OIL
ConocoPhillips Alaska Makes Match Challenge To Alaska Sea Life Center
Jason Lee, KSRM, August 31, 2020
The Alaska Sea Life Center has been granted a dollar-for-dollar matching donation up to a total of $250,000 from ConocoPhillips Alaska. ASLC is continuing a fundraising campaign that started in July to offset the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, the Center announced meeting the initial $2 million campaign goal to avoid permanent closure. Despite this success, the Sea Life Center’s financial need has not gone away, and the Center is still fighting for long term survival in the face of uncertainty.
The Sea Life Center’s President and CEO, Tara Riemer: “The outpouring of support has been amazing, and we are no longer looking at a situation where we could close permanently this fall. Thanks to ConocoPhillips Alaska, we are excited to transition into a new campaign phase where supporters have the opportunity to ensure we are able to do more than just barely survive. Mission programs like education, research, and wildlife response need financial support to continue operations through the off-season.”
GAS
Thailand throws open LNG imports to private sector
Yohei Muramatsu, Nkkei Asian Review, August 30, 2020
Thailand has decided to open up imports of liquefied natural gas to the private sector, prompted by high electricity bills and diminished domestic natural gas reserves. State-owned energy giant PTT has a near-monopoly on Thailand’s supply of natural gas used to generate power. The company procures most of the LNG through long-term contracts. But Bangkok-based private electricity provider Gulf Energy Development recently obtained a license to import LNG. The new LNG shipping license “will help reduce production cost for the industrial users, leading to overall reduction in electricity tariff[s],” said Yupapin Wangviwat, chief financial officer for Gulf Energy.
MINING
Constantine prevails in Ninth Circuit
Shane Lasley, North of 60 Mining News, August 31, 2020
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. came out on the winning side of a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on a lawsuit brought by Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and others that challenged federal permits for road building on the company’s Palmer zinc-copper-gold-silver-barite project near Haines, Alaska. “We believe the Ninth Circuit decided correctly on this matter and are pleased with the final decision,” said Liz Cornejo, community liaison and advisor to Constantine Metal Resources. “Constantine remains committed to quality science and meaningful engagement with Chilkat Indian Village of Klukwan and other stakeholders through every step of our mineral exploration and development activities.”
POLITICS
From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy:
WHY FRACKING IS A TOP ISSUE: Joe Biden choosing to dedicate a portion of a major post-convention address in Western Pennsylvania to clarify his position on fracking shows the issue still has currency among important constituencies in a race being defined by the pandemic and social unrest.
“I’m not for banning fracking. Let’s say that again. I’m not for banning fracking — no matter how many times Donald Trump lies about me,” Biden said.
Soon after, the Trump campaign sent out blasts reminding the media and its supporters that Biden had previously spoken differently about fracking during the primary. Most memorably, Biden stumbled during a gaffe in an exchange with Bernie Sanders in a March debate, in which Biden declared, “no new fracking.”
Biden has since taken pains to remind voters of the actual text of his climate plan, which even in its revamped, more liberal form only seeks to end new oil and gas leases on federal lands, where minimal fracking occurs.
Polls are muddled: Polls have generally shown that fracking, like most issues, falls along party lines, including a recent survey from CBS News finding Pennsylvania voters almost evenly split.
Other polls look differently depending on how they are structured. The Global Strategy Group released a poll Monday on behalf of Climate Power 2020, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Sierra Club finding that 62% of registered Pennsylvania voters support “phasing out” fracking by 2050 (importantly, not immediately), with 66% also favoring “stronger regulations” on fracking.
What polls miss: But polls do not capture everything, and at least some people, especially Pennsylvania workers in fossil fuel-dependent building trade unions, are likely to be single-issue voters, as Josh learned in a story he reported this summer.
Tellingly, the union leaders, all of whom are Democrats and naturally inclined to support Biden, said perceptions of Biden among building trade workers who don’t have time to catch every speech are baked in.
Many associate him with wanting to ban fracking, the union officials told Josh. Biden’s attempt to clarify his views have been complicated by the Trump campaign running misleading local television ads in Pennsylvania saying that Biden will ban fracking.
“I don’t know if that’s a perception that will be easy to change. It’s about perception. The world doesn’t work on reality,” said Jim Kunz, business manager of the International Union of Operating Engineers in Local 66, covering Pittsburgh.