Today’s Key Takeaways: Window closing for decisions on AK gas shortfall. New York establishes “punitive fee” on American energy. Western Alaska Minerals in the news. Final thoughts from Alaska’s outgoing congresswoman.
State regulators and advocates say they’re growing increasingly concerned about urban Alaska’s energy supply as the region’s utilities hurtle toward a shortfall in local natural gas as soon as 2027 — without a clear plan to replace it.
“The window for making decisions is closing,” said Bob Pickett, a longtime member of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, or RCA, which oversees the state’s utilities. “If things just sort of slide and there’s no leadership, and we’re in the same position 12 months from now, we are looking at a dire, dire, situation. And people should get angry.”
Utility leaders say they’re advancing plans to build the port infrastructure needed to receive cargoes of liquefied natural gas that they expect to fill the gap. And they say they have contingency plans in the event of a gas shortfall that should keep Alaskans from losing heat and power.
But they also acknowledge that they’re running out of time to begin construction.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed a law that retroactively penalizes the biggest emitters in the fossil fuel sector to help the state fund climate adaptation measures.
Voted 92-49 by the assembly June 8, the Climate Change Superfund Act applies to the biggest fossil fuel emitters from 2000 to 2018.
The fund charges a total of $75 billion to the “largest one hundred fossil fuel producing companies”, or $3 billion annually over the next 25 years, according to the text of the legislation published on the assembly’s website. The bill number is S02129B or A03351-B, two identical pieces of legislation with different sponsors.
“This landmark legislation shifts the cost of climate adaptation from everyday New Yorkers to the fossil fuel companies most responsible for the pollution,” the governor’s office said in an online statement.
Welcoming the new law, Sierra Club Atlantic chapter conservation director Roger Downs said, “New Yorkers are desperate for climate solutions because they have directly experienced how increasingly severe storms, floods, droughts, heatwaves, and public health emergencies are hurting our communities and undermining the affordability of everything.”
A spokesperson for lobby group the American Petroleum Institute said in a statement to Rigzone, “This type of legislation represents nothing more than a punitive new fee on American energy, and we are evaluating our options moving forward.”
TUCSON, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / December 30, 2024 / Western Alaska Minerals Corp. (the “Company” or “WAM“) (TSXV:WAM) announces that it has granted a total of 1,095,000 stock options (the “Options“), 785,000 of which have been granted to certain directors, officers and an investor relations employee of the Company. The Options are each exercisable to purchase one subordinate voting share of the Company at an exercise price of $0.45 for a period of 5 years. The Options will vest immediately.
The Company has also issued an aggregate of 75,000 restricted share units (the “RSUs“) to certain employees and an officer of the Company. Each RSU entitles the holder to be issued one subordinate voting share of the Company on vesting. All the RSUs will vest one year from the grant date.
About WAM
Our mission is to advance a mineable and scalable CRD, ultimately reshaping the mineral landscape of western Alaska and establishing a new CRD district.
WAM’s CRD system encompasses a 373Koz AuEq NI 43-101-compliant indicated and 152Koz AuEq Inferred resource* at the past producing Illinois Creek gold-silver mine*, and the high-grade Waterpump Creek silver-lead-zinc deposit with an inferred resource estimate of 74.9Moz at 980 g/t AgEq*, open to the north. Within the same CRD system sits the Honker gold vein prospect. Twenty-five kilometers northeast of the Illinois Creek CRD lies the Round Top copper and the TG North CRD prospects. All prospects were originally discovered by Anaconda Minerals Co. in the early 1980’s. WAM’s 100% owned cover 73,120 acres (114.25 square miles or 29,591 hectares). Since 2010, WAM, along with its precursor company, Western Alaska Copper & Gold, reassembled the Anaconda land package and has been engaged in exploring the district.
