Drue Pearce's blog

It’s been an exceptional honor to be the first federal coordinator for the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects. I am extremely proud of what the Office of the Federal Coordinator [OFC] has accomplished: a secure budget, a great staff, an unqualified annual audit and a solid strategic plan.

I was sworn in 36 months ago and since that time I have put together a dedicated group of 10 people who work in our Washington, DC headquarters and our Anchorage, Alaska field office. They are extremely talented, fully engaged and dedicated to a single mission — to advance our nation’s energy, economic and environmental security by expediting the delivery of clean natural gas from the North Slope of Alaska to North American markets.

The OFC coordinates and expedites the work of more than 24 federal agencies with roles in the permitting, licensing and certificating the natural gas pipeline. In addition, I’ve actively engaged the Canadian government, the State of Alaska and all stakeholders, from Alaska Natives to the conservation community to the unions.

My objective has always been that we be collectively prepared to deal with the competing applicants as they come forward with their projects.

I want to thank the men and women in federal service, especially the career "feds", for their enthusiasm and hard work as they define their roles and responsibilities and engage one another, the proponents and other stakeholders. I have an enormous amount of respect for my federal colleagues – they really are “here to help!”

The State of Alaska and the legislature are key to the success of the project. Communication between the OFC and the state is critical. We’ve had great support from all sectors, and I applaud Alaskans for their deep desire to make the pipeline happen.

I also cannot overemphasize the incredible response we’ve received from our Canadian counterparts. I have met with Ministers Prentice and Raitt, Canadian senators, heads of the federal permitting agencies [NRCan, NEB, NPA, MPMO and CEAA], leaders from the affected territories and provinces and members of the Alaska Highway Aboriginal Pipeline Coalition. Canadians are engaged and enthusiastic about the economic benefits that the pipeline will bring to North America.

A word about the applicants is in order. Both the ConocoPhillips / BP joint venture, known as Denali – the Alaska Gas Pipeline (Denali), and the TransCanada/ExxonMobil partnership, known as the Alaska Pipeline Project (APP), are world class operations with exceptional talent dedicated to building the pipeline. I want to personally thank the teams of APP and Denali for their enthusiasm, professionalism and communicative way of doing business. I’ve known some of the Denali and APP players for years, others are new friends, and to a person, they are part of truly outstanding organizations.

I want to take this opportunity to thank my fellow Alaskans for allowing me to work for you every day for the past 25 years. Every day has been an adventure. Know that I won’t stop now – my passion for our state, our country and this project isn’t diminished. I look forward to the next chapter and adventure.

Dave Holt, president of the Consumer Energy Alliance, recently said: “The road to energy security is through Alaska.” Let me expand on that... The roads to energy security, economic security and domestic homeland security for America all run through Alaska.

I look forward to working with Alaskans so that together we can ensure that our place as the busiest intersection of those roads is protected. The Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline is the project that will forge our legacy.

The Alaska gas pipeline project was very much part of the discussion mix today when the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee convened to hear the opinions from a wide array of experts on the role of natural gas in mitigating climate change.  Witnesses from BP, TransCanada, Xcel Energy, Calpine, Energy Information Administration (EIA) and Dow Chemical all testified. The conversation varied from the projection of natural gas supplies, volatility of the natural gas market to the implications of unconventional fuel sources such as shale on other resources like coal. 

BP and TransCanada discussed the need for Alaska’s natural gas and emphasized that the natural gas market was big enough for all the new shale gas and Alaska’s gas. Their statements sounded a lot like those of Rod Lowman’s from America’s Natural Gas Alliance two weeks ago.  During question-and-answer session, Senator Lisa Murkowski [R-AK] asked them again about Alaska’s natural gas.  Both TransCanada and BP agreed that Alaska’s gas is a supply component for the North American market and would help keep prices level in the future.  TransCanada also emphasized that the natural gas industry has increased infrastructure in recent years.  Having a transportation system to get natural gas to the markets will play an important role in stabilizing gas prices.

