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FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- Gov. Sarah Palin, along with two of her commissioners, met Friday in Fairbanks to sign TransCanada's license to construct a natural gas pipeline.The signing happened Friday morning at the Morris Thompson Visitor's Center.Friday also marked the two-year anniversary since Palin and her administration met in Fairbanks to kick off meetings with all of the parties interested in commercializing North Slope gas."This is a historic day for Alaska and for the North American continent when you consider the impacts this project will have on this part of our world," Palin said.Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin and Revenue Commissioner...

In a major milestone in state history, Governor Sarah Palin today joined Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin and Revenue Commissioner Patrick Galvin as the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act license was signed in Fairbanks.

It all becomes official tomorrow. That's when Governor Palin is scheduled to join Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin and Revenue Commissioner Pat Galvin in signing the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act license over to TransCanada. Labor Commissioner Click Bishop, TransCanada CEO Hal Kvisle and TransCanada Vice President Tony Palmer also are scheduled to attend the event, to be held in Fairbanks. (Associated Press)

Serbia said Wednesday it is unlikely to sell its oil monopoly to Russia because of Moscow's refusal to guarantee to build a strategic pipeline through the Balkan country. Serbia's Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic said Moscow and Belgrade have not yet reached an accord on the package deal, and Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic said he would be "surprised" if the agreement is signed when a Russian delegation arrives in Belgrade on Friday. "There are no guarantees that the contract will be signed," Cvetkovic said Wednesday. Russia's energy monopoly Gazprom has been negotiating to buy Serbia's state oil company, NIS, but Serbian...

Governor Talks Energy with Obama, Biden and Nation's Governors FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 08-191 Governor Talks Energy with Obama, Biden, Governors December 2, 2008, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Governor Sarah Palin today participated in a joint meeting with President-elect Obama, Vice President-elect Biden and many of the nation’s governors on key issues including Alaska energy projects. The Governor also met separately with Vice President–elect Biden and senior staffers to President-elect Obama. In a two hour meeting, Governor Palin stressed the need for a pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope to carry natural gas to North America markets. She emphasized that the project...

Of the things that could get in the way of an Alaska gas pipeline happening this time around some can be managed or will be taken care of by the markets, the federal coordinator for a gas pipeline project said recently. But one thing that could kill the project is under the state's control -- needed infrastructure upgrades, said Drue Pearce, who heads the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects. The former Alaska lawmaker told the Resource Development Council conference in Anchorage that she has "become a student of the previous failures on the pipeline,"...

The image of a very popular governor and possible 2012 rival hangs over the President-elect as he establishes a professional relationship with her. BHO is in a Catch-22. On one hand, he has an obligation to work with her on the natural gas pipeline project. On the other, if he helps make it a success, does he hand a potential rival an accomplishment?

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed on Monday a decree ordering the construction of a new oil pipeline to the Baltic Sea, designed to further cut exports of Russian crude via Ukraine, Belarus and Poland. The government said on its website Putin ordered a one million barrels-per-day pipeline be built to the Baltic port of Ust Luga, near Russia's largest oil port of Primorsk, with the first stage to ship 600,000 bpd from the third quarter of 2012. It also said the project would be financed mainly through the issuance of long-term rouble bonds by pipeline monopoly Transneft to be...

China to Build $2.5B O&G Pipeline through Myanmar United Press International Friday, November 21, 2008 China plans to proceed with a $2.5 billion oil and gas pipeline through Myanmar to connect its Yunnan province, with construction set to start next year. Mi Gongsheng, director of the province's reform and development commission, told the official Xinhua news agency the pipeline is one of a series of large energy projects in which the province plans to invest about $10.5 billion. China is a major trading partner of Myanmar, formerly called Burma, which has been under military rule since the 1960s. The junta...

Expanding Afghan War Awaits New President An expanded U.S. military involvement awaits a new U.S. president in Afghanistan where the unfinished business of September 11 has flared over the past three years into a major insurgency. A raft of assessments and reviews now underway in Washington point to a fundamental rethinking of the Afghan war. But whoever is elected Tuesday will face choices on the size of the military buildup, how to strengthen the central government, how far to go in dealing with insurgent sanctuaries across the border, how to help stabilize Pakistan, and whether and how to reconcile...