Headquartered in both Alaska and Arizona, WAM brings together a team of seasoned professionals with a shared vision of pioneering new frontiers in mineral exploration. Our strategic approach is underpinned by cutting-edge technology, innovative techniques, and a deep understanding of the geological intricacies of the region.
*Information on our historical gold and Waterpump Creek resources, as well as historical work performed by Anaconda Minerals Co. and NovaGold (2005/2006) can be found in our NI 43-101 report, dated April 2, 2024, authored by Bruce Davis, PhD, FAusIMM, titled “Western Alaska Minerals Corp. ILLINOIS CREEK PROJECT UPDATE Illinois Creek Mining District, Western Alaska, USA” on our website: https://www.westernalaskaminerals.com/_resources/pdfs/Illinois-Creek-NI43101-Technical-Report.pdf?v=0.317
Congresswoman Mary Peltola is still in office. That changes Jan. 3, when Nick Begich III is sworn in as Alaska’s representative in the U.S. House.
But “in office” is a metaphor. She no longer has a physical office at the Capitol. The House booted her from her office suite after she lost. This awkward administrative send-off is routine for any losing House candidate, but it came as a surprise to Peltola. As it would. She is the first Alaskan to lose re-election to the U.S. House since 1966.
She sometimes sounds philosophical about her defeat.
“I’m not upset about the loss at all,” she said, from a political consultant’s office a few blocks from her old digs at the Cannon House Office Building. “I have known my whole life that politics is about timing and luck. It’s all about timing. And two years ago, the tide and the wind and the current were all in our favor, and this time, they were totally against us.”
In 2022, she won a special election and then the regular election. Back then, the two Republicans in the race, Sarah Palin and Nick Begich, went after each other. Peltola could stay above the fray. At the Alaska Federation of Natives convention that year, Palin had nothing but praise for her Democratic rival.
“We’re in Mary’s house. I know that. And I’m just as proud as all of you are,” Palin gushed at the time.
This year the political seas had changed. Other Republican candidates dropped out, focusing conservative support on Begich. And Donald Trump was on the ballot, inspiring more Republican voters to the polls. About 18,000 Alaska Trump voters split their ticket to vote for Peltola. Still, she fell about 8,000 votes short. With the presidential race as it was, Peltola says hers was unwinnable.
“We worked really hard. There wasn’t anything more we could have done to squeeze out 8000 more votes. That’s a lot of votes in Alaska,” she said. “There were a lot of Democrats who supported me, and a lot of Republicans and independents and nonpartisans. And who can be upset about that?”
She’s proud of her work for Arctic oil development at Willow, against the supermarket merger, as well as her work on fish policy and icebreaker acquisition.
But she’s pessimistic that the House can tackle the nation’s problems. The hyperpartisanship runs too deep, she said, and the two-year election cycle drives everything. The fundraising pressure is unrelenting.
Reversing the Biden administration’s decision to revoke permits required to build a road to the Ambler Mining District is high on a list of Alaska priorities that Gov. Mike Dunleavy sent to President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team.
The 28-page “Alaska Priorities for Federal Transition” report sent to the incoming presidential team details immediate and long-term actions to reverse what the Dunleavy administration characterizes as a “four-year assault on Alaska’s statehood and economy” by the Biden administration.
The report also highlights “how unlocking Alaska’s minerals, oil and natural gas, and other natural resources will benefit both the state and national economy.”
A road to critical Ambler minerals
The new era of opportunity envisioned by Dunleavy includes building a road that will link the Ambler Mining District to America’s critical minerals supply chain.
“The Ambler Mining District has extensive deposits of critical minerals and could be a secure, reliable U.S. supply-chain resource, essential for our Nation’s tech-focused economy, green energy products, and military effectiveness,” the Dunleavy administration wrote in the Alaska priorities plan.
During Trump’s first term in office, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service issued a joint record of decision granting a right of way to build the Ambler Road across two relatively short segments of federal lands along the 211-mile route from the Dalton Highway to the Ambler Mining District. Under the Biden administration, however, BLM reversed its previous approval that would have allowed the road to cross roughly 25 miles of federal land adjacent to the Dalton Highway.
