State wants input on pipeline

MAT-SU — The state will soon be seeking input on a plan to build a pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Point MacKenzie.

According to a press release issued Friday, the Alaska Standalone Pipeline (ASAP) project will have a first draft of its environmental impact statement online within a week at asapeis.com.

“The proposed project extends approximately 737 miles from a point near Prudhoe Bay in the North Slope Borough south to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough near Cook Inlet,” according to the press release.

Once the EIS is online, the public will have 45 days to comment on it.

The project is one of many natural gas lines currently being discussed on the state level.

Once described as the bullet line, ASAP is designed to serve Alaska customers rather than sell gas out-of-state like other planned pipelines would. IT calls for a smaller-diameter line than projects that would send gas to Canada or to tidewater for export to Asia.

The line is a state project, made possible through a 2009 act of the state House of Representatives and a follow-up bill in 2010 mandating that the line be operational by 2010. There were also some preconditions on the project. The state mandated it be economically feasible, that the gas be sold as cheaply as possible, that connections be possible along its entire route, that it be able to serve other regions besides the Railbelt, that it use existing highway and railroad rights of way and bridges and state land and resources wherever possible.

The ASAP line would have multiple spots along its length to serve customers in various regions of the state.

According to project documents, the need for gas in Alaska is acute in Fairbanks, where air quality in the wintertime is poor and energy costs are high due to reliance on wood and oil for heating.

In Southcentral, legislators have long worried about dwindling natural gas supplies in Cook Inlet.

“A stable and reliable supply of natural gas is needed to spur economic development of commercial and industrial enterprises,” according to the project’s Plan of Development released in March. “A secondary need is to use proven gas supplies that are readily available on the North Slope to provide economic benefit to the State through royalties and taxes.”

The ASAP gasline would hook into the Southcentral system at a facility in the Point MacKenzie area, according to project plans.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

The Alaska Standalone Pipeline’s draft Environmental Impact Statement will be available online at asapeis.com.