60 minutes tonight: awarding the billions of dollars in contracts to rebui

[radfringe]

(CBS) Up Next: Sept. 21, 2003
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/07/08/60minutes/main13502.shtml

COOKING WITH GAS – Alaska not only has huge reserves of natural gas, but enough political clout to get taxpayers to subsidize the enormous costs of delivering it to the lower 48 states. Lesley Stahl reports.

ALL IN THE FAMILY - Steve Kroft reports on the way the federal government is awarding the billions of dollars in contracts to rebuild Iraq.

THE TERRORIST’S LAWYER - The New York lawyer representing a man convicted of plotting to bomb New York landmarks says she’s innocent of terrorist charges leveled against her. Mike Wallace reports

[NNN0LHI]

1. Hope this is not another Bush puff piece 60 Minutes...

... has been so want to do as of late.

Don

[JohnyCanuck]

2. America leaps off the gas cliff without a parachute

I don't mean to hijack your thread, but in addition to the Cheney/Halliburton sweetheart-deal-cooking story, DUers might also want to pay attention the piece on Alaskan Natural Gas. The Natural Gas situation is becoming critical in that demand is rising faster than supply and we're just squeaking by to meet current demand. This could have severe economic and social consequences when supply is unable to meet demand.

COOKING WITH GAS – Alaska not only has huge reserves of natural gas, but enough political clout to get taxpayers to subsidize the enormous costs of delivering it to the lower 48 states. Lesley Stahl reports.

My understanding is that the proven reserves of Natural Gas in Alaska don't even amount to two years US consumption, but because demand for natural gas is about to outstrip supply the gas is needed now. Even in a best case scenenario and billions in gov't financing, it would take probably 10 years to get a pipeline infrastructure in place to bring the gas south.

And what of the Arctic gas of Alaska and the Mackenzie Delta? It was discovered in the 1970s, and is regarded as having about 35 and 9 Tcf (trillion cubic feet) respectively. If this were all agreeably located in Texas (say near a certain ranch in Crawford?), then it would be quite a useful deposit, albeit not even two years of US consumption. On the other hand it would probably all be gone by now. The only realistic way of getting the untapped Arctic gas is via very expensive pipelines. The pipeline to the Mackenzie Delta in Canada’s Northwest Territories has finally been set in process, but there are many regulatory procedures which may slow its completion somewhere between 2008 and 2010. (21) When or if it is finished, it is scheduled to provide somewhere between 800 million cubic feet and 1.2 Bcf per day to Alberta. Given that the tar sands are projected to require an extra 1.5 Bcf, that seems to offer little relief to American consumers. (22)

Some believe that efforts to get a gas pipeline to Alaska appear to be complicated by the Mackenzie agreement, (23) but not all of the potential pipeline builders agree. What is not in dispute is the fact that the pipeline is not here now, will likely cost at least $15bn, and probably much more if recent Athabasca tar-sands project over-runs are anything to go by, and will not be ready much before 2012, even if everything goes to plan and the US government offers huge subsidies. (24)

When Markets Fail-America leaps off the gas cliff without a parachute