JUNEAU (AP) — Tensions flared Monday between members of the Alaska House and Gov. Bill Walker over how best to advance state efforts to secure a major gas pipeline project, with a visibly upset Walker denouncing a bill from the speaker of the House as “the most un-Alaskan thing I’ve ever seen put together.”
House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, introduced legislation that would limit the role of a state-backed corporation in an alternate gas line project proposed by Walker. The state has been pursuing a major liquefied natural gas project, known as Alaska LNG, with BP, Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips, TransCanada Corp. and the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., or AGDC, which Chenault and other lawmakers want to ensure remains the state’s primary focus.
The bill states that the AGDC could not be involved with an alternate export or liquefied natural gas project until the earliest of three events: the state or another party withdrawing from Alaska LNG; Alaska LNG entering its next phase, a decision for which is expected next year; or July 1, 2017. It also says the AGDC cannot market gas owned or controlled by another party without that party’s written consent.
Walker held a news conference to respond to the bill, which he said would hurt the state’s negotiating position with Alaska LNG and promised a veto if it reached his desk. The governor shook things up last month with an opinion piece in which he proposed increasing the size of a smaller stand-alone gas line project, one initially aimed at providing gas to Alaskans, and turning into a project that would be capable of exports in case Alaska LNG faltered.
Walker wrote that whichever project was first to produce a “solid plan” with conditions acceptable to the state would get the state’s full support. Or, he said, the two projects might be combined at some point.
Walker said the state would continue to pursue Alaska LNG. But he said that companies involved in the project have competing projects of their own and it’s appropriate for the state which has seen a long history of fits and starts on gas line projects to not pin all its hopes on that one project.
Chenault and other majority lawmakers say they have gotten no greater clarity on Walker’s alternate proposal and are worried about the proposal casting a shadow of uncertainty over Alaska LNG. With a bill, there’s more opportunity to get information about Walker’s plans and to have a fuller discussion, he and others said.
House Majority Leader Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage, and a co-sponsor of Chenault’s bill, said she and the other bill supporters stand ready to work with Walker.
Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, said he supports Walker’s approach and is not sure that Chenault’s bill would have the support needed to pass the Legislature.
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