Show The Voice of Business Decision needed on Alaskan gas gal pipeline I The latest reports on Alaskan energy finds are encouraging The latest reports on getting the I fuel tuel out of ot Alaska are not Right now It looks like millions of ot cubic feet teet of natural gas may be thrown away away-at away at a time when We are seriously short of it because of the years required for the Federal Government to make a simple decision to let private investors build a gas pipeline at their own expense HERBS HERB'S TilE THE situation The exploration for petroleum In Alaska is also turning up large quantities of natural gas more than 10 percent of the known U. U S. S supply according to conservative Interior Department estimates Many of the gas deposits are mixed in with oil as is often the case When one comes out of the ground so does the other That's fine Cine it if the gas can be piped off to users But what if theres there's no pipe Natural gas is difficult to to store What comesup comes comesup comesup up with the oil must either be distributed or burned off wasted TilE THE FAMED trans-Alaskan trans oil pipeline is scheduled to begin limited operation in mid The wells will start pumping then with or without a gas pipeline The year four period required to build the oil line line line- the largest construction project in history is surpassed slightly by bythe the time it took to get all necessary governmental government l approvals the largest pile of red tape in history If a similar amount of time is needed for approval of a gas pipeline then three predictions can confidently be made 1 Virtually all of the gas associated with the first oil through the oil pipeline will be wasted perhaps for several years 2 In the meantime the lower 48 states will experience such severe natural gas shortages that even some private homes will be cut off e C 3 3 3 The ultimate cost of building the gas pipeline will escalate by several billion dollars due to inflation n j 1 r Tim THE HISTORY of the oil pipeline furnishes ample evidence in support of point number three When first proposed in 1969 as 1969 as a slightly smaller smalle pipeline its cost was wa estimated at million The current estimate is 63 billion and und even even that thatis is optimistic Two companies are now seeking permission to build gas pipelines One proposed route would cross Alaska from north to 10 south near the oil line The Theas gas as would be at an ice ice- free port on the south coast and shipped to the lower 48 by special tanker The other route would cross Canada and feed directly into existing gas pipeline networks here EACH PLAN has its advantages advantages advantages ad ad- vantages and disadvantages But nut neither as far as I can see has problems great enough to outweigh the critical need to get started on something Construction alone will VIII take from three to five years Docs Does it have to take another four years to get federal approval approval approval ap ap- ap- ap No But a great deal of effort and leadership and statesmanship would be required to cut the red tape And I dont don't see much of oC It in sight Congress has floundered around for two years trying to come up with a national energy policy polley The best they've been able to do is recommend a temporary rollback of prices just long enough to get them through the 1976 elections Our legislators evidently prefer to let crises develop then charge off seeking scapegoats rather than preventing trouble before it starts The problem In more ways than one is lack of enough energy where its it's needed Collins Collin's magnificent Odes were written published and admired before he was 26 |