The denial of Ambler Road permits was seen as a breach of a 44-year-old contract between Washington, DC and Alaska.
During the 1980 passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), a sweeping law that placed more than 100 million acres in protected areas such as national parks and wilderness areas, Congress recognized the need for the Ambler Road and included a guarantee of its approval.
“Congress finds that there is a need for access for surface transportation purposes across the Western (Kobuk River) unit of the Gates of the Arctic National Preserve (from the Ambler Mining District to the Alaska Pipeline Haul Road) and the Secretary shall permit such access in accordance with the provisions of this subsection.” –Section 201 (4) of ANILCA.
The 2020 Ambler Road approval met the requirements of this congressional mandate.
Under the Biden administration, however, BLM pulled the permits for further review and, after completing that review, issued a record of decision (ROD) not to reissue the permits required for the Ambler Road.
“This denial is a violation of ANILCA,” the Dunleavy administration penned in its Alaska priorities report. “The new Trump Administration should rescind the unlawful Biden Administration ROD and issue a new decision restoring the right-of-way permits previously granted to the State.”
Deep State overreach
The Ambler Road is one of five areas related to developing Alaska’s natural resources that made headway under Trump’s first administration but were reversed while Biden was in office. The other Alaska natural resource development initiatives approved by Trump and undone by Biden are:
• Leases for petroleum exploration in ANWR east of the current oil and gas production on Alaska’s North Slope.
• A plan to open up portions of the 23-million-acre area National Petroleum Reserve on the west side of Alaska’s North Slope for development.
• A rule to allow road building in the Tongass National Forest for mining, timber, and community access.
• A rule that would exempt Alaska from policies restricting development of wetlands until 1% of the state’s wetlands had been developed.
Dunleavy is also requesting that the new Trump administration end Biden’s “Deep State” overreach in Alaska. In particular, his administration is asking the incoming president to:
• Reverse more than 60 Biden agency actions targeting the lock-up of Alaska lands.
• Reverse Biden Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act; considered to be weaponized actions used to lock up oil, gas, and mineral resources in the name of climate change.
• Reverse Biden agency actions dividing Alaskans over fish, wildlife, and state authority.
In addition to reversing the actions taken so far, Dunleavy included a blanket request for the incoming Trump administration to reverse any moves by Biden to restrict resource development in Alaska during his last days in office.
Dunleavy is requesting that the Trump transitional team to take swift and decisive actions to unlock Alaska’s minerals, oil and gas, and other natural resources to bolster the state and national economy.
“Alaska requests a single Executive Order, issued on the first day of President Trump’s second term, that puts the agencies to work rectifying these issues and creates a cabinet-level task force and six sub-cabinet positions to ensure efficient and effective implementation, and a continued dialogue with the State to keep Alaskans involved in their own future,” the Dunleavy administration penned in the Alaska priorities report.
The governor said he is looking forward to working with President Trump to make Alaska and America great again.
Quote of the Day: “The Department of Energy’s long-anticipated LNG export study shines a spotlight on the agency’s commitment to politics over sound policy. Not only does the study fail to recognize the critical support LNG provides to our European allies and its contributions to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, but it inaccurately fuels the notion that consumers will be hit with some huge price tag.
Despite record exports, Americans enjoy among the lowest residential natural gas prices in the world, and since we began seriously exporting LNG in 2016, natural gas prices have averaged 37% lower than the decade before.
The best thing the Biden administration can do it get out of the way. Allow the clear energy policy of the Trump administration to begin on January 20, which will unleash domestic energy, create good-paying U.S. jobs, and make our country, and our allies, more secure.”
DOE RELEASES LNG REPORT IN LAST-DITCH EFFORT TO CURB NEW EXPORTS: With President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration just over 30 days away, the Department of Energy has released its long-awaited report on liquified natural gas exports in a seeming effort to block approvals for new projects in the administration’s final hours.
