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Alaska’s pipe dream: The economic folly of the North Slope gasline

15 years with no action by AGDC, almost $500 million wasted, and no closer to reality; Alaska deserves better
ANCHORAGE — A new report, Alaska’s Pointless Pipe Dream. It’s Time to Stop Burning Money on the North Slope Gasline, released today critiques the proposed Alaska LNG export project from Alaska’s North Slope to Southcentral Alaska. The report concludes that there is no plausible economic argument or benefit to continue chasing the state’s long-held pipe dream. The report also underlines that there is no prospect that any of several new gasline proposals have any better chance of success than their doomed predecessors.  For a decade and a half, the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC) has spent nearly $500 million of Alaskans’ money trying to bring natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope to Southcentral Alaska for local consumption and export. These efforts have produced no tangible result: no pipeline has been constructed, no gas has been delivered and no investors have been secured.
Read the report, Alaska’s Pointless Pipe Dream. It’s Time to Stop Burning Money on the North Slope Gasline

Key takeaways

  • No version of the North Slope gasline project is economically feasible.
  • The instate-only version would not reach Southcentral Alaska in time to prevent a looming natural gas shortage.
  • Renewable and stored energy projects offer viable alternatives to natural gas.
  • North Slope gasline efforts have produced only failure and mounting costs. They should be abandoned now.

Recommendation

  • Terminate AGDC. Its long history of failed projects and unviable proposals demonstrate its inability to deliver. Instead, state funds should be redirected to infrastructure, renewable energy, education, public safety or other critical unmet needs.
This report was commissioned by a coalition of groups: Sierra Club Alaska Chapter, Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition, Cook Inlet Keeper, Pacific Environment and 350 Juneau. Stan Jones, the report’s author, was born in Anchorage and has spent most of his life in Alaska. He worked in public radio, was an award-winning reporter and editor of the Anchorage Daily News and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and has published eight mystery novels. He also co-authored an oral history of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He lives in Anchorage with his wife, Susan Jones. 

Statements

“The Permanent Fund is Alaska’s communal IRA. Is this hopeless pipe dream really where Alaskans want to invest it?,” said Stan Jones, author of the report. “This project has never made financial sense and it still doesn’t. How much longer will we keep pouring money into it while schools, public safety, and infrastructure face slow starvation,” said Kay Brown, Pacific Environment’s Arctic Policy Director. “Let’s turn the page and focus on real solutions like renewable energy.” “We have a responsibility to future generations to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels,” said Sarah Furman, Co-Executive Director of the Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition. “It’s time to let go of the LNG pipeline fantasy. This project has already wasted and would continue to waste state resources that could be used for education, public infrastructure and transitioning to renewable energy.” “Our state has wasted enough time and resources on this boondoggle pipeline at the expense of actually solving our looming energy problems,” said Andrea Feniger, Director of the Alaska Chapter of the Sierra Club. “For decades, Alaskans have invested in the false promise of this pipeline with nothing to show for it. Let’s not be fooled again.”  “The oil giants are steering clear of this project,” said Doug Woodby, co-chair of 350Juneau. “Maybe Alaskans should take the hint: terminate AGDC, stop chasing dead-end proposals, and prioritize critical unmet needs like renewable energy, public safety and education.” ###

About Pacific Environment

Pacific Environment works to stop climate change and ensure healthy ecosystems around the Pacific Rim for the benefit of people and our planet. We campaign to stop climate change by working to fast-track key industries toward zero carbon emissions. We focus on major global industries that have received less public attention but whose carbon emissions are significant and still growing: the maritime shipping and the petrochemical (plastics) industries.
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