Pipe Dreams to Nowhere: Another Palin Lie

This past Friday, Governor Sarah Palin made her way to Fairbanks, in the subarctic interior of Alaska, where she participated in a glorified photo-op at which the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) license was signed by Alaska state officials. "This is a significant step as we march forward toward Alaska's next economic lifeline," Palin declared, stringing together as many political catch phrases as she could. "It's our next economic engine."

That license allows the gas line builder, TransCanada Corp, and its subsidiary, Foothills Pipe Lines Ltd., to "move forward" on the controversial 1,715-mile pipeline linking Alaska's resource rich North Slope with energy distribution hubs in Alberta, Canada.

That's right--move forward. In her debate with Joe Biden during the 2008 presidential campaign, Palin boldly claimed, "We're building a nearly $40-billion natural gas pipeline --which is North America's largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever." And in her address before the Republican National Convention, Palin also claimed "we began" to build that very same pipeline "to help lead America to energy independence."

Note the use of both the present and past tense with the verb "to build." One would have assumed from Palin's declarations that construction of the pipeline was already well underway.

Not even close.

Palin has always been fast and loose with the truth (and her capacity for self-promotion would seem to know no bounds), but her duplicity about the pipeline extends far beyond whether it is currently being built or not --it is not--but whether or not it ever will be built. "That pipeline," she declared at the GOP convention, "when the last section is laid and its valves are opened, will lead America one step farther away from dependence on dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart."

Well the first section is at least six years away, and many contend that it will never be built at all. As one Alaskan state legislator grumbled at the license signing, "This AGIA license is not a commitment to do anything other than process a whole lot of paper."

Palin has repeatedly trumpeted the pipeline as an example of her energy know-how and pragmatic politics. She also has claimed, as she did at the convention, that she has single-handedly imposed "competition and basic fairness" to oil and gas production in the Last Frontier.

In fact, as is often the case with Palin, it's all hat and no saddle.

Zane Henning, a longtime critic of Palin and an oilfield worker on the North Slope, says "I can guarantee that the AGIA pipeline will not be built unless the State of Alaska passes a long-term tax policy that the oil companies agree with."

Still others have argued that without the gas-rich Point Thomson region included in the pipeline agreement, there won't be enough economic inducement to generate production of the gas line.

In an interview with the Fairbanks News Miner, Palin acknowledged as much. "That is what it will take," Palin declared in her peculiar syntax, "of course, to get the project actually built, is for all parties to be in this as one."

But Alaska's so-called Big Three--ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and British Petroleum--are not in; far from it.

Palin says she is developing incentives to bring the Big Three into the pipeline equation, but there's certainly no evidence of that on the table. So far, Palin has put the cart before the horse every step of the way.

In fact, Palin rigged the bidding process for the pipeline so that it favored TransCanada and so that the Big Three were effectively shut out of the bidding process. In the end, of the five bids that were submitted, four were disqualified, leaving only one bidder in line to get the contract, you guessed it, TransCanada.

Moreover, TransCanada has strong political and economic links to Palin's administration. Palin's AGIA negotiation team was headed up by Marty Rutherford, an oil industry lobbyist who had previously done lobbying work for TransCanada, through its subsidiary Foothills Pipe Line. Rutherford was paid $40,200 as recently as 2003 for legislative work in Juneau on behalf of TransCanada.

Palin's own phone logs indicate that she had direct contact with TransCanada during the bidding process, contrary to the guidelines established by her own administration. To make the whole arrangement even slimier, Palin offered TransCanada a $500 million subsidy.

So much for Palin's assertion of promoting economic "competition and basic fairness."

Palin was able to get away with many of her claims during the campaign because of the isolation of Alaska from the Lower 48. It took almost a month for her Bridge-to-Nowhere lie to catch up with her, and the pipeline fabrications got lost amidst the daily grind of 24-hour news cycles and following less substantive tales about her clothes and makeovers.

But for most Alaskans, the gasline has been a huge issue for more than a decade and just about everyone in the Last Frontier knows that it will never be built unless the Big Three has a strong economic incentive to develop their gas leases and that there must be a negotiated tax-structure in effect before they make any agreement with TransCanada.

And therein lies the rub. Palin has said that TransCanada has made "commitments to build this pipeline"--but in fact, TransCanada has made no formal commitment to build anything. They have simply moved the process along to the next photo-op.

