Letter to the Editor
Energy emergency
Published Saturday, July 26, 2008
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To the editor:
As I meet with residents throughout Fairbanks in their homes and businesses, one issue stands out above all. We have an energy emergency in the Interior.
Fairbanks is truly facing a crisis very different from those Alaska communities with secure natural gas supplies. Because of Fairbanks’ dependence on heating fuel, without cheaper natural gas, the Interior will be at the mercy of oil prices — which are almost exclusively dictated by Outside forces.
Additionally, Fairbanks electrical generation is dependent on oil and coal, both of which have significant issues. While there are no quick fixes, there are immediate, concrete steps we must take to address this crisis.
We must:
• Build a bullet line to bring natural gas to the Railbelt.
• Clamp down on oil speculators taking advantage of loopholes that Congress created for special interests.
• Develop incentives to encourage a steady supply of affordable crude oil to maintain the Flint Hills and Petro Star refineries in North Pole.
• Provide grants to utilities to cover their debt service in exchange for reducing electric rates for ratepayers.
• Increase funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
• Increase and expand weatherization programs for middle-class families.
• Help our military bases secure more efficient generation, to advocate a strong case to maintain our Interior military installations.
I also believe we need to open ANWR, expand UAF energy research, and develop renewable energy sources and energy efficient technologies.
Should I be fortunate to represent Alaskans in the U.S. Senate, I will immediately focus on specific ways to help Alaska’s families deal with our energy crisis. By bringing Republicans and Democrats together, I will work for real solutions to this crisis.
Community Discussion
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Begich- you've done nothing but help yourself the entire time you've been involved in politics. Tell us more about your land deals where you rezoned properties to make them more expensive, and then your pals fleeced the federal government for, what was it, over one million dollars because the property you rezoned was more expensive when the Feds purchased it. How much money did you and your partners make off the deal where you screwed the National Park Service?
And the "Feds" is us, the taxpayers- you screwed the people you are asking for votes from.
The people here in the Interior are really gonna love you when they find out that you refused to stand in the way of forcing a new IM program on Alaskans.
Take your sorry butt back down to Anchorage.
Outlaw oil... America has a war on everything else, it is an "addiction" and it is sure going to be hard coming down, cold turkey.. Literally COLD..
Take 350 million out of the PFD account and purchase the Flint Hills Refinery. It can be operated off the state's royalty oil, providing cheap heating oil, gasoline and diesel for the state's residents who own the oil to begin with.
I'm sure we'd all be willing (and happily willing at that!) to pay 2.00 a gallon...
Then, take the REST of the royalty oil and continue to produce naphtha, kerosene, JP4, asphalt, etc. and continue to sell it at market price to the asian rim countries, the airlines, and the department of defense.
In short order the refinery will have paid back the 350 million we took out of the PFD fund and Alaska would have a cheap, reliable fuel source.
Having the state own the refinery would also make some retroactivity issues regarding oil go AWAY!
Stevens /Begich, Stevens/Begich. Like a freshman Senator is capable of achieving anything. Then again Alaska may be rewarded for going blue, when the Congress and Presidency is blue. Or should we go red and deal with what we know about the man re elected. What a choice.
i don't think the democrats while have the majority in the house and senate very long. have you seen the approval ratings for them?
Candidate Begich can't seem to get it. We have a 'Now" crisis and none of his suggestions gets us past the upcoming winter.
A low-interest energy loan program of 2% for purchasing on-demand water heaters, insulation, more efficient furnaces, energy efficient windows, wood stoves, caulking, and any other energy saving devices that would help lower the cost of heating. Eligibility? An Alaskan resident. No energy raters needed either. No income caps.
Then, we need to take our Alaska State Royalty Oil Fuel Subsidy Program, refine it at Flint Hills and have it distributed to all Alaskans at $2.00 a gallon for heating fuel, gasoline, aviation fuel, diesel, and propane.
This Royalty Oil Fuel Subsidy Program would remain in place until the local/state/feds develop affordable, long-term, reliable alternative energy such as hydro, wind, geothermal, nuclear, or what ever is out there that will allow us to heat our homes with electricity at an affordable cost.
I don't know Andora. These...
• Provide grants to utilities to cover their debt service in exchange for reducing electric rates for ratepayers.
• Increase funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
• Increase and expand weatherization programs for middle-class families.
...look like short-term plans to me.
Mark Begich talks about the railbelt. What about the bush?? Those Alaskans, most who have lived here their entire lives, get the shaft again. If you think energy is expensive here, get in an airplane and fly any direction for two hours and see how much it is!!!
Why do we need to "expand UAF energy research"? Its been researched to death already. Bring us relief. And when I say "us" I mean Fairbanks, not Anchorage!
Speculation is part of the increase in oil cost. If the criminal government does decide to attack Iran, major economists, such as Bob Chapman and Paul Craig Roberts expect a jump up to $300/barrel, some have said $500.
