Dave Harbour dreams of an Alaska natural gas pipeline to the Lower 48, so much that he spends up to eight hours a day reading, writing and posting information about the idea on his Web site.

In a quiet Anchorage neighborhood, Harbour finds himself in the vortex of what some claim would be the biggest energy project in North American history.

The 59-year-old has appointed himself as the one-man news service for those who can't read enough about the many proposals to tap the massive natural reserves of Alaska's North Slope and Canada's Mackenzie Delta.

If you're an industry gas expert, energy reporter, professor or government regulator, there's a chance you have visited Harbour's Web site, Northern Gas Pipelines, at www.arcticgaspipeline.com.

Even pipeline construction workers, like Guenter Bouman, tune to Harbour's site to see whether a big project is coming their way.

"I'm on his site at least once a week because I'd like see a pipeline happen. I could make a fair amount of money off it," said Bouman of Parksville, British Columbia.

Harbour, who a quarter-century ago was closely involved with failed attempts to build an Alaska gas line to the Lower 48, launched the Web site about a year ago.

By early 2001, the revival of the Alaska and Canada projects caused an explosion of news reports. And Harbour, a historian of sorts on previous gas line proposals, felt the public needed a one-stop shop to catch the latest updates.

Using Microsoft FrontPage, he built the Web site and began posting links to news stories. He has also included reports, PowerPoint presentations, historical perspectives, maps and other information.

Now, what began as a one-hour-a-day project has blossomed into an unpaid job that consumes up to eight hours seven days a week. Besides compiling daily updates, he also covers energy conferences, snapping photos and writing his own articles.

The site gets about 300 to 800 hits a day, though it recently surpassed 1,000 hits for a few days, he said.

Sponsors cover most of the site's technical expenses but not Harbour's time. Considering that as a business consultant, his full-time job, Harbour charges clients up to $125 an hour, he said he isn't earning very much for maintaining the free Web service.

So why does he do it?

Harbour said he enjoys keeping up the site as a public service, as well as linking the present with his past. Those who know him say he is a just a guy with a history and passion for natural gas.

"It strikes me that Dave is online at all hours," said Dave MacDowell, a spokesman for a group of three major gas producers studying an Alaska gas line project. "It is not clear to me when he sleeps."

Harbour got involved in the natural gas business in the early 1970s, when he was public affairs director for the U.S. arm of the Arctic Gas consortium. The group of about two dozen Canadian and U.S. gas and pipeline companies was the first to make a serious push to transport Alaska and Canadian natural gas south, spending about $250 million studying numerous options, Harbour said.

Ideas for carrying the gas ranged from pipelines and railroad cars to submarines and tankers, he said. The group even researched converting gas to electricity and moving it south on high voltage transmission lines, he said.

By 1977, the focus centered on tapping Alaska's gas reserves, which are the biggest proven reserves in North America. The plan was to build a pipeline through the Interior and then along the Alaska Highway to the Lower 48, an idea that is still being explored.

But before the project moved forward, gas prices fell. The companies shelved the project for more than two decades.

Harbour held a number of other jobs during and after the 1970s. He consulted for the Alaska Highway gas project and Northern Natural Gas, which he said Enron later acquired. He was Arco's government affairs director in Anchorage and Washington, D.C., and served as vice president of Alaska Pacific University, executive director of the Anchorage Parking Authority and president of Action Security, a statewide security firm.

About 14 months ago, the Alaska and Canada pipeline projects were revived when prices spiked up to about $10 per million BTU. Companies on both sides of the border have again spent hundreds of millions studying the idea.

"There was so much information out there that it seemed like there needed to be a place to post all of it," Harbour said. "That's why I'm here in this little modest home office doing my thing."

Gas prices have lingered below $2.50 most of this year. While gas line proposals are still under consideration, nobody has committed to building either an Alaska or Canada pipeline.

Meanwhile, Harbour says his Web viewership continues to grow with each new development.

From Quebec to Nome and Houston to Prudhoe Bay, hundreds of people with vested interests in the projects regularly punch up the site.

Ken Thompson, former Arco Alaska Inc. president, said he visits Northern Gas Pipelines nearly every day.

"I thought at some point (Harbour) would ask for subscriptions or get more sponsors and advertising," Thompson said. "I actually think he has a right to earn some dollars off it. I'd pay $25 for an annual subscription."

Harbour wants to keep the service free and hopes to land more sponsors to cover the costs. He is considering charging users for special services, like archived news stories.

"A sign of true success will be the day my consulting business is not the largest financial supporter of Northern Gas Pipelines," he said.

Besides his business, The Harbour Co., the Web site's sponsors are Inuvialuit Environmental & Geotechnical Inc., Network Business Systems, Sheraton Anchorage Hotel, AeroMap U.S., Bethel Native Corp., F. Robert Bell & Associates and GCI.

Reporter Tony Hopfinger can be reached at thopfinger@adn.com or 907 257-4344.

On the Web: Northern Gas Pipelines at www.arcticgaspipeline.com.