Thank you all for your thought provoking comments on my recent article on the Alaska Dispatch website. Below are my responses to a few reader comments. Hopefully as the campaign progresses I will continue to have time to address your postings.

1. Rather than a pipeline to Valdez or Canada, ANS gas should go to market via LNG tankers loaded on the North Slope.

It is my understanding based on conversations with various LNG shipping companies that ice breaking technology is not currently reliable enough to allow year round shipment of LNG off the North Slope. The Manhattan is a good example of what kind of technical difficulties year round access to the arctic coast faces. Although largely a failed publicity stunt, the Manhattan did demonstrate ice breaking tankers were not a viable alternative at the time for shipping crude.

Additionally, as an Alaskan, I am primarily interested in getting gas to Alaskans. That would never happen if it leaves the North Slope on LNG tankers. What a different Alaska we would have today if we did not have the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline which has generated thousands of jobs throughout our state since start up in 1977. That is exactly why the State has moved aggressively against an “over the top” option as proposed by some of the North Slope producers. I believe when our state Constitution refers to the utilization of our natural resources to the maximum benefit of its people, for gas it is not just referring to the highest wellhead price for the state coffers in Juneau, but to other benefits to Alaskans such as energy for use in heating our homes and businesses and gas liquids for value added industries.

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