Keystone XL pipeline suspended. Huge victory for environmentalists.

Courtesy of The New York Times:  

The company seeking to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline asked the Obama administration on Monday to suspend its review of the project, potentially bringing an abrupt halt to the politically charged debate over a proposal that had become part of a broader fight over President Obama’s environmental policies. 

TransCanada, the Calgary-based company seeking to build the 1,179-mile pipeline, announced the move in a letter to the State Department, which must approve cross-border projects and had been reviewing its application for a presidential permit. The pipeline would carry 800,000 barrels a day of carbon-heavy petroleum from the Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast, and the question of its approval has weighed heavily over Mr. Obama as he sought to build an ambitious legacy on climate change. 

A delay would be almost certain to put off a final decision on the pipeline until Mr. Obama left office, making it likely that the pipeline would be a hotly debated topic in the 2016 presidential race. 

Environmental advocates and liberal activists, many of whom are convinced that the Obama administration will ultimately reject the pipeline, called TransCanada’s request a ploy to avoid having its proposal killed.

That last part may in fact be true, but since Hillary has already said she would reject the pipeline deal that means Transcanada may have to wait many many more years before revisiting this project which essentially means that yes it is dead.

Unless of course by some miracle the Republicans actually choose a candidate with the ability to win.

Nah, it's dead.

Of course Transcanada can still take solace in the fact that they still have that 500 million dollars that former governor Sarah Palin gave them in the ignorant attempt to convince them to build a gas pipeline in Alaska that most of us knew all along would never be built.

Fucking moron. 

Alaska Governor Bill Walker steps into dangerous territory.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:  

A new plan from Gov. Bill Walker’s administration to broadly restructure Alaska’s finances would convert the Permanent Fund into an endowment-like fund that absorbs oil income and generates billions of dollars in annual revenue for the state’s treasury, Attorney General Craig Richards announced Wednesday. 

The sweeping changes would insulate state government from swings in the price of oil, Richards said in a briefing with reporters, and also likely reduce the Permanent Fund dividend to around $1,000, slightly below the roughly $1,400 average it has been for the past decade. 

Future dividend checks — termed “Royalty Dividends” in place of “Permanent Fund Dividends” — would be tied to Alaska’s slowly declining oil production, though the hoped-for construction of a natural gas pipeline could provide a boost.

Anybody who pays close attention to Alaska politics knows that ultimately something like this is almost certainly going to happen.

However those of us paying attention also know how incredibly unpopular the idea of touching the dividend is to Alaskans.

After all there is a reason we call it the "Third rail of politics."

And you can get a sense of that from this response by Alaska Senator Bill Wielechowski:

One Democratic senator, Bill Wielechowski of Anchorage, said Walker’s plan is “not where I would have gone,” and pointed out that its projected dividend would be a sharp drop from this year’s $2,072 check. “You’re asking for $1,000 from every Alaskan,” Wielechowski said. “I think there are better ways to do it.”

As an Alaskan who really enjoys that annual check I hope they don't mess with it.

But as a realist who knows that the alternative may be the state not being able to pay its bills, or a return of state taxes, I am not sure there is any real choice.

Personally I think in many ways we Alaskans have been more than fortunate, and like many good things, it simply cannot last forever. 

Oil company offers Iowa resident teenage prostitute in exchange for the right to build an oil pipeline on his property.

Hughie Tweedy courtesy of Blog for Iowa

Courtesy of Radio Iowa: 

A landowner from southeast Iowa today said he has recorded proof a land agent for the proposed Bakken Pipeline offered to get him an 18-year-old prostitute if he’d grant access rights to his property so the pipeline may pass through. 

A spokeswoman for the pipeline developers issued a written response this afternoon. 

“We are aware of allegations that have been made concerning the conduct of an employee of one of our contractors,” said Vicki Anderson Granado, media relations coordinator for Energy Transfer Partners. “We take these types of matters very seriously and are investigating further.” 

Hughie Tweedy of Montrose said he recorded two of his conversations with the land agent. 

“On these recordings you will hear evidence of my senior pipeline representative offering me not once, not twice, but three times the sexual services of a woman,” Tweedy said, “the last time being a $1200 teenage prostitute.”

This is my favorite part:  

“If an old junkyard dog like me was offered the sexual services of little girls to get my hackles down, I wonder what was offered to the powerbrokers of this state to gain their support for silence,” Tweedy said. “Shame, shame, shame.”

I wish I could be surprised by this, but after living through the seventies and eighties up here in Alaska, when oil companies were throwing money around like confetti, I have seen a number of deals that were signed with one or more of the participant's pants down around their ankles.

This Tweedy guy is a pretty tough cookie. He refers to the oil companies as the "pipeline mafia" and claims they treated him like a hick and a fool.

Apparently he was not quite the fool they were hoping for.