JUNEAU — A last-minute appropriation in the capital budget giving Gov.
Sarah Palin $9 million to develop an in-state gas line caused an uproar
about what some lawmakers call a major shift in state policy only three
nights before the session ends.
Two House Finance Committee co-chairmen dropped the surprise
appropriation during a committee meeting Thursday night. The funds, if
approved by the Legislature, would go straight to Palin’s office for what
she pegged her top priority for this legislative session. Some lawmakers,
though, said they worry the money is really a state investment in a
bullet line as proposed by Southcentral utility Enstar. The money seemed
to come out of nowhere, catching nearly all the Finance members and some
legislative leaders by surprise. Their astonishment in turn was
unexpected by the two Finance co-chairmen.
Language included in the House committee’s version of the budget spells
out exactly what kind of pipeline Palin can pursue with the money. The
pipeline must be a bullet line from the North Slope to Fairbanks, through
the Railbelt and to tidewater on the Kenai Peninsula. The state also
would turn any work, such as rights-of-way, over to a private company to
build a line.“The governor requested it; we’re sending it to her,” said
House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski.Only House Finance co-chairmen
Reps. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, and Bill Stoltze, R-Eagle River, seemed
to have had full knowledge of the request, but Hawker appeared outraged
when he learned the administration hadn’t clued in the rest of the
Finance Committee.
“Frankly, it seems she’s more concerned about her national political
ambitions than what’s going on throughout the state,” he said, adding
that it’s news to him that Palin really didn’t contact other Finance
members. “That’s an insult, both to me and the people of Alaska.”Rep. Les
Gara, D-Anchorage, asked where the $9 million came from, and said he
doesn’t recall hearing any discussion about the request. He said the
language sounded an awful lot like an endorsement of Enstar’s proposed
project.
“This is a huge policy call,” he said, charging that “it’s not open; it’s
not transparent. ... It seems like it’s worthy of more discussion than 9
o’clock in the evening three nights before the Legislature
(adjourns).”“This has been in the administration’s bailiwick,” Hawker
said. “If they have not been out and spoken with legislators, I’d be very
much surprised.”Most of the Finance Committee members said they were
hearing about the$9 million request for the first time and that they had
not been approached by anyone in Palin’s administration concerning
in-state gas development plans.
Rep. Harry Crawford, D-Anchorage, said the surprise request seems like a
major shift in priorities for Palin, from emphasis on a large-diameter
gas pipeline under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act to an in-state
bullet line.To date, only Enstar, a Southcentral utility, has proposed
building a bullet line between the North Slope and Railbelt
customers.Stoltze said Chenault provided the intent language specifying
the pipeline route.
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