But the major factor in the recent price increases have come from dollar devaluation (inflation), due to unprecedented debt spending, The private Federal Reserve printing "dollars" out of thin air like mad, a fiat national debt that can never be paid back and international agreements like NAFTA and GATT Which have destroyed our manufacturing base and turned us into a "service economy". Foreign counties no longer want the dollar and no longer want to buy our treasury bonds (due to our interest rates being so low).
We could alleviate some of the hurt in the short term if the private Federal Reserve communist central bank raised interest rates. But that will not solve the problem. They want to crash our economy so they can grab up the rest of our assets. This is how the bankers have always destroyed nations.
Using the formulas from the 1980's for calculating the inflation rate, rather than the cooked up garbage formulas used by the fed today to keep people ignorant, we have an inflation rate of around 13% per year. We are in the same situation Argentina was a few years ago and Wiemar Germany was in in the 1930's.
The only way to solve the "crisis" with energy prices permanently, is to prohibit any private institution, such as the Fed, from printing our currency. The Constitution only allows the Congress to have this power.
We (individuals) should also be looking toward independent energy and food sources, such as solar and home gardens, so we are no longer so dependent on a corrupt system to keep us alive.
As a side note, A few days ago I received a marketing email from a company in NY trying to sell me "carbon credits" I know this is being put forward in England and you will go down to your local private bank to buy "carbon credits" for fuel (and to breath, I guess). It's nothing more than modern feudalism.
Mark, Fairbanks is Alaska's 2nd largest city. If you want our vote:
1) help subsidize Fairbank's fuel.
2) help Fairbanks get affordable energy.
3) Do something NOW, not in 6 months or 6 years.
If Mark Begich want's to become Obamas VP...
he can start by securing financing for Alaska's smallest [but tallest] gasline-supplyline.
http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209...
This featherweight gasline will supply enough heat and fuel to the interior to keep people from needlessly freezing this winter..
..it will enable everybody north of Denali to get 10gal/week of propane delivered by truck, plane, or LPG-powered sno-train.
The other leg of propane delivery to rural-AK is to hurry and buy a couple small LPG-tanker ships for delivery to coastal-AK.
http://images.google.com/images?q=lpg+ta...
Don't let the miserable greed-hounds in the office buildings from Anchorage to Houston attempt to confuse and conflate the differences between LPG and LNG thru their Megaphoney-Media.
The cost of a propane separation and storage facility at Prudhoe does not amount to billions. A small portable-modular facility sized to process 10mmcfd LPG can be built for under $20mil.
Orion700: The Federal Reserve is not a private institution. And until our inflation rate is so bad that you need to use a wheelbarrow full of bills to buy breakfast, do not compare our situation to the Weimar Republic.
You have a very poor grasp of our economic system.
Another politcian blowing smoke to get your vote
At Stevens age we will have to replace him very soon. I don't think he will live long enough to serve another full term. It is high time we look seriously at a replacement. Now is as good a time as any. This seniority talk is a waste of breath. Might as well start building seniority for the new guy now. I'm not advocating voting for any one candidate. I just want people to look at the reality before they make a decision on who to vote for. Stevens seniority should not be a major consideration since that will come to an end sooner rather than later.
Henry, the Federal Reserve IS a private institution composed of member banks. It has a board of governors, which is suppose to oversee it. But it has never been audited. If you still think it is not a private institution, look up the congressional debates over the passage of the Federal reserve act.
Bottom Line: The Federal Reserve IS a private banking conglomerate. You are the one with a poor grasp of economics.
Henry, Give it a couple years to see what happens with our inflation rate as we continue to borrow "money" printed out of thin air by the PRIVATE Federal Reserve to pay for wars, social programs and trillion dollar bailouts for mortgage companies and spoiled, irresponsible, ignorant "Americans" who have no grasp of economics, such as yourself.
We are in the early stages of an inflationary depression. Last year the PRIVATE Federal Reserve increased the money supply by 16% Almost no growth of GDP. This is the cause of inflation. To make it simple for you to understand: Inflation=(increased money supply)-(GDP growth).
Orion700 is correct about the debasement of the U.S. dollar by the Federal Reserve. Smashing their printing press along with raising interest rates would bring an almost immediate restrengthening of the U.S. dollar and because oil priced in dollars(petrodollars) the price of crude(along with a lot of other things) would fall significantly. There would be a catastrophic cost however, as the Fed's ability to "re-inflate the mortgage and credit industries would be seriously curtailed. This would likely mean the final death knell of America's real estate market along with massive and widespread bank failures;
Regardless of what America does in the next year, a price is going to have to be paid. And it will have to be paid by either the purveyors of loose money/credit or by the common American wage earner/taxpayer. Most likely the nitwits in D.C. will decide the latter.......you and me.....all of us.
We are going to pay dearly.
TundraRebellion and Orion700 seem to have a good grasp of current economic news..
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?conte...
For the past 30years the US-economy has been driven while intoxicated.
Intoxicated on what?..who knows?
but if the astoundingly large amount of pharmaceuticals [antidepressants, etc.] found in the metropolitan sewer systems is any indication, then you find america is stoned to the bone on pills.
