The Cook Inlet has been a strong asset to the state’s overall energy source for years. But recently, it seems that the future of energy development has become a bit more uncertain.
Many Alaskans have been hoping for the production of the LNG Pipeline Project, which would take natural gas and transport it 800 miles through a pipeline from the North Slope to Nikiski to be liquified and exported.
However, there seem to be some questions about the project’s cost and whether Alaskans need to turn to other areas for reliable power sources.
During an interview on KSRM’s Talk of the Kenai, U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan expressed that he’s been working “overtime” on the LNG Project. He believes they need to be aggressive in encouraging Cook Inlet Gas Exploration.
“I still think we have a great opportunity on that. It’s not going to come together overnight. But we have so much natural gas on the North Slope that could benefit our state our industry certainly Kenai because LNG facility would here for export,” said Sullivan.
During his annual speech to the Alaska Legislature back in February, Sullivan said that during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there has been a big push for various countries, particularly our European and Asian allies, to get off of Russian resources.
But for Alaskans, importing from other countries isn’t logical.
“We have more natural gas, oil, and gas than any place on Earth. Particularly in the North Slope, but we still got a lot in Cook Inlet. And we’re going to be importing gas from Mexico and Canada? Come on,” says Sullivan.
Back in March during CERAWeek in Houston, Texas, the U.S Senator hand-delivered a letter to President Biden’s Climate Envoy, John Pod, urging “immediate reversal” of the Biden administration’s ban on new LNG exports and warning of the “dire national security and foreign policy implications” as a result of the ban.
However, the Biden Administration has claimed that the project would harm the environment, thus putting a pause on it as a whole.
“That argument doesn’t make any sense because we know Alaska has the highest standards with regard to environmental protection in terms of oil and gas development in terms of mining development. So if you can’t do it in Alaska with our world class, high environmental standards, what you think the Chinese and the Russians have higher standards, we do?
Sullivan refers to Venezuela and how the Biden Administration lifted sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gas sector two years ago. However, Venezuela’s oil production is twenty times more polluting than the production of oil on the North Slope.
“So even on the argument of the environment, it makes no sense to outsource the production of natural resources to our adversaries, who don’t have nearly the environmental standards we do Alaskan workers produce oil and gas critical minerals that we need, not Chinese workers,” said Sullivan.
Overall, the U.S. Senator calls the Biden administration an “unmitigated disaster” when it comes to Alaska. He says that the state was able to get a lot more work done on projects that were ‘really cared about’ during the Trump Administration.
“And we’re not going to produce some from Alaska same with NPRA, the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska. Estimates are 17 billion barrels of conventional oil 50 trillion cubic feet of gas. They’re going to take that off the table. It’s National Security suicide,” said Sullivan.