3rd of the Way Home!

So, with Alaska now on revision “infinitesimal” with a ways and means to get much needed cleaner burning “natural gas” to Fairbanks, here is my solution. We are already 1/3^rd of the way home, so why stop horses in midstream for some downpatrick jamjar craic? See, up the road from Fairbanks about 350-miles over some roughed terrain ends the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline Fuel Gas Pipeline. It ends at Pump Station #4. That “natural gas” pipeline has been in operation for longer then the “Big Oil” pipe, as it was completed before all the “questionable” pipe welds delayed the “Seven Sisters” opening ceremony. This “Fuel Gas” line has supplied the “natural gas” to fuel the turbines that pump the oil south to Valdez – over 77-billion barrels to date. Now this “fuel gas” line was designed for the maximum “throughput” capacity of the oil line, which had its heyday way back when, with over 2-million barrels a day sent to markets. Today, that “throughput” is at approximately ¼ the peak, and due many considerations with taxation and other complicated matters, that will probably be the target forecast for – well the rest of the useful life of the project. So, when the operator of the pipeline realized the great “Prudhoe Bay” field was past plateau and heading towards the no return decline, there came a project called the “Strategic Reconfiguration”, which looked at the future forecasts and allowed some economic modifications. Like the mothballing of Pump Station #2 and Stations 3&4 were “electrified” with modern highly-efficient Siemens' “Cyclone” gas turbines, to produce electricity to drive the pumps. So, the capacity of the fuel gas line, well there is a surplus of gas equal to the decline – just 350-miles away! The capacity of that 1440psi DOT approved pipeline could source the requirements of Fairbanks, then some. Since a compressor plant at Pump Station #1 “packs” that line, a takeoff point at PS#4 could allow for an easy extension of a pipeline along the already approved and cleared Right-of-Way owned by the state and provide Fairbanks with “natural gas”. And since Alyeska the oil pipeline operator has over 30-years of operational data on the “fuel gas” line, it it there for the asking in efforts to help “extend” it south. What have we been waiting for? So, to construct a gas pipeline to deliver that gas to Fairbanks, probably $257-Million and change. Wow, you say? Well the “Natural Gas Trucking Project” which has now turned into the “Alaska Railroad Joke”, that project would have cost about the same, just for the “LNG” plant up north! And that plant cost is the same, regardless, truck or rail as the plant at Pt. McKenzie is no longer fit for duty. But then you need to buy the storage containers at a price of $1.8-Million and a storage facility in Fairbanks, that will take 2-years to construct once a design is released for construction – price tag on that baby about $58-Million. So for about $300-million and at a minimum 3-years down the road, gas will be imported to Fairbanks. Now, I can buy pipe and a ditch digger today, and bury that pipe starting tomorrow and by next winter, there would be less pollution! Have it your way? It should be, so what the hell is their problem? Oh, forgot one all important ingredient his recipe for success. The funding! Well the Alaska Railroad could be beneficial for a single aspect. OK maybe it could deliver the pipe to Fairbanks. But more importantly, that state run corporation under Bill Sheffield's wing has today at its disposal and already approved by the Juneau legislature, it can float “A2 Muni Bonds” up to $18-Billion for the sole purpose of building an in-state “natural gas pipeline” that serves the needs of the residents! So, what the hell is the problem?