The decision also reflects the high cost of drilling off Alaska, Smith said by email.
“While we support regulations that enforce high safety and environmental standards, the unpredictable federal regulatory environment for the Alaska Outer Continental Shelf also made it difficult to operate efficiently,” he said.
READ MORE
MINING:
Policy holds back North of 60 potential
Shane Lesley, North of 60 Mining News, May 15, 2024
Mining executives rank Alaska, Yukon, B.C., NWT, and Nunavut high on mineral potential; mining policy issues, however, weigh on “Investment Attractiveness Index” in latest Fraser Survey.
While global mining executives ranked Alaska, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon in the top 20 when it comes to mineral potential, a not-so-favorable view on mining policy weighs on the investment attractiveness index of all these North of 60 Mining jurisdictions in the latest edition of the Fraser Institute’s Annual Survey of Mining Companies.
Each year, Canada-based Fraser Institute calls on mining executives from around the world to rank global mining jurisdictions when it comes to mineral potential and a broad range of issues related to mining policies. Averaging out the responses to this survey, the Canadian think tank ranks each mining jurisdiction’s “Investment Attractiveness Index.”
Considered the fourth richest jurisdiction in the world when it comes to mineral potential and second to none when it comes to mining policy, Utah jumped 16 positions to claim the title of best place on Earth to discover, permit, and build a mine, according to the global mining executives that responded to the Fraser Institute’s Annual Survey of Mining Companies 2023.
“The Fraser Institute’s mining survey is the most comprehensive report on government policies that either attract or discourage mining investors, and this year Utah ranks highest of anywhere in the world,” said Elmira Aliakbari, director of the Fraser Institute’s Centre for Natural Resource Studies and co-author of the report.
While rich mineral deposits are key to being a top mining jurisdiction, the ability to discover, extract, and deliver those minerals to market is what sets top mining jurisdictions apart from those that rank lower on the Fraser Survey reliably and economically.
READ MORE
by wp_sysadmin | May 17, 2024 | Home, News
White House actions boost Graphite One
Shane Lesley, North of 60 Mining News, May 16, 2024
From 25% tariffs on graphite imports from China to mining being eligible for $72B in clean energy loans, Alaska project gets good news from DC.
Graphite One Inc. President and CEO Anthony Huston was among a select group of industry leaders in attendance when President Joe Biden rolled out his plan to levy heavy tariffs on a wide range of goods from China, including natural graphite.
“I was honored to represent everyone at Graphite One in the meeting with President Biden,” said Huston. “We appreciate his support for the renewable energy transition and G1 is excited to continue pushing forward to create a secure 100% U.S.-based supply chain for natural and synthetic graphite.”
As the single largest ingredient in the lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles and storing renewable energy, graphite is essential to the clean energy transition.
Analysts forecast that the demand for graphite will top 5 million metric tons per year by 2030. This is more than three times the 1.6 million metric tons mined globally during 2023, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
There are currently no graphite mines in the U.S., and domestic graphite processing is still in its earliest stages. This makes America’s clean energy supply chains heavily reliant on China, which accounted for 77% of all mined graphite and nearly 90% of graphite anode materials produced globally in 2023.
To help make graphite mined and processed in the U.S. competitive with China, President Biden announced plans to increase the tariffs on natural graphite imported from China from 0 to 25% in 2026.
The import levies on graphite are one component of a larger package of tariffs aimed at shielding American businesses from China’s unfair trade practices.
“To encourage China to eliminate its unfair trade practices regarding technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation, the President is directing increases in tariffs across strategic sectors such as steel and aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, critical minerals, solar cells, ship-to-shore cranes, and medical products,” the White House penned in a statement.
Graphite, battery, EV tariffs
As the White House rolls out its heavy tariffs on China, which also include 25% tariffs on lithium-ion batteries, which will be phased in over the coming two years, and 100% tariffs on EVs beginning this year, Graphite One is advancing its plans to establish an all-American graphite supply chain.
This supply chain would begin with a mine at Graphite Creek, a western Alaska project that hosts the largest known graphite deposit in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world, as well as a processing and recycling plant in Ohio that would produce the advanced graphite material needed for lithium-ion batteries and other products.
Graphite One’s strategy is being supported by the U.S. Department of Defense, which awarded the company a US$37.5 million grant last year to complete a feasibility study for its envisioned supply chain plans by the end of this year.
Earlier this year, the company provided an update on the progress made so far on its accelerated plans for establishing a domestic graphite supply chain, as well as the location of its planned processing and recycling facility.
“As we near completion of the FS, we can now say that DoD’s support has cut about two years off of our initial feasibility study timeline,” said Huston.