In this weird economic climate in denial about the huge debt exposure, it seems totally silly, and quite possibly stark raving madness to consider rushing to build a $30-50billion megaproject financed by hollow banks.
It seems much more sensible to begin passing gas with the least amount of financial exposure as possible, then carefully cultivate the profits to grow the gasline network robustly like a fungal mycelium in fertile soil.
www.fairbanksgas.com
....passing gas is as easy as stepping outdoors and relaxing your sphincter.
Alaska has been suffering mind-boggling anal retention for more than 30years... it's true, and not funny.
Begich - please stay in Los Anchoarge and leave the rest of us real Alaskans alone.
Well, for starters, the Fed doesn't print anything. The Treasury does, through the US Mint. The Fed distributes the money, but its the Dept. of Treasury that does the printing.
Second, the Fed does not have shareholders, owners, or private controllers, as one would expect from a private entity. It does not operate for a profit, it does not have its own holdings, and the Board of Governors are appointed by the President. You can't get much more public than that.
Finally, on inflation... There is ABSOLUTELY no comparision between the inflation rates we are seeing now and anything experience during the worst years of the Weimar Republic. I will agree that we have a problem with inflation. I will agree that it needs to be remedied. I will agree that it has the potential to get worse. I will not, however, agree that we are even approaching a situation where a wheelbarrow full of $100 bills, totalling over $100,000,000 will just barely cover the cost of a two-egg breakfast. The Weimar Republic had inflation rates in the hundreds of thousands of percent. What are we at, 16% at worst? No comparision.
Mark:
Fairbanks does not need a gasline. Only 1100 customers in Fairbanks are connected to gas. if there is really any excess Cook Inlet gas. It can be trucked, or put on the railroad, as soon as tomorrow, without a "bullet line". Look at all the oil that goes to Anchorage everyday. Gas can just as easily come north on the "dead head" return trip.
.
GVEA has been trying to get electricity for the Interior generated by "cheap" Cook Inlet gas. There isn't any. Most of the intertie goes unused without it. If Fairbanks ever gets gas, from the North Slope or Cook Inlet, it won't be cheap. It will be tied to the national market at Henry Hub rates. Only slightly cheaper than oil.
There are 40,000 customers supplied by GVEA covering a vast part of the interior. Providing cheap clean energy from our rich hydroelectric potential is the solution.
The State has invested $150 million in the Susitna Dam project. This project can provide energy for pennies per kilowatt-hour - forever. And the price of the fuel, water, will never increase.
Build the Susitna Dam now.
In the mean time: Give all Alaskans our fair share of the oil windfall in cash. Get the Healy Clean Coal project on line to displace the oil fired generation.
Cash now, Clean Coal soon, then the Susitna Dam. That's the only answer. It's the easy part.
For the bush was have to consider other options. That's where wind, solar, coal, geothermal, gas, tidal, small hydro can all play a part.
If Fairbanks ever gets gas, from the North Slope or Cook Inlet, it won't be cheap. It will be tied to the national market at Henry Hub rates. Only slightly cheaper than oil.
===============================================
PETROTHEISM....
It's not a religious cult, it's an opportunistic parasitic disease.
Many people are duped into thinking diamonds are worth what the goofy jewelry stores get with their racketeering prices.
If you understand what Yellowknife, LasVegas, and Disneyland have in common then you have the mental maturity to not be fooled at the magic show.
The lower48 has more gas than you can imagine, and it's not tied to Henry's Hubcap. If you don't understand this, then you're behind the curve of science-tech. Soon there will be 100,000+ gizmos in service gasifying garbage. "Peak Oil & Gas" has been pushed back 4000years.
The hydrocarbon market has finally gone flat like it ought to be.
http://www.carbonrecovery.com/
This technology will be mass-produced and is scalable down to yard&garden size.
You can even mount one on your truck, so you can use dirty-diapers for fuel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSgL0Ie4z...
....and yes you can pass the smog test too.[just ask me how]
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:G...
If the Ju's in Juneau wanted to make a $trillion on arctic-gas they should have started 55years ago and gotten behind James Dalton.
Collecting lost-orphan greenhouse-gas is a worthy way of earning carbon-credits until we get ocean-acidification and glob-warm under control.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B36EoEuKj...
Converting the lost-orphan NS-methane to dimethylester-diesel doesn't need to cost billions either, soon the FT/GTL units will be modularized into Conex-Boxes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPe2rXTte...
So, if I captured orphan-gas and gave the diesel to my fisherman friends at a fairprice of cost plus 10%, are you gonna sue me?
Did you ever see a lawyer try to get a gallon of milk out of a cow?
...they'll burn the barn down every time.
There's many technologies ready to burst onto the scene that will make your silly biz-plan sink like launching an unfinished boat.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/craig...
This technology will be mass-produced and is scalable down to yard&garden size.
Alaskan methane is more of a firehazard and greenhouse-gas bomb than a storehouse of wealth...
Diversify and Decentralize, Stay ahead of the Curve