Yukon officials take part in Alaska pipeline meetings

The Yukon government has been taking part in meetings this week on the proposed Alaskan natural gas pipeline, hoping to reap rewards from a project that could bring billions of dollars to the northern state.

Alaska's governmentheldpublic meetings in Anchorage starting Wednesday to explain its agreement with Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. to build a pipeline from the state's North Slope, through the Yukon and British Columbia, to a pipeline hub in Alberta. The meetings were scheduled to end Friday.

More than $200 billion US could flow to Alaska and gas producers over 25 years, if the 2,760-kilometre pipeline is built.

The Yukon would likely take a small fraction of that revenue mainly through property taxes but the head of the Yukon government's oil and gas branch said the territory still wants to be represented at pipeline talks.

"Not only are we getting ready for the pipeline, but we also have interests that we want to make sure are addressed," Brian Love told CBC News on Thursday.

Love said such interests include "obvious ones like job opportunities, the ability to access gas off the pipeline [and] potentially put gas on, fiscal terms, making sure the environmental and social issues are dealt with adequately [and] First Nation matters."

Love said it will take a while before his government negotiates such details with TransCanada: for one thing, the right to build a pipeline through the Yukon is based on the Northern Pipeline Act passed in 1978.

New environmental laws

"There's an acknowledgement that certainly things need to be looked at in terms of a modern context," Love said, adding that as an example, TransCanada will have to deal with current Yukon environmental laws as opposed to the laws from 30 years ago.

On May 22, Alaska state Gov. Sarah Palin formally recommended TransCanada's pipeline bid to state lawmakers, saying it merits issuance of a licence under Palin's Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, as well as a $500 million US cash inducement from the state.

"The volumes of gas are so high; the price of gas right now is obviously very high," Love said.

"When you look at the amount of revenue that's being generated, or could be generated from this project you're talking hundreds of billions of dollars when you look at all the various players and you add it together potentially."

The application from TransCanada Alaska Co., LLC, and Foothills Pipelines Ltd. proposed a 4.5 billion cubic feet per day, 1.2-metre diameter pipeline running 2,760 kilometres from a gas treatment plant at Prudhoe Bay on the North slope to the Alberta hub.

The Alaska part of the pipeline would be about 1,207 kilometres longand have five natural-gas delivery points in the state.

The line would also allow Alaskans access to the natural gas at good prices, as well as include an option to build a spur line to a liquefied natural gas port at Valdez.

Dealing with a foreign government

Alaskan state Senator Gene Therriault, one of the state politicians attending this week's meetings, told CBC News that some critics of TransCanada's plan wanted the pipeline to be owned and operated by an American company.

"There has been some discussion, certainly in the supporters of the all-Alaska line, that we shouldn't have to deal with a foreign government, and that being Canada," Therriault said.

"I personally think that if there is going to be any resource that goes through Canada, I envision that the Canadians are going to want a Canadian company to be involved."

Therriault said some politicians are boycotting the public meetings because they prefer to let big oil companies own and operate the pipeline.

At the same time, he said, others believe TransCanada'sproposal is more likely to protect the interests of Alaskans. He said that from what he has seen, the company'sbid is fair to both Alaskans and the oil companies.