Author (Photo:File:Icebreakers Louis S. St-Laurent and Healy in the Arctic Ocean - ) http://JohnBatchelorShow.com/contact http://JohnBatchelorShow.com/schedules http://johnbatchelorshow.com/blog Twitter: @BatchelorShow

"North Star Rising: The Arctic is the world’s new frontier for resources, shipping, and security. We need to stake our claim." Gary Roughead, @HooverInst.

"...The conversation about Arctic resources today is significantly different from what it would have been three years ago, or even three months. The vast amount of estimated energy reserves in the region bring to mind opportu-nities akin to the Alaska gold rush, with US Geological Survey estimates placing as much as 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 percent of the world’s gas deposits there. For the United States, gas drawn from its Arctic region is closer to the sizable Asian market than gas from the gulf coast. Extraction could be challenging because of climactic conditions, but projections of increasing demand and decreasing global supply make it worth pursuing.North America’s flush prospects have changed the energy calculus, though not necessarily right away. Russia, with its struggling hydrocarbon-depen-dent economy, will continue to produce, as will the finely tuned Norwegian enterprises. Costly extraction from the offshore fields of North America will not take place for some time.Other resource markets present a different picture. Although commodity markets are down, Arctic deposits of nickel (Russia), zinc (Alaska), and iron (Greenland) will remain attractive. While resource extraction (especially in energy) may not be at previously predicted rates, the United States must rec-ognize the importance of Alaska to an effective US energy strategy and sup-port policies that help our northernmost state. Moreover, the United States should ensure that its claims to territories with potential energy sources are internationally recognized under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and that US technology remains in the fore wherever resources are being extracted...."

http://www.hoover.org/research/north-star-rising