1.3M acres of federal land made available to State of Alaska and Doyon, Limited
Sean Maguire, KTUU, June 27, 2019
At a signing ceremony, 1.3 million acres of land managed by the federal government was made available for selection by the State of Alaska and an Alaska Native Corporation. Joe Balash, the Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management at the Department of the Interior, signed documents Tuesday that revoked Public Land Orders (PLOs) restricting development in the Fortymile area. The parcels of land, located in the Eastern Interior of Alaska, had been identified by President Barack Obama in early 2017 as areas of critical environmental concern. The designation by the Obama administration largely prevented mining interests from making claims to the land. At the Resource Development Council’s 44th annual luncheon in Anchorage, Balash sat alongside Gov. Mike Dunleavy as he officially revoked the PLOs.
Our Take: Great news for Doyon and Alaska! The opportunity to see more responsible mining happen in the state of Alaska is exciting.
Anchorage, July 27, 2019 – The Alaska Railroad Corporation (ARRC) and the Alaska to Alberta Railway Development Corporation (A2A) have established a Master Agreement of Cooperation toward building a 1500-mile connection between the Alaska Railroad and Canadian railroads that also serve the Lower 48 states. The agreement was announced after approval by the Alaska Railroad Corporation Board of Directors today. Under the terms, the two railroad companies will cooperate in applying to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources for a right-of-way guaranteed under state law for a rail connection to Canada. In addition, the two firms will develop a joint operating plan which will specify not only the new track needed to connect Alaska’s rail to Canada, but will also identify work needed to upgrade existing rail facilities, bridges, and track on the Alaska Railroad’s 512-mile mainline which runs from Seward to North Pole, Alaska.
Trade tensions put energy transition at risk – BP Chairman
Ron Bousso, Dmitry Zhdannikov, UK Reuters, June 27, 2019
Trade tensions risk throwing the global economy’s transition to greener energy into disarray and could hurt energy companies’ preparations towards it, BP Chairman Helge Lund said as leaders of the world’s largest economies gather for talks in Japan.
BP forecasts that even with a rapid increase in wind, solar and other forms of renewable energy, fossil fuels will account for the majority of energy supply for decades to come. Lund also warned that attempts to curb fossil fuels too fast could harm societies.
Under investor pressure, Exxon gets into carbon removal technology
Amy Harder, Axios, June 27, 2019
ExxonMobil is looking to scale up zany-sounding technology that takes carbon dioxide emissions out of the sky by partnering with one of the few companies in the world pursuing that tech. Driving the news: Exxon, the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company, announced Thursday it signed a joint development agreement to advance technology capturing CO2 with Global Thermostat, a startup co-founded in 2010 by a former Exxon scientist, Peter Eisenberger. The big picture: Publicly traded oil companies, including Chevron and Occidental Petroleum, are pursuing this type of technology because they’re facing pressure from shareholders to pursue strategies more in line with a world that is drastically reducing CO2 emissions. This technology, costly and unproven on a massive scale, is a way to do that without getting off oil and gas that producers have made big profits on for decades.
