Winner

Alberta’s upstart Wildrose Alliance party thinks it has a winner in the April 23 provincial elections, promising that each of the 3.8 million men, women and children who live in Alberta will receive direct annual payments by 2015 of $300-400, or a total of $1.10-1.5 billion of the expected $10 billion in oilsands royalty revenue.

The Province of British Columbia thinks it has a winner and is launching a new installment of its offer for royalty forgiveness in exchange for construction of roads and pipeline infrastructure. The province is putting up to C$120 million in royalty credits on the table to spark the next round of infrastructure development in BC’s petroleum and natural gas sector.

The Province of British Columbia thinks it has a winner and is launching a new installment of its offer for royalty forgiveness in exchange for construction of roads and pipeline infrastructure. The province is putting up to C$120 million in royalty credits on the table to spark the next round of infrastructure development in BC’s petroleum and natural gas sector.

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell on Thursday certified Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) the winner of the Nov. 2 election, clearing the way for her to be seated with the 112th Congress, which convenes Wednesday. But Republican Joe Miller hasn’t exactly given up the fight. He said he planned to hold a news conference on New Year’s day to discuss his next legal steps. Miller, an attorney who was backed by former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, is challenging the votes that were counted in Murkowski’s favor despite the misspelling of her name. Write-in candidate Murkowski declared victory in late November with a more than 10,000-vote lead over Miller, of which more than 8,000 ballots were challenged by the Miller camp (see NGI, Nov. 22, 2010).

The energy industry’s race to keep up with the global demand for natural gas is “as tight a race as the U.S. presidential campaign,” but it’s not a “zero-sum game with only one winner. This is a race all of us must win,” a Royal Dutch Shell plc executive said last week.

A combination of nuclear and natural gas-fired power came up the winner of a recent cost/benefit analysis of four scenarios to provide power to the province of Ontario. The nuclear/gas option won out over the status quo coal-fired; all natural gas-fired; or coal-fired with stringent emissions reductions. The analysis included the costs of premature deaths and environmental damage as well as the usual costs associated with plant operations.

Industry emerged as a winner from two landmark decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada on a legal gray area, aboriginal relations, which has clouded the future of the Mackenzie Gas Project.

Industry emerged as a winner from two landmark decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada on a legal gray area, aboriginal relations, which has clouded the future of the Mackenzie Gas Project.

Industry emerged as a winner from two landmark decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada on a legal gray area, aboriginal relations, which has clouded the future of the Mackenzie Gas Project.