ConocoPhillips and BP plan to invest in a pipeline to bring Alaska gas to the lower 48 states that could cost as much $30 billion. The two majors said they will spend $600 million over the next three years to design the pipeline that will stretch 2,000 miles from northern Alaska to Alberta and an additional 1,500 miles to its final termination point near Chicago.

The proposal is not without its challenges. A number of major oil and gas producers and the state of Alaska have talked for years about building a second pipeline to deliver natural gas from Prudhoe Bay since the Alaska oil pipeline was completed in 1977. And although the planned pipeline would be buried and run parallel to the existing oil pipeline, it would require more than 1,000 permits, some of which have already been debated for years without a resolution.

On a more positive note, developers are quick to point out that unlike other proposals, whereby Alaska has agreed to provide $500 million in matching funds, their plan will not require any money from the state.

They have also indicated that gas could be flowing through the proposed pipeline by 2018, just ten years down the road.