Without solid commitments from potential customers and the emergence of North American shale gas as a price-competitive energy source, the proposed $35-billion Denali pipeline in Alaska, owned by subsidiaries of BP and ConocoPhillips, has called it quits. Backers abandoned Denali, but TransCanada line's backers say they'll push forward. “As far as Denali is concerned, we are finished,” says Scott Jepsen, vice president of business services for Denali – The Alaska Gas Pipeline LLC. “The focus of Denali has always been to move natural gas from the North Slope. Our work here is over."Denali will also withdraw its Federal Energy Regulatory

After 50-plus years in the making, the Alaska state Legislature recently gave the Alaska Energy Authority approval to build and own a new dam on the Sustina River in the Watana area. The 600-MW hydroelectric dam will be the first of its kind built in the United States in more than two decades. Photo By Google Courtesy Of Alaska Energy Authority The Sustina River dam site was first proposed in the 1950s, but the project was stalled by cost estimates. Gov. Parnell supports its revival as a component of renewable-energy goals. Preliminary work on the $4.5-billion Sustina Hydroelectric Power Project,

With work finished in April on a major support facility, the $12.2-billion waste vitrification complex at the U.S. Energy Dept.’s Hanford nuclear waste site in Washington state is nearly 60% complete and on track to meet its mandated 2019 operating deadline, officials say. Photo: Courtesy Of Bechtel Group Equipment is lifted into a vitrification plant at a DOE nuclear waste site. The Hanford Waste Treatment Plant is intended to turn the site’s 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive and chemical wastes left from past decades of nuclear weapon production into vitrified glass logs. The wastes now are stored in aging

A federal appeals court in San Francisco sent the state of Alaska back to “looking at all its options” after a May 4 ruling halted a proposed 51-mile, $500-million highway from Juneau to a new ferry landing in Katzehin. The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court upholds a 2009 lower-court opinion that the project's final environmental impact statement (EIS) was not valid because it did not include an alternative that would improve transportation with existing assets, namely upgraded ferry service. The planned project—a major increase from the original 2006 estimate of $100 million—would have built the East Lynn Canal

A federal appeals court in San Francisco sent the state of Alaska back to “looking at all its options” after a May 4 ruling halted a proposed 51-mile, $500-million highway from Juneau to a new ferry landing in Katzehin. Map By Walter Konefal For ENR The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court upholds a 2009 lower-court opinion that the project’s final environmental impact statement (EIS) was not valid because it did not include an alternative that would improve transportation with existing assets, namely upgraded ferry service. The planned project—a major increase from the original 2006 estimate of $100 million—would

A federal appeals court in San Francisco sent the state of Alaska back to looking at all its options after its May 4 ruling shut down a proposed 51-mile, $500-million highway from Juneau to a new ferry landing in Katzehin. Photo courtesy Scott Logan/Alaska Transportation Priorities Project Proposed road would be along a route that is prone to avalanches. The decision by the U.S. Ninth Circuit court upholds a 2009 lower court opinion that the project’s final environmental impact statement was not valid because it did not include an alternative that would improve transportation with existing assets, namely upgraded ferry

In an effort to secure federal funding, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) jointly backed a 10-lane deck truss bridge as their choice for the proposed Interstate 5 Columbia River Crossing connecting Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash. Gregoire said during a press conference that by making the announcement now the two states “ensure the best chance” of gaining $1.3 billion in federal funding—$400 million in federal highway discretionary funding and $850 million in Federal Transit Administration New Starts funding—and can stay on track to break ground on the $3.6 billion project in 2013. A design

Citing the recent Japanese earthquake, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn (D) called for elected officials to reevaluate their decision to leave the seismically vulnerable Alaskan Way Viaduct (State Route 99) intact until 2016 as part of the deep-bore tunnel program schedule. + Image Map: WashDOT Photo: WashDOT State will spend $20 million to stabilize downtown Related Links: WashDOT interactive simulation of constructon schedule Ron Paananen, Wash. Dept. of Transportation viaduct program administer, couldn’t disagree more. Echoing sentiments of the majority of the Seattle City Council and Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire (D), Paananen says, “To simply close the viaduct without a reasonable

Calgary, Alberta-based TransAlta will shut down its 1,340-MW coal plant in Centralia, Wash., and build a $1-billion combined-cycle natural-gas replacement plant as the result of an agreement with the state that is pending in the Legislature. Photo: Courtesy of Transalta The last remaining coal-burning powerplant in Washington state is scheduled to be replaced by a natural-gas plant by 2025. The agreement, in the works for almost two years, will result in one of the two Centralia units being shut down by Dec. 31, 2020, and the second unit to follow by Dec. 31, 2025. TransAlta will install additional selective non-catalytic-reduction

The March 11 tsunami battered U.S. coasts and ports from Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest to southern California. Related Links: Nuclear Nightmare Pacific Northwest Faces Tsunami Risk The waves were much less powerful after crossing the Pacific. The epicenter of the 8.9 magnitude quake was the northeast coast of Japan. The governor’s office in Hawaii expects damage to run to about $10 million. Estimates are heading toward $50 million in California and one county in Oregon one of three damaged ports is reporting $25 million worth of destruction there alone. Witnesses describe a day of violent wave action inside normally