TPT July 2008

From the AmericaS

the eco-friendly choice for moving freight. He noted that trucking firms also use the rail lines. The US-based United Parcel Service Inc (UPS), the world’s largest package delivery company, is the railroad industry’s biggest customer. • As for the payload and direction of the new, busier traffic on US railroad tracks, the Post noted that China’s unquenchable appetite for coal, together with the escalating American demand for Chinese goods, means more freight is passing through ports in the Northwest on its way to and from the Far East. “Coal still accounts for the most tonnage hauled by U.S. railroads,” Mr. Ahrens wrote. “But it is the ocean-crossing shipping container that has lit a rocket under the railroad industry.” To spare a thought for the mere humans contributing to the railroad renaissance, passenger traffic by rail is also increasing. Amtrak, the federally owned and operated nationwide intercity rail service, marked its fifth consecutive year of increased passengers in 2007. Foot traffic was up 6 per cent from 2006. Oil and gas A gas pipeline from the North Slope to ‘the Lower 48’ moves closer to realization “With uncertainty surrounding our ability to meet future natural gas demand, and the potential for more exploration in Alaska as a result of constructing the pipeline, this project is vital,” said US Senator

Pete Domenici, of New Mexico, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Mr Domenici, speaking in early April, was referring to the decades- old plan for a pipeline to transport natural gas from Alaska’s energy- rich North Slope to markets in the contiguous states of the nation. Suddenly there is keen interest in the undertaking, with a pair of feasible proposals having been put forward. As reported in the Chicago Tribune for 9 April, two of the world’s largest oil companies had just disclosed plans to jointly develop a pipeline. Britain’s BP PLC and ConocoPhillips, based in Houston, Texas, said that over the next three years they are prepared to spend $600 million in the first phase of the $30 billion project. The New York Times reported that the pipeline may eventually be extended to Chicago. ‘Denali – the Alaska Gas Pipeline’ is projected to deliver natural gas 2,000 miles from Alaska to Alberta, Canada, thence into an existing pipeline system. Or, BP and ConocoPhillips said, if necessary they might build an additional 1,500-mile extension to US markets. The companies said the pipeline would eventually move about 4 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, accounting for about 6 per cent to 8 per cent of daily US consumption. Alaska is also reviewing a proposal by TransCanada Corp (Calgary, Alberta), which submitted an application in November 2007 for a state-backed license to build a pipeline. Only one is likely to prevail in the competition to move ahead on a project that has been held for two years in a legislative stalemate, after years of talk but little action.

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