Energy

The corporation is preparing to bid on an upcoming oil and gas lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

More opportunities for oil drilling in the Arctic refuge and other long-sought Alaska projects could be renewed under a Trump presidency, Alaska elected leaders say.

Trump referred to his “special relationship” with Gov. Mike Dunleavy and said he will focus on developing Alaska resources and getting the state’s long-sought gas pipeline built.

The goal is limiting the footprint where seismic exploration could take place and avoiding polar bear dens and caribou calving areas, the Interior Department said.

The regulatory commission also approved a pilot program to incentivize electric use during times of low demand.

A legal ruling on a 2021 lease sale is expected as soon as Friday from a federal judge in Alaska.

Alaska’s state-owned development agency was one of three successful bidders in a prior 2021 sale of leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The second lease sale is supposed to be held by Dec. 22, according to the law. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority was the main bidder in the federal government’s first-ever lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2021.

Inupiat leaders from the North Slope Borough oppose the request from Gwich’in tribal governments to establish a sacred site in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain.

Some of the violations concern the identification, storage and disposal of various materials and items, including chromium-tainted leather gloves, used batteries and containers for used oil.

Solar, wind and small hydropower projects are gaining footholds, but some clean energy pioneers are frustrated with the pace of change.

Cook Inlet is a hotbed of green energy ambitions, with proposals for wind, geothermal, tidal and hydrogen production, but their success could be stymied by the fossil fuel foundation of the state’s economy and politics.

After working in the state’s oil industry and government agencies overseeing fossil fuels, this dreamer is searching for deposits of the clean-burning gas that don’t need to be created from natural gas or water.

ConocoPhillips will increase its holdings in the Kuparuk and Prudhoe Bay fields.

Issues including drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, as well as mining and logging.

With cheap gas-fired power now unavailable, the biggest utility in Fairbanks has shelved plans to shut down one of its coal-fired plants.

The Department of Energy grant, with matching funding, will support construction of a 38-mile transmission line across Cook Inlet.

The order was the fifth AOGCC-assessed penalty for Hilcorp this year.

The Wood Mackenzie report also says Cook Inlet gas could be depleted in about a decade. It was commissioned by the Alaska Gasline Development Corp.

Most of the funding is from the Inflation Reduction Act and will go toward new renewable energy measures all around the state.

Such small renewable projects are good, a renewable energy advocate said, but larger ones are needed to offset a looming shortage of natural gas from Cook Inlet.

They typically won’t save money in Anchorage. But the natural gas crunch might change that. They’re fairly common in Juneau, where it’s warmer.

The Pikka field is set to deliver first oil within two years, said Kevin Gallagher, chief executive for Santos.