The other shoe ... has just been dropped!(From the Publisher)

• Author: McCorkle, Vern C.

Ever since enactment of the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Act (ANGTA) of 1976 in which President Jimmy Carter handed over development of Alaska's North Slope natural gas to Canada (as a symbol of the ability of the two governments to work together), a cloud has hung over who could build the pipeline transporting the gas to Alberta and on to the Lower 48.

TransCanada (the international pipeline behemoth) and subsidiary Foothills Pipe Lines claim under President Carter's ANGTA (not to be confused with ANGDA, the Alaska voter referendum mandated Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority) that it has historical and exclusive claims to right-of-way, regulatory approvals and other treaty guarantees. And that's not all. Trans-Canada wants to do the MacKenzie line first to train its workers for the Alaska leg jobs. For years TransCanada thought it had a lock on being the lead, and has just kept quiet about it until it became necessary to bring it into the open.

Now that's changed. Someone at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission must have read the act! FERC said in the past few days that the 1976 act might possibly be bypassed and further: "We are relatively clear that that the ANGTA would not bar this commission from considering (other applicants). That means Alaska interests can be...