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State
Three Alaska facilities have received a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognition award for their earth-friendly efforts.
Elmendorf and Eielson air force bases and Denali National Park received recognition through the EPA's Region 10 Champion for Environmental and Green Government Innovation award, said Michele Wright, regional federal facilities coordinator.
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The EPA also credited Elmendorf for its hazardous-waste recycling program.
Eielson was recognized for a program that turns paper and other waste into pellets that can be burned in the base's coal-based power plants, Wright said.
Denali was recognized for converting a diesel-powered generator into a hybrid power generator that's less noisy and uses much less diesel.
City of Palmer balks at request for hospital land
Plans to build a new $75 million hospital in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough have hit a snag with the city of Palmer.
At issue is a city land use restriction on five acres in downtown Palmer where Valley Hospital currently is. The city originally owned the land but gave it to the hospital in 1983 with a restriction that it be used only for a "public purpose ... such as a hospital, or other related medical purpose."
Valley Hospital officials have asked the city to remove that restriction, arguing it's a necessary part of the deal being worked out with Texas-based Triad Hospitals Inc. to build a new hospital.
But Palmer City Council members say lifting the restriction amounts to giving away public land for free to a private corporation.
Members of Valley Hospital, a nonprofit association, voted last year to approve a joint venture with Triad to build the new hospital. Under the deal, Triad would build a new 75-bed hospital to replace the existing hospital in Palmer, which has about 39 beds.
CIRI settles infighting lawsuit with critics
Cook Inlet Region Inc. has settled a bitter legal fight with two of its loudest critics.
Attorneys for Anchorage-based CIRI and independent directors Robert Rude and Harold Rudolph inked a settlement last week that dissolves all allegations on both sides.
Rudolph and Rude split a $50,000 payment from CIRI, which Rudolph said will go toward their hefty legal fees. The 15-member CIRI board approved the deal Thursday, directors said.
CIRI's lawsuit and the countersuit by Rude and Rudolph fill 14 volumes of court records. The two sides accused each other of a range of malfeasance, mostly with making false and misleading statements in proxy materials, which are given to shareholders and describe issues to be voted on at company annual meetings.
State auctions retiring ferry on eBay
Here's the latest hot eBay deal: a 15-hundred ton Alaska state ferry.
The state Department of Transportation is retiring the 34-year-old ferry Bartlett in September and using the online auction site to unload it.
The auction began late last week with a beginning bid price of $100,000. By Tuesday morning, there were three bids on the item, pushing the price up to $100,300.
The 193-foot-long Bartlett was built for the Alaska Marine Highway System in 1968 by Jeffboat Inc. of Jeffersonville, Ind., for $3.25 million. The vessel holds 236 passengers and 29 cars.
"If we don't sell it, we'll have to pay to park it somewhere," George Capacci, general manager for the Alaska Marine Highway System, told the Juneau Empire.
Capacci said the Bartlett is being taken out of the marine highway fleet because the ferry soon will be out of compliance with federal safety requirements.
Nation
ChevronTexaco Corp. said it has entered talks with joint venture partners that would let it deliver two million tons per year of liquefied natural gas from Australia's massive Gorgon gas field to the United States and Mexico for 20 years starting in 2008, Reuters news service reported Aug. 5.
Liquefied natural gas, or LNG, is natural gas super-cooled into a liquid, at which point it can be shipped and traded like crude oil.
The Gorgon field, located off the Western Australia coast, has proven hydrocarbon reserves of 12.9 trillion cubic feet.
Partners are Royal Dutch/Shell Group, which holds 28.6 percent interest, and Exxon Mobil Corp., with a 14.3 percent stake.
As the operating partner, ChevronTexaco said it also is seeking approvals for a terminal off the coast of Mexico's Baja California that would unload and reconvert LNG to a gaseous state for transport via pipelines.
World
VANCOUVER, B.C. - Aboriginal fishermen in British Columbia have vowed to continue catching salmon despite the cancellation of a federal pilot salmon fishery.
The B.C. Aboriginal Fisheries Commission made the announcement Friday after meeting with representatives of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Ottawa shut down an aboriginal-only pilot fishery Tuesday after a B.C. provincial court ruled it was unconstitutional and racially discriminated against non-native fishermen.
Arnie Narcisse, chair of the Aboriginal Fisheries Commission, says aboriginals will return to their "old ways" until a new deal is struck, including the sale of legally caught food fish in back alleys.
-- Compiled from wire services