The details: This afternoon, DOE released the report and opened a 60-day public comment period on their findings. It comes months after President Joe Biden first issued a pause on new LNG export approvals to non-free-trade-agreement countries.
While the report largely takes issue with increased LNG exports, it stops short of recommending a complete ban, indicating exports at some level are still within the public’s best interests.
It specifically estimated that increased exports of LNG could lead to the average American family seeing their gas and electricity bills increase by $122.54 per year by 2050. In the same time frame, though, the analysis projected, exports could also result in a 0.2% increase in GDP.
Regarding emissions, the study found that if LNG exports exceeded current authorized levels, associated direct emissions would be around 1.5 gigatons per year by 2050 — roughly equivalent to a quarter of all emissions generated in the U.S. annually currently. The report also estimated that demand for LNG in Europe, the primary current importer of US LNG, will drop while demand in Asia is expected to increase with China leading the way.
The pause: Many questioned the timing of the pause in January, as it came around the same time Venture Global LNG sought approval to build a $10 billion facility in Louisiana that would allow the U.S. to export massive quantities of LNG.
Critics have lambasted the pause as unconstitutional, while environmentalists have praised the move as a way to reduce emissions. In July, the freeze was overturned by a federal judge in Louisiana. One month later, the DOE said it would be appealing the decision.
When pressed on whether the release of the report marked the official “end” of the original pause, a senior DOE official told reporters that the administration was in compliance with all court orders regarding the issue and had approved an export authorization application for an LNG project in August. Given pending litigation challenging the summer overturn of the pause, the official declined to comment further.
While the department is now moving forward with the public comment period, a senior DOE official told reporters it has no intention to revise the report after receiving comments, calling the study “final.”
Today’s Key Takeaways: Oil and gas industry drilling techniques can be used for geothermal. Oil price impacts on Alaska treasury. Coeur Alaska gives $100,000 to diesel and welding students in Southeast Alaska. Data Centers boost gas-fired power generation. Urgent call for Permitting Reform.
NEWS OF THE DAY:
INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY BACKS FRACKING TO HARNESS GEOTHERMAL ENERGY: Long-standing drilling techniques used by the oil and gas industry can also be used to harness enough geothermal energy to rival renewables like wind and solar, the International Energy Agency said.
The details: Today the intergovernmental organization released its latest report on the future of geothermal energy, finding that hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling – commonly used to extract oil and natural gas within the United States – could help make geothermal energy an “attractive” alternative resource worldwide.
Currently, geothermal energy only meets less than 1% of global energy demand, primarily in countries like the U.S., Iceland, Italy, Turkey, Indonesia, and Kenya. However, using techniques like fracking, the IEA said, the alternative source of energy could meet up to 15% of global demand by 2050. The agency said this could produce nearly 6,000 terawatt hours per year of power, roughly equivalent to the current demand of the U.S. and India combined.
A reminder: Fracking uses high pressure from a drill and perforating gun system to crack shale rock layers thousands of feet underground, where natural gas and oil can be found. A perforating gun is a device lowered into a deep well loaded with explosive charges to puncture cracks in the shale rock. Then, millions of gallons of water, chemicals, and sand are pumped into these open fissures in the shale. As the sand keeps these cracks open, the chemical and water mixture helps natural gas and oil to flow back to the surface.
In the case of geothermal energy, fracking could be used to circulate water beneath the earth’s crust, collecting heat from the rocks below and sending it up to the surface. The IEA has said up to 80% of the current investment required for geothermal projects already involves skills commonly found in the oil and gas industry, making it easy to transfer data, technologies, and supply chains.
“Diversifying into geothermal energy could be of great benefit to the oil and gas industry, providing opportunities to develop new business lines in the fast-growing clean energy economy, as well as a hedge against commercial risks arising from projected future declines in oil and gas demand,” IEA said.