Another explosion hit an EnCana Corp. sour-gas pipeline in B.C. Friday afternoon, this time near the small community of Tomslake, south of Dawson Creek near the Alberta border, the RCMP said. "The site of an explosion was discovered at a natural gas wellhead at approximately 12:30 p.m. today," Sgt. Tim Shields said in a news release Friday. "The site is about 12 kilometres northwest of the community of Tomslake … The explosion appears to have been deliberately detonated and is located in a rural isolated area," he said. The explosion caused a small gas leak that was quickly contained by...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin's signature accomplishment — a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 — emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Gov. Sarah Palin's signature accomplishment — a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 — emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration, an Associated Press investigation shows. Beginning at the Republican National Convention in August, the McCain-Palin ticket has touted the pipeline as an example of how it would help America achieve energy independence. "We're building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline, which is North America's largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever, to flow those sources of energy...

Wiebo Ludwig,(Alberta farmer) convicted of bombings in 1990s, says he understands frustration that leads to sabotage. RCMP called in members of a local search and rescue team on Saturday to help sift through a 300-metre debris field surrounding the second of two pipeline bombings. "It's likely we'll still be there tomorrow," RCMP spokesman Tim Shields said. Anything out of the ordinary hidden in the long grass and fallen leaves could lead them to the bomber. RCMP also released a partial description of a pickup truck seen leaving the scene the morning of the latest explosion. That blast happened before dawn...

There could be more pipeline bombings after the second attack in a week was discovered Thursday on a sour gas pipeline near Dawson Creek, a security expert says. "This sort of thing has happened before and will happen again. It's almost like the price of doing business," said John Thompson, president of the Toronto-based Mackenzie Institute think tank. "The attacks aren't that dangerous, yet. Pipelines break down for other reasons as well. The oil and gas industry is [accustomed] to 'ecotage' and sabotage of various kinds." Both blasts involved EnCana Corp. pipelines. It isn't known precisely when they occurred, but...

Former CSIS strategist David Harris says a weekend explosion near the town of Dawson Creek in northeastern B.C. fits the description of terrorism, despite police statements to the contrary. Sometime overnight Saturday, someone detonated a large explosion next to the sour gas pipeline about 50 kilometres from the B.C.-Alberta border. The blast did not rupture the pipeline but blew a 1.8-metre crater in the ground, which was discovered by a hunter on Sunday. "How on earth anyone could declare this was not terrorism at this early stage is beyond me. Terrorism is associated with an attempt by threat or actual...

Russian Gazprom's top managers have visited Alaska to look into projects in the US state, Gazprom said Tuesday. The Russian gas giant could share its expertise in Alaska as climatic conditions at its traditional gas production regions in northern Russia are similar to those in Alaska, it said in a statement. A Gazprom delegation consisting of CEO Alexei Miller, his deputies Valery Golubev and Alexander Medvedev and others, met with representatives of Alaska's natural resources department, management of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, which represents local business interests, and ConocoPhillips CEO Jim Mulva. "Gazprom is ready to provide its abilities and...

ATLANTA -- The pipeline that brings gas to Atlanta from the Gulf Coast is back to 100 percent capacity, Energy Department officials said Tuesday. In addition, 13 of the 15 refineries knocked off line by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav are up and running again. The bad news for metro Atlanta drivers is that even with the Colonial Pipeline running at full steam it will be one to two weeks before supplies across metro Atlanta return to normal. Motorists are rising before dawn so they can be at filling stations when the delivery truck arrives. Some are skipping work or telecommuting....

Borrowing from the nickname for a federal earmark that would have built a multi-million dollar bridge for an Alaska town of 50 people, Newsweek's Mark Hosenball offers readers of the September 29 print magazine a look at "[Gov. Sarah] Palin's Pipeline to Nowhere." Hosenball suggests that Palin's $500-million "principal achievement" as governor "might never be built after all." But while the headline evokes images of the "Bridge to Nowhere," this isn't a case of government waste as much as it is of the endless red tape of lawsuits.: Approximately half of the proposed pipeline would run through Canada; native tribes...

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder a week after a U.S. diplomat criticized a planned Gazprom gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea. Putin received Schroder, who chairs the Nord Stream pipeline project, and Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller at the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Thursday, state-run broadcaster Vesti-24 reported. Nord Stream, which Gazprom plans to build with Wintershall, E.On Ruhrgas and Nederlandse Gasunie, will supply consumers in Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark, Putin said. Other partners in the project may still be considered, he added. Last week, U.S. Ambassador to Sweden...