DOE Title 17 mining loans
Core from drilling at Graphite Creek, which hosts the largest known graphite deposit in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world.
Graphite One’s plans to develop a mine at Graphite Creek got another boost with the recent announcement that domestic mining projects that would produce graphite, lithium, cobalt, nickel, and other minerals and metals critical to the energy transition are eligible for U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantees.
Under the Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program, DOE’s Loan Programs Office can finance clean energy projects in the U.S. While this includes clean energy infrastructure, it did not specify mining projects.
It has now been clarified that “projects that increase the domestically produced supply of critical minerals” needed for the clean energy transition are eligible for the roughly $72 billion of loan guarantees available under Title 17.
“Building on critical material and EV supply chain projects announced to date, LPO is clarifying that it may also fund ‘production’ or mining and extraction activities as eligible expenses under LPO’s Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program, which provides financing opportunities for innovative energy and supply chain projects,” the DOE Loan Programs Office penned in an April 30 statement.
Access to Title 17 funding would enable Graphite One to keep up its momentum as it seeks to establish a domestic graphite supply chain that helps break America’s heavy reliance on China for this mineral critical to the clean energy transition.
During his May 15 visit to the White House, Huston reminded President Biden, “Projects like Graphite One’s are important in so many ways – from job creation and the renewable energy transition to technology development and national security.”
by wp_sysadmin | May 15, 2024 | Home, News
Today’s Key Takeaways: Energy a key focus on last day of legislative session. Impact of AK oil on WA = 25,000 jobs and $2 billion in personal income. Permitting reform not over “until the West Virginia Democrat says it’s over.”
NEWS OF THE DAY:
Bills aimed at reducing energy costs, boosting Cook Inlet gas and carbon storage advance in Legislature’s final days
Eric Stone, Alaska Public Media, May 15, 2024
Two high-priority energy bills aimed at boosting Cook Inlet gas production, sequestering carbon dioxide and lowering consumer costs appear headed for final passage in the Alaska Legislature. Both bills were initially proposed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and now contain a number of other proposals.
In the House, legislators greenlit a bill aimed at making it cheaper to transmit power around various communities on the Railbelt. It would also make it easier and cheaper to bring new energy sources on the grid, especially for independent power producers.
Rep. Will Stapp, R-Fairbanks, said it’s all about lowering energy costs.
“The unified transmission organization, the RTO [Railbelt Transmission Organization], is really the first step in saying, OK, let’s take a holistic look at how we can move up and down the entire Railbelt system, the cheapest electron, right, from Homer to Fairbanks, or from Fairbanks to Homer and everywhere in between, and then let’s look at where we can deploy new forms of generation,” Stapp said.
The bill would also prevent utilities from passing on the cost of building natural gas import terminals to customers through rates. It’s due for a Senate Finance Committee hearing Wednesday and is likely headed for the governor’s desk after a final Senate vote.
Meanwhile, the Senate passed a bill that would allow companies to inject carbon dioxide into underground reservoirs. Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, who presented the bill on the Senate floor, said it could be a boon for the state.
“Carbon capture, utilization and storage is an expanding industry that companies are beginning to commit billions of dollars to invest in,” Stedman said. “SB 50 will allow Alaska to take part in that.”
Stedman said the Senate Finance Committee had scrutinized the bill to ensure it would not wind up costing the state money through tax credits — and Stedman said the use of carbon dioxide injection for so-called “enhanced oil recovery” had the potential to boost state oil revenue.
The bill also includes several provisions aimed at addressing the looming gas supply crunch. One would regulate the price of natural gas storage. Another would set up a reserve-based lending program within the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. That would provide state loans to small drillers in Cook Inlet who have been unable to find investors.
READ MORE
OIL:
Washington state benefits from Alaska oil leasing
Don Brunell, May 15, 2024, Sequim Gazette
Recently, President Biden launched the second phase of his attack on domestic oil and gas production by effectively blocking leases in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve (ANPR). That follows last year’s reimposed ban on exploration in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Both actions are ill-advised.
In the Wall Street Journal, Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) quipped: “The Biden Administration has imposed more sanctions on Alaska than it has on Iran.”
The Interior Department just blocked new oil and gas leasing on 13.3 million acres in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve. Congress expressly set aside the region in 1923 for oil and gas development, but Biden ignores this saying drilling would disturb the Arctic’s ‘natural wonders,’ Sullivan added.
Energy development and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are compatible and concurrent.
On Alaska’s North Slope, exploration and construction take place during the winter, over roads built on sheets of ice. When the ice melts, the roads disappear. Drilling and production have strong and long-standing environmental safeguards.