From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy, December 13, 2024
North Slope production is expected to start rising in a few years, but revenues to the treasury will decline through the end of the decade, according to the state’s forecast
Alaska oil revenues are expected to decline over the next few years, helping create a budget deficit that will have to be filled in with state savings, according to a semiannual forecast released by the state Department of Revenue on Thursday.
The new forecast is more pessimistic about the state’s oil-money prospects over the next few years than the department’s previous forecast, released in March, noted Department of Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum.
“This is due to lower oil prices, as well as higher lease expenditures,” Crum said at a news conference held by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Oil price estimates are based on the futures market, he said.
Oil production through the end of the 2020s decade will also likely be lower than what was expected in the department’s previous forecast, released last spring, “but there is an expected increase in production and revenues after that,” Crum said.
The new forecast predicts that North Slope oil production will average 466,600 barrels per day in the current fiscal year, which started on July 1, and rise slightly to 469,500 in the fiscal year after that. Average production for fiscal 2024, which ended on June 30, was 461,000 barrels per day.
Alaska North Slope production peaked in 1988 at over 2 million barrels per day.
Oil majors are looking to increase their bets on gas-fired power generation.
Big oil is scaling down investment in wind and solar power.
Chevron is talking with generators that supply electricity to data center operators.
The supermajors are moving into power generation, tempted by forecasts of a looming surge in demand. Yet there is a twist: the temptation is natural gas generation. Wind and solar—typically described as green or clean power—are turning into a fiasco for Big Oil.
Chevron and Exxon both recently said they were planning to venture into the exciting—and quite profitable—field of electricity generation. Speaking at a Reuters event in New York, Chevron’s head of the New Energies division said that it has been in talks for the supply of natural gas to power generators for a year. But not just any power generators. Chevron is talking with generators that supply electricity to data center operators.
“It fits many of our capabilities – natural gas, construction, operations, and being able to provide customers with a low-carbon pathway on power through CCUS (carbon capture, utilization and storage), geothermal, and maybe some other technologies,” Jeff Gustavson said.
Kensington gold mine owner commits $100,000 to support UAS diesel and welding programs for high schoolers.
Coeur Alaska Inc. has committed to investing $100,000 to cover tuition and fees for local high school students taking diesel and welding courses at the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) School of Career and Technical Education in Juneau.
“We are excited to partner with UAS on this workforce development initiative,” said Steve Ball, general manager at Coeur Alaska’s Kensington gold mine about 45 miles north of Juneau. “By investing in local students, we are not only fostering their future success but also building a strong and sustainable workforce for Southeast Alaska’s mining industry and beyond.”
UAS says the commitment to cover tuition and fees for diesel and welding students through the spring semester of 2026 also significantly bolsters the sustainability of the Mining Pathways program, which is a collaboration between industry, UAS, and the Juneau School District to introduce students to the fields of power technology, environmental science, and geology.
“The support from Coeur Alaska significantly strengthens this program’s ability to inspire and prepare the next generation of mining professionals,” said University of Alaska Southeast Chancellor Aparna Palmer.
In a statement posted on its website, the Energy Workforce & Technology Council (EWTC) said a coalition of oil and gas trade associations “has issued an urgent call to House Speaker Mike Johnson for immediate action on permitting reform before the close of the 118th Congress”.
The coalition represents over 80 percent of U.S. domestic production, according to the statement, which revealed that the group comprises the EWTC, the Gulf Energy Alliance, the International Association of Drilling Contractors, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the National Ocean Industries Association, the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, the U.S. Oil & Gas Association, and the Western Energy Alliance.
“In a letter to Speaker Johnson, the coalition highlights an alarming trend: the average time for energy infrastructure projects to go from initial permitting to operation has more than doubled, from two years in 2000 to over five years in 2021,” the statement noted.
“This significant delay is deterring investment, impedes the nation’s ability to meet future energy demands, and jeopardizes national energy security,” it added.
