January Issue 3 2012

Alaska Railroad gets new business development VP

The Alaska Railroad Corp. brings aboard a new vice president for business development. Dale Wade explained the role he’s taking on and how it relates to the country’s last rail line to handle both freight and passengers.

By Jonathan Grass, Alaska Journal of Commerce

Fairweather builds Deadhorse Aviation Center

A dormant North Slope project has been reborn as a way to support oil and exploration companies faced with the area’s currently scant facilities. The Deadhorse Aviation Center is designed to be the area’s largest and most modern piece of infrastructure, and is expected to open this summer.

By Jonathan Grass, Alaska Journal of Commerce

With air permit, Shell’s optimism for summer grows

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Appeals Board approval of Shell Oil’s air quality permit for its Noble Discoverer drillship Jan. 12 is a major step forward for the company, Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said.

By Tim Bradner, Alaska Journal of Commerce

In a bitter winter, Alyeska adds heat to keep oil warm in TAPS

Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. is “recirculating” crude oil at four pump stations on the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline to warm the crude as bitter winter weather continues in Interior Alaska, an Alyeska spokeswoman said Jan. 17.

By Tim Bradner, Alaska Journal of Commerce

Unsettled issues loom in pursuit of large LNG project

North Slope producers have started planning work on a large liquefied natural gas project that would serve Asia markets, but large and unresolved issues among the producers and with the state of Alaska still need to be settled, sources in the companies say.

By Tim Bradner, Alaska Journal of Commerce

Unsettled issues loom in pursuit of large LNG project

North Slope producers have started planning work on a large liquefied natural gas project that would serve Asia markets, but large and unresolved issues among the producers and with the state of Alaska still need to be settled, sources in the companies say.

By Tim Bradner, Alaska Journal of Commerce

Lawmakers back in session, fiscal future a growing concern

State legislators gaveled back into session Jan. 17 and like deer in the headlights, they can see our fiscal future coming.

By Tim Bradner, Alaska Journal of Commerce

Begich visits Stryker Brigade

Backers say enough signatures for coastal measure

JUNEAU (AP) — Proponents of an initiative to revive Alaska’s coastal management program said Jan. 17 that they have collected nearly 34,000 signatures.

By Becky Bohrer, Associated Press

BLOG: Alaska’s Eye on Wall Street: the year in review

Risk on. Risk off. That pretty much sums up the volatile year we had in 2011. It was a year dominated by the European sovereign debt crisis (which has been festering since early 2010) and worries about a double dip recession in the U.S. (and the loss of our AAA rating). Despite the downgrade by S&P to AA, U.S. Treasury bonds were one of the best performing assets in 2011 as investors sought a safe haven amidst equity volatility. The range in yield of the 10year Treasury was from a high of 3.7 percent in February to 1.7 percent in September. The 10year Treasuries ended the year at a record low yielding 1.9 percent, while gaining 17.1 percent in total return.

By Jeff Pantages, Alaska’s Eye on Wall Street, For the Journal

EDITORIAL: Young’s bill for Alaska Native veterans is late, but right

It’s better late than never to do right by Alaska’s Native veterans.

By the Ketchikan Daily News

COMMENTARY: ADFG site shows off sonar; seafaring superstitions persist

Most people don’t know that 40 years ago Alaska pioneered the use of sonar to track salmon runs, or that state fishery managers operate 15 sonar sites on 13 rivers from Southeast to the Yukon.

By Laine Welch, For the Journal

COMMENTARY: Several factors at play as NPFMC addresses halibut bycatch

Pacific halibut is in the headlines as commercial and recreational harvesters go head-to-head over management of the resource. Decisions are on the table that few Gulf of Alaska fishers, both in the directed and non-directed fisheries, perceive as fair.

By Merrick Burden, Marine Conservation Alliance

Forbes: Economy ‘ready to roar,’ unsure about GOP frontrunner Romney

Steve Forbes, president and CEO of Forbes Inc., will be the keynote speaker at a sold-out 2012 Economic Forecast Luncheon hosted by the Anchorage Economic Development Corp. Jan. 25. Forbes, a Republican candidate for president in 1996 and 2000 who has long advocated a flat tax system, talked with the Journal about domestic energy policy, the race for the GOP nomination, the ‘Occupy’ movement and growing calls for tax reform.

By Andrew Jensen, Alaska Journal of Commerce

Movers & Shakers 01/22/12

Bulletins 01/22/12

Astronomers see more planets than stars in galaxy

WASHINGTON (AP) — The more astronomers look for other worlds, the more they find that it’s a crowded and crazy cosmos. They think planets easily outnumber stars in our galaxy and they’re even finding them in the strangest of places.

By Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer

Judge finds feds violated NEPA on Steller sea lion regs

Ruling won't lift fishing closures, however.

Andrew Jensen, Alaska Journal of Commerce

Pollock season under way, quota a concern

After two lean years of Alaska Bering Sea pollock harvests, 2011 was supposed to be a return to normalcy with a quota set near the historic average at 1.25 million metric tons.

By Andrew Jensen, Alaska Journal of Commerce

IPHC to set harvest levels, address charter management

Alaska anglers have gotten a crash course in halibut management over the past six months and now they have an opportunity to see it in action firsthand.

By Andrew Jensen, Alaska Journal of Commerce

Fish wraps

Obama proposes moving NOAA to Interior Dept.; Alaska salmon processors drop MSC support; a new study blames killer whales for failure of Steller sea lions to recover

Andrew Jensen, Alaska Journal of Commerce