Dan Fagan seems to be mad at everyone for failing to lavish incentives on the oil industry ("Australia's gas-deal gain is Alaska's loss," Sept. 12). He's mad at the feds. He's mad at the state. He's even mad at the North Slope Borough. He says we're all to blame because Australia has a big new offshore project and Alaska doesn't. He believes that if Alaskans just give away enough, the industry will build a $30 billion gas line.
Mr. Fagan is mad at everything except the real culprit -- the economic law of the jungle. Oil companies are investing in Australia because its gas reserves are even bigger than ours, and it is accessible to Asian markets, where gas sells for more than twice as much as it does in the U.S. No lavish pile of concessions to industry can offset those realities, especially when Congress and public opinion won't allow the delivery of Alaska gas to Asian markets and the only way to get our gas to any market is through an expensive gas line.
Mr. Fagan is jealous of Australia's new offshore project, but he doesn't seem at all concerned about the undersea well blowout that's been belching oil into Australia's coastal waters for the past month. Is that part of his vision for Alaska's offshore future?
Mr. Fagan's gripe with the borough ignores our long-standing support for oil and gas development. Nobody has put more shoe leather into opening ANWR than the people of the North Slope. The borough has also issued thousands of onshore development permits and denied only a few applications outright. Despite this solid record, Mr. Fagan wants to portray us as obstructionist because we believe the feds failed to do their job in preparing for Shell's offshore exploration of the Beaufort. We submitted our comments to MMS at every step of the public process and tried to be constructively involved in improving the exploration plan. However, our concerns were effectively ignored. The borough went to court only after every other option was exhausted.
Australia is headed toward a major-league tragedy at the moment with that offshore blowout. Experts on the scene estimate it will be weeks before they can stop the leak that has already fouled an area of the Timor Sea larger than Connecticut.
This is why the people who have always lived along Alaska's northern coast are worried about the rules under which offshore development will occur.
We believe it's reasonable to ask that companies employ the world-class spill prevention, mitigation and monitoring measures they use elsewhere as they go forward. That's our best shot at avoiding the kind of disaster taking place in Australia right now.
Edward S. Itta is mayor of the North Slope Borough.
By EDWARD S. ITTA