OIL
Ballot Measure 1 casts a pall over students’ futures
Herb Schroeder, The Peninsula Clarion, October 5, 2020
The Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program (ANSEP) has been guiding Alaska Native people and other Alaskans to success in our state’s resource development industry for 25-plus years. To say a lot has changed since I founded ANSEP in 1995 is an understatement — especially this year — but the support ANSEP has received from the oil and gas industry has been unwavering.
The industry’s commitment to Alaskans is something we can count on. Unfortunately, the industry hasn’t received the same consistency when it comes to Alaska’s tax structure. Their future investment in the state is in question as Alaskans vote this November on whether to change the oil tax structure yet again.
By voting “no” on Ballot Measure 1, we can ensure the energy industry will be able to continue supplying jobs for our communities for generations to come.
GAS
U.S. natgas on track to hit highest price since November as hurricane shuts output
Reuters, October 6, 2020
U.S. natural gas futures were on track to hit their highest since November on Tuesday as liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports keep rising and producers shut Gulf of Mexico wells ahead of Hurricane Delta. That move higher came despite forecasts for milder weather and lower domestic demand over the next two weeks than previously expected. Delta is expected to strengthen into a major hurricane before slamming into the Gulf Coast between Louisiana and Florida on Friday
MINING
Graphite One hails Trump emergency order
Shane Lasley, North of 60 Mining News, October 1, 2020
Graphite One Inc. Oct. 1 said President Donald Trump’s declaration that the United States’ heavy reliance on foreign nations for critical minerals is a national emergency highlights the importance of the company’s plans to establish a domestic graphite supply chain by developing a mine at its Graphite Creek deposit in Alaska. The U.S. is 100% dependent on imports for graphite, which is currently the primary anode material in the lithium-ion batteries that power smartphones, laptops, electric vehicles, and stores power from intermittent renewable energy sources.
POLITICS
From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy:
DEMOCRATS SEEK ‘INDEFINITE DELAY’ OF TRUMP’S MOVE TO OPEN UP TONGASS: More than a dozen senators and nearly 50 lawmakers are accusing the Trump administration of overlooking science and rushing a decision to open up more than 9 million acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to development.
Last month, the Agriculture Department issued a final environmental analysis that recommended exempting the Tongass from the so-called “roadless rule,” which protected largely untouched portions of the forest from logging and other development. A final decision from the Trump administration could come within the next month.
The Democrats, led by Sen. Maria Cantwell, Rep. Ruben Gallego, and House Natural Resources Committee Chair Raul Grijalva, raise concerns about the Trump administration pushing through this decision amid the pandemic, which they say shut out input from native tribes in southeast Alaska. They also point to staunch opposition from even some conservative groups to opening up the Tongass. “We are prepared to use the congressional tools available to us, including oversight hearings, appropriations restrictions, and legislation, to rein in further misuse of the authority and responsibility entrusted to your Department for the long-term welfare of the forests of the American people,” the Democrats wrote in a Monday letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdu