FW:

-----Original Message-----
From: Shortridge, Pat
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2001 12:09 PM
To: McCarty, Danny
Cc: Robertson, Linda; Hartsoe, Joe
Subject:

This article demonstrates the difficulty Bingaman will have trying to change current law and roll over the Alaskans.

Pat Shortridge

Article from Today's CQ Monitor

Terrorist Attacks May Tilt Gas
Pipeline Route Toward Alaska

The debate over federal support for
a pipeline to transport natural gas
from the North Slope oil fields of
Alaska to the lower 48 is expected to
accelerate during the next few weeks
because of the terrorist attacks.
Alaska lawmakers, who already
were pushing for federal dollars to
subsidize a pipeline that stays within
their state for much of its route, now
are citing the threat to world energy
supplies as a new justification. Until
now, arguments over a route have
turned on economics, with the oil
companies that own the gas supply
arguing that the route sought by
Alaskans is simply not supportable.
They want no congressional dictates
on routing.
Even before the Sept. 11 attacks,
Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman,
D-N.M., described the development of
the natural gas pipeline as both an
"economic and national security
issue."
Now, ranking Republican Frank H.
Murkowski, R-Alaska, says the attacks
will bolster congressional support for
the project. "These attacks are evi-dence
to the American public that as
we increase our dependence on for-eign
sources, we abrogate our national
security responsibilities."
One possible route, commonly
referred to as the northern route,
would stretch 1,619 miles from
Prudhoe Bay under the Beaufort Sea,
come ashore in northern Canada and
extend up Mackenzie River valley to
Edmonton. The other route, com-monly
referred to as the southern or
highway route, would extend 1,982
miles from Prudhoe Bay south to
Fairbanks, Alaska, and then toward
Edmonton. This route would parallel
the Alaska Highway.
Northern route supporters, which
include the Canadian government, say
that it is the only economically viable
route. Alaska's Democratic governor
and all-Republican congressional dele-gation
support the southern route.
They say the pipeline's construction
would create jobs for Alaskan workers
and allow Alaskan communities to tap
into the gas supply.
Last week, Joe Handley, resources
minister for Canada's Northwest
Territories, told a business conference
in Yellowknife that Tuesday's attack
may have harmed prospects for the
northern route. "They may decide that
even though the Alaskan pipeline isn't
economically viable, they may decide
to go ahead with it anyway just to
maximize their self-sufficiency,"
Handley said, according to a Canadian
Broadcasting Company report.
Although Bingaman has vowed to
include language in his comprehen-sive
energy bill (S 597) that would
"streamline the regulatory approval
process" for construction of a natural
gas pipeline from Alaska, "he has
always been route-neutral,"
spokesman Bill Wicker said.
However, the chairman is a realist.
"If people put in provisions specifying
a route, so be it," Wicker said.
- Ted Monoson
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continued from page 1