Finally, they talked about the potential effects of influx levels of natural gas on manufacturing and jobs.  It was a great discussion.  You can read the witness statements and listen to the hearing here.

Jennifer Thompson
Director of Communications and Policy Support
Office of the Federal Coordinator Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects

The Office of the Federal Coordinator plans to develop a Google-like prototype that will assimilate data from a variety of sources in order to create one geospatial data source for federal agencies, the State of Alaska and stakeholders to use when studying the proposed route of an Alaska natural gas pipeline.

Recent activities also include meetings between the OFC and Canadian authorities, and the completion of a first phase Consolidated Implementation Plan about Denali – The Alaska Gas Pipeline.

August has been one of the busiest months in Alaska for VIP visits that anyone can remember. The state draws nearly a million visitors every summer who come to see Mount McKinley, the glaciers, wildlife and the national parks, all great reasons to visit. But mingling with the tourists this month were members of Congress and administrators from federal agencies and White House directors who wanted to learn more about the effects of arctic warming, the route of the proposed natural gas pipeline and other environmental and economic issues.

We were a major part of the action in hosting eight White House and federal agency officials on a trip in mid-August. Our job was to teach them everything we could in three days about the natural gas pipeline.

We gathered in Anchorage with our federal agency guests – from the White House were Rachael Walsh, Director for Energy Security/National Security Council and Horst Greczmiel, Associate Director for NEPA Oversight for the Council on Environmental Quality; from the federal agencies we hosted Cindy Douglass, Acting Deputy Administrator for US Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Mike Gillenwater, Policy and Plans Branch Chief in the Pipeline Security Division of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Reid Nelson, Director, Office of Federal Agency Programs to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and Chip Smith, Assistant for Environment, Tribal & Regulatory Affairs, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Defense Army/Civil Works; and, from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the trip included William James, Acting Deputy Chief, Regulatory Community of Practice and Col. Reinhard W. Koenig, Commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska District.

Joining the group and the OFC staff were staffers from each office of Alaska's congressional delegation, the Dept. of Interior's State-Federal Joint Pipeline Office, officials from EPA along with state geologists and the head of the state's historic preservation office.

The OFC's job is to expedite the permitting and construction of the Alaska natural gas pipeline by coordinating the efforts of all federal agencies involved in the pipeline's construction, and to make sure that they, and the public, have accurate information about it. So we put the group through a full day of briefings in Anchorage by most of the stakeholders. There were panel presentations by Native and environmental groups, briefings on workforce and infrastructure development and project updates by the two pipeline applicant companies – TransCanada and Denali.

On day two, the group headed north to spend two days on the North Slope. The smoke from Interior fires cleared just in time for them to see everything as they flew over the pipeline route before returning to Anchorage and on to Washington, DC.

The OFC trip wasn't the only one happening this month. Four cabinet secretaries visited rural Alaska to learn more about climate change and rural issues; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sponsored a trip to the North Slope that included OFC staff; there was an Arctic Observance tour by NOAA, Dept. of the Interior, the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, Nancy Sutley, the U.S. Coast Guard Commandant and other senior White House officials came to study coastal erosion and the oceans as a first step in establishing comprehensive ocean policy; and, the Environmental Protection Agency hosted a trip at the beginning of August to tour the pipeline route that also included OFC staff.

It's kind of like Alaska's own information pipeline running from the arctic to Washington, DC in preparation for relevant federal legislation as well as the natural gas pipeline.

Getting a natural gas pipeline built is a priority of the Obama Administration because it is critical to America's energy security and because it will create thousands of new jobs throughout the country.

It is a worthy task that requires the involvement and hard work by many stakeholders from federal, state, Canadian and private interests. That's why the visits that Alaska enjoyed this summer are so important. Nearly every federal staffer, under secretary, secretary, White House executive or member of congress will never forget what they saw, what they learned and who they met. Ultimately, these trips help bring about a much better understanding of arctic and energy issues as only Alaska can showcase.