Trump's Alaska gas line bloviation

The Anchorage Daily News had the best coverage about President Donald Trump’s Alaska gas pipeline emissions. Read it here.

Elsewhere the news was not so good.

“President Donald Trump today announced a joint venture with Japan for the Alaska LNG project,” Alaska Public Media reported.

There are no signed documents about a joint venture. There is no joint venture.

This absence of a joint venture was completely missing from the Alaska news coverage.

To be fair, Alaska Public Media and other organizations —including Alaska’s News Source and Your Alaska Link—were only parroting bogus statements from Sen. Dan Sullivan, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Rep. Nick Begich the Third.

The press release from Sullivan includes scare quotes around the words “joint venture,” a tactic used to show that the words within quotes are not to be taken seriously.

Sullivan’s office said “PRESIDENT TRUMP ANNOUNCES ‘JOINT VENTURE’ ON ALASKA LNG PROJECT WITH JAPAN.”

Sullivan’s ghost writers, at least, may be trying to communicate that the “joint venture” is imaginary.

Begich referred to a “potential joint venture” and a partnership with Japan. There is no more a partnership than a potential joint venture.

“The proposed venture, which would include the construction of an LNG 800-mile pipeline and related infrastructure, represents a major step forward in unlocking the immense natural gas reserves of Alaska’s North Slope,” Nicholas the Third declared, claiming that he and other “America First colleagues” are helping lead the way to “energy dominance.”

There’s no major step forward. Just bloviation borrowed from the world of professional wrestling.

I wrote a blog post February 5 predicting that when Trump met the prime minister of Japan two days later he would announce a phony gasline deal. That’s what he did.

Trump is trying to blackmail Japan into supporting a gas pipelines with the threat of tariffs. Japan is responding with pledges to buy more energy from the U.S. and to study the Alaska gas pipeline, one of the most expensive projects in the world.

The Japanese prime minister did everything but kneel and kiss Trump’s feet Friday, calling him a great and powerful man, but he did not announce a joint venture.

What Trump said was this: “We’re talking about the pipeline in Alaska, which is the closest point of major oil and gas to Japan by far. Less than half the distance of any other location. We’re talking about a joint venture of some type, between Japan and us, having to do with Alaska oil and gas. And that’s very exciting. They’re very excited about it. So are we.”

This happened on a day that saw Trump announce a proposed executive order to support plastic straws and oppose paper straws. And his decision to anoint himself to lead the Kennedy Center board of directors, saying he wants a “Golden Age in arts and culture.”

The straw order and his appointment to the Kennedy Center are laughable, but genuine, unlike the joint venture with Japan.

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