alaska pipeline

Oil first started being moved through the Alaska pipeline in 1977. The leases held by the pipeline's owners, for use of the state and federal land that it stretches across, are up for renewal in 2004. There are a lot of issues to discuss, such as reports of permafrost melting in Alaska and how that might pose safety and environmental risks.

A number of people are calling for public hearings to discuss environmental risks. Others are emphasizing the importance of making certain that the pipelines continue to operate. Both sides appear in agreement that the pipelines should be used into the future. The debate seems mostly over the type of oversight that will be involved the next lease period, which would probably be for thirty years. I expect that we will hear a lot more on the pipeline as we get closer to the 2004 renewal date. Some of the reports of permafrost melting that I saw online go back a few years, like this one from 1983.

The article mentions the Joint Pipeline Office, which is a group of federal and state agencies that regulate the pipeline and its Valdez terminal, and consider themselves to be the advocacy group for public concerns. Here are some documents that they've put online regarding the renewal of the right-of-way lease. One request voiced by some members of the public is that citizen's groups should be appointed to provide some review of the spending of the companies leasing the land. Their fear is that cost-cutting decisions might create unnecessary risk to safety and to the pristine wilderness that much of the conduit passes through. The Joint Public Office hasn't included such oversight in their recommendations.