Alaska-Go-Round

Are we not sick and tired yet, as here we go again throwing money away for more expensive excuses. To date, Alaskans have thrown away close to a $billion$ on a “natural gas” pipeline dream, but even with another construction season gone bye-bye as snow is predicted for the Brooks range, still no ditch being dug! Today we see wherein Alaskans are about to get raped again in the tune of another $125-Million, from the legislature that keeps on giving – just for more expensive lame excuses the only deliverable. Imagine having a job as a consultant to make-up excuses for $250/Hour, room and broads included! Yes, crime seems to pay, as this is a crime spree repeated again. Putting that theft in perspective, it means your PFD check is $1360 shy of what it would have been had this waste not want been allowed – doesn't “Wanton Waste” have a criminal element associated with it? See, there is no intent on ever seeing a “natural gas” pipeline bringing affordable gas to a neighborhoods near you – not here in Alaska, as what is happening today is just a ways and means to placate a hidden agenda secret. I will get to that, as it is the precipice as to why we keep getting blinded by the blight – from the House of Charades in Juneau. And we are letting down Ted Stevens, upon what he fort so hard for, as we have a tool at our option and disposal that is being ignored. Unique to the Alaska - said again thanks to Mr. Stevens trying to look out for his constituents and provide for a better future - it is the fact that even with all the hurdles for financial backing to build a long overdue gas pipeline, the Alaska Railroad has the clearance from the Federal Government – the IRS in this case – to allow for the issuing of “TAX-EXEMPT” bonds to be sold for financing a “natural gas” pipeline, with up to $17,000,000,000 – thats billions in bonds! The most favored investment option that can be found today. So why no action from Casey Jones to streamline getting a ditch open so pipe can be lowered so gas can be heating my morning Joe by Turkey-Day? See, the state knows what will happen if a “natural gas” line is ever built, it sets into motion a can-of-worms that will...nobody knows what will happen but when the smoke clears, it will be ugly. So the reason the gas is considered “stranded”, it is not for some sad-sack excuse that there is no pipeline or other ways and means to get it to a market, as pipelines can be built with ease these days - the excuse is something our representatives refuse to acknowledge and or address. Basically, Alaska is an “Oil Only” state, that's it in an uncomplicated nutshell. That “stranded gas” will remain “stranded” until every drop of oil is extracted, as without the gas – there is no longer any oil. And as the giant Prudhoe Bay field depletes - some 17-billion barrels already recovered - that gas becomes more and more valuable. The original estimates of Prudhoe Bay came in at 9-billion. That “stranded gas” has allowed for the estimate to double, and it ain't over with yet. Forecasts from the oil companies with interest in Alaska see oil continuing to be “King” until 2035, then maybe the gas will be freed up for export. See, natural gas out of the well is marketable – hook up a Coleman stove and boil water. With “oil” it is not marketable and can't be used for any useful purpose before refinement then to make riches for oil spill workers. So because of that, it must be processed, and along the way from the well to the gas pump, low and behold we find the “manipulators” alive and well – something that cannot be accomplished with “natural gas” - remember it is marketable out of the ground. Sure one can perform some minor Voodoo manipulation with transport costs, but even that has limitations in comparison to what occurs with the crude oil commodity market. And because of that “Big Oil” in Alaska is not interested in “our” need for low cost gas, it is not in their portfolio to give a rat's ass about “us”. So by taking that “Not Really Stranded Useful” gas away from its intended receiver - as a pipeline would be considered an illegal receiver and the FERC referees would come to help out “Big Oil - it shall cause a hailstorm of...well we told you so is what we will hear from “Big Oil”. It will get ugly, possibly bankrupt the state. And that Alaska Railroad bond stuff, back in 2002 when it was approved by the legislature after it was blessed by Uncle Sam – as a requirement of the Alaska Railroad Transfer Act – that amount accounted for 70% of the costs to build a gas line – wherein outside interests would only have to ante up a fraction of the overall coats – so it was a very good deal all around. Today, the legislature – if it were serious that it really and truly wanted a gas line for its citizens – it could without a wink of an eye increase that bond, and it would still find approval by the IRS – else fire MurCowpie and Begich. See, the cost of a gas pipeline today is estimated today at $45-Billion and if we wait a few days, it will escalate to $65. So yes, today Bill Sheffield could sign off on the selling of $23-Billion in financing, to get this ball rolling. And if that is not enough, a phone call to Juneau could increase what is needed, up to $32-billion to get the show on the road. So the money is there and has been there for a long, long time – even if gas is never exported, at least there would be a line from Prudhoe Bay to somewhere in between, feeding Fairbanks, feeding Anchorage and the Inlet. Why have not the citizens of Alaska been made aware of this lucrative incentive that has been in effect since 2002? Because, the state looses out when a “natural gas” line starts pumping gas away from it intended “strandedization”. Even though the legislature has changed some of the oil taxation language that limits the tax benefits to “Big Oil” for giving up the gas for lost oil production – basically if we take away the gas the oil companies pay less in oil production tax – as soon as the first cubic-foot of gas is no longer “stranded”, that is when the law suits start flying – and like has been Alaska's history with law suits against “Big Oil”, we loose, they win and being on a roll means something. So “gun-shy” the legislature is, gun-shy to make a gas line happen, and gun-shy to tell us the truth – as when that truth comes out, we will find that term limits is ours to exercise and kick the bastards out of Juneau – for deceiving us all these years and with allowances that have affected the value of my welfare check! So, those in control will continue to guesstimate how much to waste, to make it look like something is being accomplished, yet in reality there is no intent to ever have a gas line “unstrand” that gas. Yes, the “Alaska Gas Pipeline” dream is just another carnival act, with the “Fat Lady”, the “Ugly Lady”, the flea circus, contorionists, human blockheads, freakmen and we are the citizens, treated like “Bennie the Human Dart Board”!