Word: palin
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...Irwin, Palin had found a model of resistance. She put an "all-Alaska" gas pipeline at the center of her campaign for governor. It was shorthand for putting Alaskan voters, not oil companies, at the forefront--and drawing a distinction between herself and the GOP Old Guard led by Murkowski. More dramatically, Palin joined the Magnificent Seven at a large downtown Anchorage rally and promised to rehire Irwin and his aides if she was elected...
...Palin trounced Murkowski in the 2006 GOP primary. Facing former Democratic governor Tony Knowles in the fall, she shifted her pipeline position to "look gubernatorial," recalled Bitney, who served as her policy director. The original "all-Alaska" option excluded any role for the major producers. But they, after all, had the gas and the capital needed to build and operate their own pipeline. So Palin took a more inclusive stance in the general election, favoring open competition for anyone, including the major producers, who were willing to meet certain criteria for a pipeline...
Touting energy reform and clean government, Palin cruised to an easy victory in November. She pledged in her inaugural address to have a gas-pipeline bill in four months and spent the next two days in back-to-back meetings with gas producers. One of her first appointments was Marty Rutherford, Irwin's deputy, who agreed to act in Irwin's old job until Irwin could return a few months later. The two veterans joined with another Palin appointee, revenue commissioner Pat Galvin, to form what everyone in Alaska politics simply calls the "gas team." Their job: get the pipeline...
True to her campaign pledge, Palin had her gas team draft a pipeline plan that set tough conditions on whoever would build the line. One of the "must-haves," as they were called, required the builder to allow other producers to use the pipe, even if that meant expanding it at the builder's expense. That was a nonstarter with the big producers, who didn't even put in bids. In the end, the only acceptable offer came from TransCanada, an independent Canadian pipeline builder...
Neither the plan nor its proponents were universally loved. Critics pointed out that gas-team member Rutherford had briefly been a lobbyist for a TransCanada subsidiary. And stiffer resistance came from economic conservatives. Representative Mike Hawker says that by cutting Big Oil out of the pipeline, Palin's team "endangered the state's economic future. It's a classic case of biting the hand that feeds...