RDC NEWS DIGEST

RDC conference is around the corner

RDC’s 30th Annual Conference, Alaska Resources 2010, will be held this November 18-19 at the Dena’ina Convention Center in Anchorage. The conference, which focuses on Alaska’s oil, gas, mining, fishing, tourism and forestry industries, attracted over 750 attendees in 2008. Among this year’s slate of 35 speakers is Gaétan Caron, Chairman and CEO of Canada’s National Energy Board.

Shell gets green light for Beaufort, RDC supports air quality permit for Chukchi Sea

Shell has received conditional approval from the Obama administration for its plans to explore two leases in the Beaufort Sea next summer in the far western area of Camden Bay, west of Kaktovik. For the project to move forward, Shell must still receive permits from the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) and other federal agencies, as well as comply with state and federal environmental requirements.

Shell is also seeking permission to drill up to two wells on its leases in the Chukchi Sea next year. However, environmental groups have sued to block drilling. Moreover, the MMS, under court order, is revising its analysis of Shell’s plans to drill in the Chukchi.

Shell needs a vital air discharge permit from the Environmental Protection Agency by the end of this year or in early January to make large financial commitments regarding its 2010 Chukchi drilling activities. Without regulatory certainty, the company will once again be forced to cancel its drilling program.

At a public hearing in Anchorage last month where testimony was unanimously supportive of the permit, RDC said timely issuance of the air permit is important so Shell can move forward with its program. In recent years, Shell has paid the federal government over $2.2 billion for the right to explore leases in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. Given that fact, RDC believes federal regulatory agencies such as the EPA have an obligation to process permit applications in a timely manner.

Shell has been pursuing this permit at a direct cost of over $13
million. The company’s indirect costs can be measured in the billions
of dollars and its entire Alaska investment is at risk if it cannot secure
this critical air permit.

Tongass timber sale moves forward

Governor Sean Parnell welcomed a decision last month from the federal government’s regional forester for Alaska, Denny Bschor, to uphold the Logjam timber sale in the Tongass National Forest. Bschor rejected an appeal by several environmental groups that would have
cut the sale in half.

“This is a big win for an industry that has been struggling,” Governor Parnell said. “Over the years, environmental roadblocks have choked off the supply of timber in Southeast Alaska, killing jobs and displacing families. This decision will put Alaskans to work and ensure that small, family-owned mills can continue to operate.”

Parnell recently sent a letter to a top official in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, advocating that the sale be allowed to proceed.

The timber sale will allow the harvest of 73 million board-feet of timber on Prince of Wales Island, near the community of Coffman Cove, about 60 miles northwest of Ketchikan.

 

Former RDC president Chuck Webber dies at 83

Longtime Alaskan Charles “Chuck” Webber died September 11 at his home in Anchorage. He was 83. Mr. Webber served three consecutive terms as the president of RDC (1983-85).

Mr. Webber had a special talent of steering people with divergent views in the same direction.

“If two people were in a heated discussion that was getting maybe a little too hot, Chuck Webber could walk up to them and in two minutes flat, they’d be shaking hands,” said Paula Easley, who was Executive Director of RDC when Mr. Webber held the top board seat.

“That ability to lead people toward reasoned positions on policy issues made him a valuable member of the corporate and non-profit boards on which he generously served,” Easley said.
“Chuck liked people and was never unkind. He could make anyone feel comfortable.“

Realizing what a jewel he was, the board quickly moved him to the executive committee and then elected him president, Easley said.

“People in that job were usually burned out after a year because of the position’s high-profile demands,” Easley continued. “But not Chuck – he served three consecutive terms, which was a first for RDC.”

Mr. Webber served in the U.S. Navy and was stationed on the USS Pasadena. He held the rank of Lieutenant before completing his service and finishing his education at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1949.

Governor Jay Hammond appointed Mr. Webber to his cabinet as the Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Commerce and Economic Development. In 1986, he was named chairman of Alaska National Bank of the North. Along with many other recognitions that he received for his life achievements and community service, Mr. Webber received the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce’s James Dodson Memorial Gold Pan Award for two consecutive years.

 

Labor endorses Alaska gas pipeline

The Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline project received a major boost this fall at the AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh, PA. Tagged as the“important project to our nation’s economic future, “ the project was endorsed in three resolutions unanimously passed by AFL-CIO
convention delegates.

Drue Pearce, Federal Coordinator for the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects (OFC), called the AFL-CIO support “a monumental endorsement.”

“America needs world-class infrastructure projects that can give hard-working Americans good paying jobs,” Pearce said. “This is just that kind of project and the AFL-CIO working families get it.”

Vince Beltrami, the president of the Alaska AFL-CIO, addressed the national convention on the importance of the gas pipeline project to labor.

To underscore labor’s support, Frank Carroll, the Second District International Vice President of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers [IBEW] and who represents all of New England, came out strongly in support of the project.

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