Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Juneau, Alaska (Nov 11/02) - A Republican-controlled American government may actually be a good thing for pipeline efforts in the Northwest Territories.

The Republican Party swept to majorities in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives in mid-term elections held Nov. 5. Republicans have strongly supported energy extraction in Alaska and have been bullish on opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to natural gas development.

RWED Minister Jim Antoine called the results of the election "scary," as the Republicans campaigned on a war platform. But the NWT's bid for a pipeline should be "OK" as it is a stand-alone initiative based on market viability studies, he said.

One of the biggest obstacles to a territorial pipeline would be a "floor subsidy" which would guarantee a price for natural gas -- giving Alaskan producers a huge leg up. But, said Antoine, its doubtful that would survive Republican control.

"They (Republicans) want the market to determine the construction. The Bush administration does not support subsidizing any pipeline. We know that for sure."

In addition, a number of politicians from natural gas states like Oklahoma and Texas are unlikely to support subsidies for Northern producers that companies in their states could not access.

Countering that impulse, however, is an American instinct of self-protection. Bush wants to guarantee an American supply of oil, an initiative which is becoming increasingly important as the threat of war with Iraq continues to loom.

But, said Brian Kennedy, a Washington-based consultant for the GNWT, with Republicans holding on to a small majority in both chambers, the Democrats will be much less likely to budge on important issues, like opening up ANWR.

But ANWR will surely be on the table, he said, as both Bush and Frank Murkowski, the newly-elected Republican governor of Alaska, are staunch supporters of opening up the caribou breeding grounds to oil and natural gas development.

Murkowski is currently a U.S. senator from Alaska.

Kennedy said an energy bill currently under consideration by the U.S. government will likely be scrapped and replaced with a new Republican bill in the new year, when the newly-elected officials come to power.

The current energy bill doesn't have ANWR. The new one likely will.

In Alaska, a number of election developments may also affect the pipeline. Murkowski was elected Alaska's first Republican governor in 20 years, adding to that state's support of non-renewable resource development.

Alaska voters also supported a proposition to create a state-owned corporation which would purchase and transport natural gas from the Alaskan North Slope to Prince William Sound for export.