Washington’s five refineries provide 4% of our nation’s processing capacity. With our state accounting for 2 percent of national petroleum consumption, in-state refineries produce quantities more than sufficient for Washington’s needs. Those refineries processed crude oil into 13 million gallons of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and finished products each day.
Alaska crude comes to our refineries in double-hulled ocean-going tankers. Since the Exxon Valdez incident Prince William Sound in March 1989, state-of-the art redundant marine safeguards are aboard ships. Tanker crews have extensive safety and response training.
The crude, which is 12,000 feet below ground, would be extracted by a widely used technique known as horizontal drilling. Production wells would be spaced a dozen feet apart yet would reach out for miles in different directions underground. The oil would then be piped to Prudhoe Bay and sent 800 miles south via the existing Trans Alaska Pipeline.
“With a multiplier of 12 percent, the total impact of our refineries was 25,000 jobs and $2 billion in personal income, according to The Washington Research Council.
GAS:
Qatar Believes The World Will Need More LNG Projects after 2030
Charles Kennedy, OilPrice.Com, May 15, 2024
Natural gas in energy supply is not going anywhere and its demand will only rise with growth in economies and global population, which will require additional LNG projects to come online after 2030, the energy minister of one of the biggest LNG exporters, Qatar, said on Wednesday.
“Everybody’s trying to get the inflation down, so if we have a reasonable economic growth going forward, I think you’ll see that all the supply and demand will catch up and you’ll need another phase of development of gas in the [2030s],” Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s Energy Minister and President and CEO of QatarEnergy, said at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha.
Qatar, which is currently working on huge LNG expansion projects, expects to sign additional long-term contracts to supply the super-chilled fuel with demand growing in Asia and Europe, Al-Kaabi said at the forum, as carried by The National.
Related: AGDC survives attempts by legislature to zero out their budget – one more year to move the project forward with signed contracts.
POLITICS:
PERMITTING REFORM LATEST: There’s still optimism from some Senate Energy Democrats that permitting reform will cross the finish line – even after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday it would be “virtually impossible” to get something done.
“Everyone who’s involved with permitting reform understands, we’ve got to have permitting reform,” Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Joe Manchin said in a brief interview with reporters yesterday. “Senator Schumer understands that, we all understand, we’ve had good conversations, and I anticipate that we will get a good permitting bill done.”
When pressed further about Schumer’s comments, he suggested, “Maybe he misspoke.”
And he’s not the only one exhibiting optimism: Democratic Rep. John Hickenlooper, a transmission booster and Manchin’s ally on permitting, advocated on Manchin’s behalf in a single sentiment: It’s not over until the West Virginian Democrat says it’s over.
“I think Joe Manchin is one of the most tenacious, persistent people in the Senate,” Hickenlooper said. “And when he tells me to give it up, then I’ll say, ‘Well, it’s over.’”
Why it matters: Manchin and ENR Ranking Member John Barrasso have been negotiating for months on a deal to streamline the approval process for energy projects. For Manchin, it’s been a yearslong battle – since the 2022 passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the senator has been working to move forward on a permitting bill. Part of his negotiations with Schumer to get the IRA passed was to get a vote on his permitting bill – a vote that failed last December, since Republicans had little incentive to deliver a legislative win to Manchin.
Manchin and Barrasso then began negotiations with the aim of delivering permitting reforms across a wide sector of energy projects.
In an interview yesterday, Barrasso continued to point the finger at Schumer. “It’s dead because Schumer is going to kill it,” Barrasso said. “Sen. Manchin and I have been working closely together, and Sen. Schumer has other ideas – and he’s not really interested in helping permitting reform that helps all forms of energy.”
The key here: The comments from Schumer came after the release of long-awaited rules from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that would direct grid operators to plan new transmission infrastructure to deliver more renewable energy across the country. This gave a win to Democrats who were hoping to advance renewable energy projects without ceding to Republican demands to streamline fossil fuel projects by amending environmental laws, like the National Environmental Policy Act.
The release of the transmission rules weakens Republicans’ bargaining position by addressing Democratic priorities to advance renewable projects. Furthermore, Schumer mentioned in Monday’s call with reporters that any legislative measure addressing transmission was likely to get pushback from House Republicans.
Still, Hickenlooper called the FERC rule a “band-aid on Congress’ inaction” and called for legislation to pass in a statement yesterday, arguing that his transmission bills – the BIG WIRES Act and the SPEED and Reliability Act – would do more to reform the permitting process than the rule.
What remains to be seen: If a permitting deal will emerge from the Senate Energy Committee duo.
From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy, May 15, 2024
