It's time for an honest assessment on the prospects for bringing arctic natural gas to North American markets, and as the person whose job requires constant monitoring of all federal, state, Canadian, and stakeholder pipeline activity, I think I am uniquely qualified to offer a distilled perspective.
Over the past few days, experts and project applicants, economists and executives at the Alaska Oil & Gas Congress have all laid out their thinking.
But whether one subscribes to what was said depends on if you're a long-term or a short-term thinker.
In the short term, there might seem to be myriad reasons to be nervous about the pipeline's future, ranging from what's likely to come from open season to gas prices and reserves to congressional action on climate change and loan guarantees.
But I've learned to look beyond the immediate and keep my vision of the possible based on the long-term prospects and the longer-term realities of completing this project. And, I have to tell you the future looks bright.
Why?
Because there is and always will be consumer demand for energy. Only now, Americans are demanding that source of energy not only be reliable and steady, but we're demanding that it be clean and environmentally friendly.
That demand is not going to diminish any time soon, evident by the four global energy companies vying to build this pipeline.
I like to think of arctic natural gas as the "it" fuel of today's superstars: wind, solar, geothermal, and underground coal gasification. These sources of energy are all extremely important and their development must be encouraged. But for the foreseeable future, they cannot give America the energy security or energy independence it needs.
They do give us hope that there are many ways our energy needs can be met in the years beyond 2020, but in the context of clean, secure, available, low cost and green; natural gas is the happening source for today's and tomorrow's energy supply.
I'm reminded of that every day when I see the tourist busses that ferry people around D.C. with bus signs that say, "this bus runs on clean natural gas." Everybody wants it.
It is also true that a pipeline under construction will supply tens of thousands of good paying jobs to an American workforce that needs the work.
This week, the AFL-CIO endorsed the pipeline project in three resolutions passed at its annual convention in Pittsburgh. This kind of endorsement doesn't happen very often, but big labor gets this project.
Unions remember the workforce for the Trans Alaska Pipeline System peaked at 28,000 workers with over 70,000 jobs created between 1975 and 1978, and that was just for the construction.
This pipeline project, at its peak, will require tens of thousands of skilled workers, and this labor force must be trained, be ready to be hired, and then retained throughout the pre-construction and construction. A major focus on the training must be giving the workers job skills that can be used beyond the construction of a pipeline.
The AFL-CIO vote came just before President Barack Obama took the stage on Tuesday to celebrate the importance of the American worker. President Obama has told us that getting a natural gas pipeline built is one of his priorities and keeping in mind that this project has spanned six presidents, seven Alaska governors, and eight Canadian Prime Ministers, having the President's support is important for moving it along.
Even as American labor thumps us on the back, we know that the pipeline is every bit as much about Alaskan jobs. In order to construct a pipeline, new and necessary infrastructure must be built, and there are a number of projects to be done -- bridges, highways, airports, material sites and maintenance camps that might support thousands of workers needed to construct the pipeline.
Finally, this pipeline represents energy security for America. We know we're dependent on foreign oil, and we don't like it. So why would America walk into dependency on foreign natural gas with our eyes wide open? We have a chance to do it differently this time, and Alaska's gas should flow to North American markets first.
In keeping our eye on the horizon and looking at the long term, I am optimistic in my assessment. This project is great for the economy, for the environment, for Alaska, and it's great for America.
With the kind of broad support we're seeing from the President, the Congress, and from labor as recently as this week, we all have reason to be optimistic that Alaska will be delivering abundant arctic natural gas to North American markets within nine years.
Drue Pearce is the Federal Coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects. The Office of the Federal Coordinator was established in 2005 to expedite all activities by federal agencies with respect to the permitting and construction of a pipeline to bring North Slope gas to markets. Pearce assumed her role after Congressional confirmation in December 2006.