Alaska's senators look to beef up federal office to spur gasline

Washington (Platts)--12Apr2007

Alaska's two US senators Wednesday introduced legislation to beef up and
give more power to the Office of Federal Pipeline Coordinator in an effort to
jumpstart consideration of a proposed pipeline that would bring natural gas
from Alaska's North Slope to the lower 48 states.

The bill, introduced by Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens, both Republicans,
seeks to give the agency more flexibility in hiring staff by waiving the
provision that requires the pipeline coordinator to follow time-consuming
executive branch procedures of employing workers.

The legislation also would let the office establish filing and service
fees, which would be identical to those charged by the US Bureau of Land
Management, and it would specify that any legal challenges related to the
pipeline be filed in the DC Court of Appeals.

Congress in 2004 created the Office of Federal Pipeline Coordinator to
oversee the 15 federal agencies that will play a role in the construction and
financing of a pipeline system. At the same time, Congress also provided tax
credits and loan guarantees to improve the chances for construction of an
Alaska gas pipeline system, and it set up a streamlined permitting and
expedited court review process to limit unnecessary delays in the project.

"Expediting the Alaska natural gas pipeline construction process is
critically important to our state and nation," Stevens said in a statement.
"In order to get Alaska's gas to market in time to compete with foreign LNG,
we must ensure the federal review process is not overburdened or unnecessarily
prolonged. A fully functioning office for our federal Pipeline Coordinator is
essential to achieving this goal."

Murkowski added that the pipeline was "too important" to national energy
security and Alaska's economy "to be delayed any further."

Alaska's legislature is currently considering Governor Sarah Palin's
Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, a bill that defines a competitive process by
which the state will choose a gasline project, provides inducements for the
construction of a gasline, and contains certain requirements that need to be
met by any proposal. Palin has indicated that, if the state legislature passed
her bill this spring, requests for application could be out by July, proposals
for the project could be received in October and a winning project could be
selected by January.

--Cathy Landry, cathy_landry@platts.com