According to the Fairbanks Daily News Miner, the project is now a top priority for President Obama, who is considering making the initiative a public works project.

Until the economic recession, there were two companies vying for the right to construct the 2,000-mile natural gas pipelines: TransCanada and Producers BP and ConocoPhillips, together with Denali. But the collapsing world financial market has led many in Alaska to worry that financing would not be able to be secured for the project, estimated at around $40 billion.

The news that President Obama may make the pipeline a public works project has some in Alaska breathing a sigh of relief. Others are less enthusiastic, preferring the private model — even if it takes a bit longer to find the funding.

Either way, construction of the pipeline would create a trove of jobs for Americans. To learn more about this massive employment possibility, check out JobMonkey’s section on the Alaska Highway Pipeline.

On Monday, I posted about four recession-proof careers and working for green industries definitely made the list. According to economic experts, as many as three to five million new green jobs will be created in the U.S. over the next decade.

If you are interested in learning more about going green to make green, check out JobMonkey’s extensive section on Green Collar Jobs. And if you think you might want to pursue your environmentalism on foreign soil, start your search with a look at JobMonkey’s section on Work Abroad Jobs.

This week, however, we’re taking a short break to look at the educational requirements of a career in the gas and oil industry.  The field offers a number of high paying opportunities, and even with the current economic crisis, these jobs are still in high demand.  That’s the good news.

The less good news (well, only if you’re not the perpetual student type) is that most of these positions require an advanced degree — at least a Master’s Degree, and preferably a PhD.  A 2006 survey by the Society for Petroleum Engineers shows that engineers with advanced degrees earn an average of 30 percent more than those with just an undergraduate degree.

Good disciplines to consider include Petroleum and Chemical Engineering, as well as Geology and Earth Sciences.  See Job Monkey’s extensive list of schools with top rated graduate programs in gas and oil industry fields.

Apropos to our ongoing conversation here about online degrees, there are a growing number of distance learning options for the gas and oil industry as well. Like your course of study at a brick and mortar school, online classes will cover the managerial and technical aspects of oil engineering.  Other academic subjects may include geology, geophysics, drilling methodology and seismology.

Find out on JobMonkey.