Free Republic

After the discovery of oil in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, it didnt take long for environmentalists to cry gloom and doom and for the media to hype those claims. From caribou dying to earthquakes to all hell breaking loose, there was no shortage of catastrophic predictions though the Alaska pipeline now boasts great success roughly 30 years later.      Construction on the pipeline began in 1975, and oil first moved through it on June 20, 1977. Former Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton summed up its success in 2003 that Today the pipeline produces 17 percent of our domestic petroleum. It...

BP's board and London-based executives were informed of widespread corrosion at the UK oil giant's Alaska field two years before the company was forced to shut it this week, citing "unexpectedly severe corrosion". On May 22 2004, Chuck Hamel, an advocate for BP workers in Alaska, took the charges directly to Walter E. Massey, chairman of the environment committee of BP's non-executive board of directors. In the letter, Mr Hamel told Dr Massey that in the previous four years BP employees and contract workers had brought to him concerns about safety, health and threats to the environment at Prudhoe Bay,...

OK, BP Plc (NYSE: BP) isn't so green--especially for its shareholders. Despite the millions it's spent on full-page advertisements in newspapers worldwide and countless television spots plugging a focus on making the world a cleaner, energized place, the company has been doing the exact opposite behind the scenes. Oil spills and refinery explosions during the past couple years have become almost the norm for BP. And now we have another big spill that's going to cost the market some 400,000 barrels of crude every day for weeks or even months. BP is one of three major oil producers that operate...

The Alaskan natural gas pipeline might finally get rolling. One of the principal conglomerates has agreed to the proposed terms outlining a risk-sharing arrangement, which has given the $24 billion project better odds than at any time in 25 years. The construction of this pipeline is considered vital in the effort to bring Alaska's vast natural gas reserves to the rest of the United States. That gas would help alleviate price pressures that have been driving up consumers' heating bills. And that's why Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski and ConocoPhillips have agreed to a potential deal whereby the state would finance...