Palin administration officials go before legislators today, Jan. 30, to defend their course of action on getting a natural gas pipeline built. State Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin and Revenue Commissioner Pat Galvin appear before the Senate Resources Committee at 3:30 p.m. to brief the committee on progress. At 5 p.m. Irwin and Galvin go before members of the state House in the first of a series of open caucuses House Speaker John Harris has organized to hear different points of view on the pipeline.
On Jan. 4 Irwin and Galvin declared that one application for a pipeline license the state received, from TransCanada Corp., meets the terms of the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act and a solicitation for proposals the state issued.
A proposal by the Alaska Gasline Port Authority, which is pushing for a liquefied natural gas project, was rejected along with three other applications. The port authority has appealed the state rejection and a decision by Irwin and Galvin on the appeal is due soon.
North Slope producer ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. has submitted an independent proposal to the state outside the terms of AGIA.
Although TransCanadas application is out for a 60-day public review and is not yet formally before the Legislation for approval, questions are emerging about the administrations action to qualify the companys proposal.
A legal opinion prepared for the Legislature by a Washington, D.C., law firm said TransCanadas application does not meet the terms of AGIA because the proposal is conditioned on new legislation by Congress to grant federal subsidies for the gas pipeline.
