Slipping below the mainview is Natural Gaas. There was a thread a while back showing even Daschle dealing with the Alaska Senators for a deal on a gas pipeline from the region (and adjacent Canada) through Canada to the U.S. The "Alaska Highway" line. The Alaskans, I heard, wanted a line down to Valdez, "the "Alaskan line" the gas to be LNG'd and shipped by sea. More expensive. If not, they were threatening to tax and otherwise make extra profits. Essentially extortion.
Here's a site I found the Alaska Natural Oil & Gas Reporter - Natural Gas Page.
Seems to show the truth of such.
Natural Gas is a big story. (Which, Grampa D., the WSJ article did not cover well, IMO.) Another reason why you might be hearing less push for the oil line than one would expect. Give Daschle a victory for the "environmentalists" - The deal's done for gas in the same region!
We have the technology, ships and plants to convert our new oil to useful products as soon as it gets to America!
Natural gas has a role now and will have an expanded one in the future if its future use costs don't exceed that of oil. This has been the problem of all so called alternatives in the past 3 decades, they have needed special funding (high prices on oil at the pump and higher taxes) and then super high prices at the final consumer end. Wrong, that is socialism or facism. Let the market determine the best product at the best price for our energy needs!