Palin can take her bows for the pipeline, as she did throughout the campaign and among the suits up in Fairbanks last week, but Alaskans across the political spectrum are growing tied of her dog and pony shows when it comes to resource management and energy production.

One of Palin's most vocal critics, Tony Hopfinger of The Alaska Dispatch, argued that the license signing this past week in Fairbanks raises more questions than it answers. "Why didn't the administration sit down with the oil companies and try to negotiate tax terms for the pipeline before embarking on the AGIA?" Hopfinger wondered. "And tell us again why we're giving a half-billion dollars to TransCanada--especially now that oil prices have crashed?"

Palin and her minions have consistently skirted the tough questions on AGIA. Right now, the Alaska Gasline project is yet another one of Sarah Palin's political pipe dreams to nowhere.

Comments

[jcollell]

Given the fact that she is so Americany, Mavericky, and Patrioticky wouldn't you think she would want an American firm to get a fair shot instead of fixing the deck to favor one bidder. Truth is that she went with TransCanada because it was the path of least resistance which has been her whole political career, the path of least or no resistance.

http://www.youspar.com/

[graffen48]

Thank you for staying on top of this. People need to be reminded for the next 4 years what this person is all about, as it looks like a certainty she will be running in 2012. As katinpuyallup commented though, that might end up being a godsend for Obama and the Democrats.

[trisha08]

Thanks for this post. Stay on it.

The girl sure does like to lie and blame. I think that she was able to get away with her version of the truth because the Alaskan media just didn't/doesn't have the resources to dig into her claims. I'm sure that's why she hates the MSM so much. She was not used to being questioned as she was when she came down to the lower 48.


She does remind me of Blogo. Both have huge egos and think they can do whatever they want, both ran on a reform platform but found ways to have the system benefit them, both refuse to live in the Gov's. House, both have quests for power and the White House (Palin starting contacting Washinton insiders shortly after she became Gov., both have that attititude of I can do whatever I want, I'm the Govenor. Scary stuff

[Oldekirk]

Are Alaskans that dumb to keep slime like Palin in charge of their state ?
She has enough dirt on her shoes to remove her from office and indicte her on numerous charges.
After all California did so with Davies. and look what's happening in Illinois.

[amaycatbaker]

Gov. Murkowski appointed his daughter to the senate. Palin beat him in the primaries because the local repubs did not like that. She was supposedly the lesser or the evils.

[Cil]

Is there NO END TO THE SARAH PALIN LIES?

This Governor really needs some in-depth FBI INVESTIGATION!

When will the FBI INVESTIGATE PALIN, IN THE SAME WAY THAT
THEY DID GOV. BLAGOJEVICH? I am sure that there will be some
HUGE SURPRISES, SHOULD THE FBI GET INVOLVED!

[katinpuyallup]

Boy, I hope Palin remains the Great Hope for the Republican Party for a really long time. I hope she is the front runner in 2012 and 2016.
Dems could hardly ask for more.

[RenoSage]

Don't criticize Palin. Joe the Plumber thinks she is marvelous.

[Oldekirk]

He really thinks her BODY is marevelous

[carmenjonze]

Well, her body is pretty marvelous. Too bad her politics are crap.

[Gladys1963]

Whether Mrs. Palin knows the past and present tense of any verb is debatable.

[FortuneTeller]

Today's gas price for regular is $1.64...and dropping. With the green industries poised to snap up a larger market share I believe this really is a pipe dream.

[reno1190]

not in backwards ga we are at $1.45 per gallon and dropping

[haval2]

Bid rigging...gosh darn what a surprise. Do the wonders of Sarah ever end??????

[hozer]

A subsea gaslne From Valdez to Seattle will be superior architecture...
http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209/DistantThunderbolt/?action=view¤t=SubSeaGasFiberoptic250fathoms1.jpg

The subsea gasline will be quicker to build, much more environmentally friendly, much safer, will distribute nat-gas where it's needed most, and it will not require nearly as much money to complete and maintain.

[kraftytess]

Actually her lie about the Bridge to Nowhere was caught on the day McCain announced her as his VP choice. Rachel Maddow on Keith Olbermann read several quotes from the Anchorage Daily News that showed her support for it while she was campaigning for governor. Unfortunately it took a while longer before the rest of the media followed up with it.

[LisaCTVT]

All flash. No substance.