White House urges Alaska lawmakers to OK gas deal
news.yahoo.com
By Yereth Rosen
Fri Jun 30, 10:03 PM ET
Vice President Dick Cheney in a letter this week urged Alaska lawmakers to approve Gov. Frank Murkowski's controversial deal with major oil companies for a $20 billion natural gas pipeline from the state.
Cheney sent the letter to members of the Alaska Legislature urging them to promptly enact legislation needed to seal the pipeline contract that Murkowski brokered with ConocoPhillips, BP Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp..
"You have it in your hands to help ensure that the Alaska Gas Pipeline ultimately furnishes dependable, affordable, and environmentally-sound energy for America's future," Cheney wrote in the letter, dated on Tuesday and seen by Reuters. "Your early action is necessary to move the process forward."
The gas pipeline is a decades-long dream of Alaska officials. It would run about 3,500 miles from the northern part of the state to the lower 48 U.S. states and provide a means for shipping the known 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the North Slope region.
"This is not an Alaskan issue. It's in the national energy security interest of the nation," Murkowski said after a bill-signing ceremony in Anchorage on Friday.
Murkowski's contract drew criticism from political leaders and private citizens who say the deal is overly generous to the oil companies.
The proposed contract calls for Alaska to lock in oil and gas tax rates for decades, prevents the state from taking disputes with oil companies to court and requires Alaska to pay 20 percent of the project's cost.
Murkowski must convince the state legislature to pass the bills needed to enact the contract at a July 12 special session to debate gas pipeline issues.
In a sign of federal support for the pipeline contract, the U.S. Department of Energy announced on Thursday it signed a memorandum of understanding with 14 other federal departments and agencies to ensure quick permitting if the legislature approves Murkowski's deal.
The interagency agreement would remain in place even if the legislature rejects the Murkowski contract, said Craig Stevens, a Department of Energy spokesman.
"But we're hopeful that won't happen," Stevens said. "From the federal level, our position is that when and if the legislature completes their work, that we are in the position we need to be to expedite and help construction."
Some legislative critics of the pipeline deal expressed doubt that the Bush administration would be able to sway the Alaska debate over the contract.
"Is Dick Cheney worried that this is a huge giveaway to the oil companies? I don't think that keeps him up late at night," said House Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz, an Anchorage Democrat who is running for lieutenant governor. |
