What Is the Alaskan Pipeline
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), more commonly called the Alaskan Pipeline, is a major connection between Northern Alaskan oil fields and the Valdez sea port, where the oil ships off to the lower 48 states for refining. The North-South running pipeline spans 800 miles from the Arctic Ocean at Prudhoe Bay to the Gulf of Alaska at Valdez, passing through Alaskan towns like Wiseman, Bettles, Livengood, Fox, Fairbanks and Glennallen. Over the years, maintenance has proven to be an exceptional challenge, since the pipeline is situated in a wet area, prone to corrosion, and also lies on a fault-line, as well as on the caribou/moose migration route. "Suddenly people started coming into town," described JB Carnahan, former police officer in Fairbanks Alaska. "It happened kind of rapidly when it took off. Because I don't think anybody really believed this monstrous project was going to impact us. I mean, maybe the politicians did, but I think the average guy was just kind of going, 'Oh sure, we've heard this before,' because this has always been a boom or bust town. And suddenly, there it was." When the Trans-Alaskan pipeline project began, a flood of people came to town with $3,000 - $5,000 cash burning holes in their pockets, beautiful women arrived from New York and Florida, welders and construction workers drove up from Oklahoma and Texas, South American and Irish immigrants came to collect a check and everyone from secretaries and teachers, to prostitutes and pimps came looking for their fortune. Fairbanks hadn't seen such activity since the gold rush of the late 1800s! Within a year, the population had doubled in size to 40,000 strong, and the pipeline project had transformed this sleepy two-cop town into a bustling metropolis. Unfortunately, along with all of the business came higher rents, more drugs and more crime.
Today, there have been many international talks of expanding the Alaskan pipeline. In April 2008, Russian natural gas monopoly OAO Gazprom submitted a bid to build a multibillion-dollar pipeline that would carry Alaskan gas directly to the lower 48 US states. Similarly, the Transcanada Corp announced a $26-billion plan to build an Alaskan natural gas pipeline from Alaska, through Alberta and into Eastern Canada and the US. According to their study released in May, the project would bring $261 billion in revenues for the state and $147 billion for Alaska's major energy producers over 25 years, making it a favorable option for Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin. Alaska's oil giants BP and ConcocoPhillips have already moved on plans to extend the pipeline 700 miles through Alaska, the Yukon Territory, British Columbia and Alberta. One thing is certain: the Alaskan oil and the pipeline is the key to our energy independence and is the American bargaining chip.
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Over 30 years of operation, the Alaskan
pipeline suffered some well-publicized mishaps. In 1977, a
pump station exploded, spilling 300 barrels of oil. In
1989, the Exxon Valdez hit the Bligh Reef near Valdez,
spilling 11 million gallons of crude into the Prince
William Sound harbor. Salmon, birds, whales, sea otters
and bald eagles were all casualties of the worst oil spill
in U.S. history. In 2001, a man shot a hole in the
pipeline, spilling 300,000 gallons of oil. In 2002, a 7.9
magnitude earthquake hurt some of the support structures.
Environmentalists charge that there's a spill a day, but
oil experts say this massive pipeline is one of the
cleanest in the world.
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