Midnight Oil

Latest Episodes:

Coming Soon: The Big Thaw Jul 26, 2018

Show notes

On August 9, Alaska's Energy Desk launches our second season of Midnight Oil. It's called The Big Thaw. And it's about one of the biggest challenges facing the state right now and in the years ahead: climate change.

Ep. 8: The future of an oil state - What's next for Alaska? Aug 07, 2017

Show notes

Today, the trans-Alaska pipeline carries a quarter of what it did in its heyday. And so Alaska is facing the question its been ducking for forty years: Will we always be an oil state?

Ep. 7: Foretold Disaster - the Exxon Valdez oil spill Jul 31, 2017

Show notes

The Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 killed hundreds of thousands of seabirds and brought commercial fishing in some of Alaska’s most productive waters to a standstill. It’s often talked about as an unprecedented, unthinkable event, but it was, in fact thinkable, and people tried to prevent it.

Ep. 6: When the lights went out - Alaska’s great recession Jul 24, 2017

Show notes

Less than ten years after oil started flowing, Alaska’s economy cratered. The recession was quick and deep. Ten banks failed, real estate values plummeted and tens of thousands of people fled the state. It was Alaska’s great recession, 20 years before the rest of the country went through almost the same thing.

Ep. 5: How Alaska decided to give its oil wealth to everyone in the state Jul 17, 2017

Show notes

In Alaska, we don’t pay income tax. We don’t pay state sales tax. But once a year every man, woman and child gets a cut of the state’s oil wealth. There are plenty of other oil states in the world, but Alaska is the only one that treats residents like shareholders and sends them dividend checks every year.

Ep. 4: Fast times and fat wallets - how Alaska got its pipeline Jul 10, 2017

Show notes

The trans-Alaska pipeline was the largest privately-funded construction project in the world, built across the biggest U.S. state and faced with unprecedented natural obstacles. It came with an $8 billion price tag, but true costs and benefits of the pipeline are still being calculated.

Ep. 3: How environmentalists won by losing the pipeline battle Jul 03, 2017

Show notes

Environmental groups fought hard to stop the trans-Alaska pipeline. Ultimately they lost. But along the way they turned an obscure bit of federal code into required environmental scrutiny for every major construction project.

Ep. 2: Take Our Land, Take Our Life Jun 26, 2017

Show notes

When Alaska became a state, the federal government agreed to hand over more than 100 million acres. There was just one problem. Alaska Native people already claimed that land. Then Alaska struck oil, and the question of who owned what land in the 49th state went all the way to the White House.

Ep. 1: Alaska, the oil state that almost wasn't Jun 19, 2017

Show notes

Oil started flowing down the trans-Alaska pipeline forty years ago, transforming Alaska into a wealthy oil state. But if it weren’t for a few determined individuals, the giant oil field that started it all might still be hidden under the tundra today.

Coming Soon Jun 08, 2017

Show notes

On June 20, Alaska's Energy Desk launches Midnight Oil, a new podcast about the 800-mile pipeline that shaped Alaska as we know it. Eight episodes in all, releasing every Tuesday through August 8th.

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