I am proud of my role in shaping Alaskan oil and gas development since the 1970s and in helping to produce “Pipeline Pioneers,” a new film series available at arcticopportunity.org about the people who helped build one of the country’s greatest and most critical engineering landmarks — the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). The series depicts TAPS through my eyes and those of four other Alaska pioneers — Dave Norton, Scott Harter, Kathleen Dalton and state representative Benjamin Nageak.

Since its construction in the 1970s, the 48-inch-diameter pipeline has transported oil from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope, 800 miles south to the port of Valdez. There, it’s loaded into tankers and shipped to refineries throughout the West Coast, a major energy-consuming region.