A recent joint hearing of the House and Senate Resources committee I attended in Juneau laid bare the importance of natural gas to Southcentral Alaska residents and businesses.
The brutality of this winter has been a wake-up call for Southcentral Alaskans about the importance of reliable energy. When temperatures collapsed to the -20s in parts of Anchorage and -40s in parts of the Mat-Su, reliability was the difference between life and death other companies were looking for.
In a nutshell, natural gas saved the day in our moment of need. During the coldest week of winter, Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage Alaska, a gas storage system managed by Enstar, started experiencing issues with a portion of its reservoir network, compromising its ability to supply a full complement of gas to utility customers throughout Southcentral Alaska.
Thanks to fossil fuels, a crisis was averted. Even as we used a record amount of natural gas on Jan. 31 — 268 million cubic feet, versus a typical January demand of 160 million cubic feet — our heat and power systems remained intact. Hilcorp, Alaska’s dominant natural gas producer, increased its production beyond its contracted volumes. Other Cook Inlet producers ran full throttle. This was the difference between heat and light in our homes instead of cold and darkness.