Palin's ambitious pipeline project, fiscal conservative policy

Sarah just keeps getting things done in Alaska the right way. Alaska has enormous energy potential, untapped resources, great opportunities for growth. However, those things come at huge costs usually carried by the taxpayers. A lesser Governor, one without foresight, creativity, courage, ambition and knowledge, would simply shrug their shoulders and say "oh well, this has to get done somehow, let's just pass it on to the taxpayers." Not Sarah. She gets it done AND saves the taxpayers money. She gets it done by making sure government is involved the right way, not just taking ownership of everything and inundating it all with bureaucracy and red tape.

She held a press conference yesterday to discuss the new bills she signed that will marry the long-term energy goals outlined in her big plan, with short-term lower energy costs for taxpayers today. She's proposing to get it all done with a mix of government and private business. Eventually, the state will have a limited role in the industry and she has a plan to make that transition.

"The role of the state would be to help reduce the risk of such a project and to hopefully take some of the roadblocks away from it and to facilitate discussion between gas owners and gas purchasers," Harry Noah said, project manager. "But the intent is to have this be a privately owned and operated pipeline project."

Sounds like good fiscal conservative policy in state where that's a tough challenge.

Associated Press
Alaska official lays out in-state gas plan
By ANNE SUTTON , 03.03.09, 10:42 PM EST

A state official charged with helping develop a small diameter natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to Cook Inlet said Tuesday the so-called bullet line could cost about $4 billion and bring gas to Alaska homes and businesses as early as 2015.

Harry Noah, recently appointed project manager of an in-state gas line by Gov. Sarah Palin, outlined the schedule with Palin at a news conference.

"This schedule is very ambitious. A lot of things can affect it but when you are trying to develop a project, it's always easy to go slower, but if you stretch it out, it's very hard to contract it later on," Noah said.

Noah said he would build on work done by Anchorage natural gas company, Enstar, and the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority to determine if the state should sanction a gas line that could provide a low cost energy alternative to the state's Interior region and replenish dwindling gas supplies from Cook Inlet gas fields.

The most viable project identified so far is an 800-mile, 24-inch diameter pipe between the North Slope and Cook Inlet that would have two compressor stations and provide about 500 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, he said.

The bullet line would compliment a much larger proposal being planned for: a nearly $40 billion dollar natural gas pipeline linking North Slope gas reserves to markets in the Lower 48.

Noah detailed some of the main tasks ahead, which he said could be completed by June 2011: guaranteeing a supply of natural gas; obtaining commitments from purchasers; establishing the tariffs, which is the cost of sending gas down the line; obtaining permits, and turning the project over to a builder-operator of the line.

"The role of the state would be to help reduce the risk of such a project and to hopefully take some of the roadblocks away from it and to facilitate discussion between gas owners and gas purchasers," Noah said. "But the intent is to have this be a privately owned and operated pipeline project."

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