Legislature(2005 - 2006)CAPITOL 124
02/28/2005 01:00 PM House RESOURCES
Audio | Topic |
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Start | |
HB19 | |
HB26 | |
Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+= | HB 19 | TELECONFERENCED | |
+= | HB 26 | TELECONFERENCED | |
+ | SJR 5 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SJR 5-REAUTHORIZE METHANE HYDRATE RESEARCH ACT CO-CHAIR SAMUELS announced that the first order of business would be SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 5, Urging the United States Congress to reauthorize the Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act. JOE BALASH, Staff, to Senator Gene Therriault, Joint Committee on Legislative Budget and Audit, said SJR 5 urges Congress to reauthorize the Methane Hydrate Research Act of 2000. He said it asks Congress to reauthorize it for five years and to appropriate $70 million. Mr. Balash said that the potential additional reserves in gas hydrates in the North Slope could change the way the state proceeds with the gas pipeline project. The sizing of the pipe, access points, financing costs, and tariffs may all be impacted if additional reserves are verified, he opined. REPRESENTATIVE GATTO asked what the cost was of the original authorization. MR. BALASH said it was about $47 million. REPRESENTATIVE GATTO noted that the background materials said it was time to get out in the field, and he questioned how so much money could be spent "moving paper." MR. BALASH answered that "a tremendous amount of the money was spent here in Alaska, but not solely in Alaska." He added that there was computer-modeling work, seismic work, and "as far as how the money was spent, I don't know." REPRESENTATIVE GATTO asked if there is any evidence of this being successfully done anywhere else in the world. MR. BALASH said, "There is a field in Siberia that, it appears, gas hydrates may be releasing into free gas form and maintaining pressure that otherwise would have declined, but it's very limited information." REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD said he believed, "we were actually getting some gas hydrates [that] were regenerating into free gas on the North Slope." MR. BALASH said the presence of hydrates is from [cold] temperature or [high] pressure, and he is not aware of any of the hydrate releasing into free gas in any of the fields. "Maybe it has been," he said, but he has not read of it in his literature reviews. CO-CHAIR SAMUELS said, "You can either reduce the pressure...or you have to change the heat...using glycol or even replacing it with CO2." He added that the hydrates are only found under deep water or very cold temperatures. In Alaska, hydrates are found north of the Brooks Range, he added. DALE BONDURANT, Soldotna, stated his opposition to any effort to develop coal or methane gas in the Homer area. He said it will destroy that area, pollute Cook Inlet, and adversely affect fisheries. He added that he attended several meetings in opposition to the development of shallow gas wells and shallow coal seams of Kachemak Bay. As of now the City of Homer has a supply of good water, but in low areas the water is not for human consumption, he said. He discussed the negative impact oil development had on farms in the Texas area where corn stalks were small and stopped producing. The pumping of coal and methylene gas will pollute the bay and destroy the fisheries, he said, and the noise itself will drive visitors and residents away, making Homer a ghost town. Schools will have to move, he concluded. CO-CHAIR SAMUELS thanked Mr. Bondurant and said that gas hydrates will be found only on the North Slope. CO-CHAIR RAMRAS moved to report HCS SJR 5(O&G) out of committee with individual recommendations and zero fiscal notes. There being no objection, it was so ordered.
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