|
| |
After 30 Years, It’s Time
With LNG import and export facilities springing up (or threats to do so)
on every coast from China to the Bahamas, it is time to flex our muscles.
By Paula Easley
Many Alaskans remember when the precursor to today’s Resource Development
Council launched a huge national effort to win its preferred route for a natural
gas pipeline. Under the wing of OMAR (Organization for Management of Alaska’s
Resources), supporters of an all-Alaska LNG project comprised the largest
citizen lobbying force since the battle for statehood. Thousands of rural and
urban residents became volunteer soldiers to advance the state’s critical
interests in the multi-billion-dollar resource. Despite years of effort, a
presidential decision made it all for naught.
It was the potential for long-term employment from retaining the abundant gas
liquids for instate industry that captured people’s support and enthusiasm–not
just building a pipeline to export the resource. We wanted to produce things
people everywhere needed, plus use some of the gas to heat Alaska homes. That
commitment remains today, as evidenced by the initiative for a development
authority to pursue such a project, assuming its feasibility.
“We shouldn’t keep hammering the major oil companies to
build the line; they have other fish to fry.” Paula Easley
With LNG import and export facilities springing up (or threats to do so) on
every coast from China to the Bahamas, it is time to flex our muscles. Without
action, Alaska could lose its opportunity to build the quickest, least
politically complicated project. We shouldn’t keep hammering the major oil
companies to build the line; they have other fish to fry. No one knows for sure
if an Alaska LNG project is feasible, but we ought to carefully examine all the
proposals, decide which is in the best interests of Alaska, and put the project
together.
After 30 years, it’s time.
|
