Senate may vote on gas pipeline today

After languishing in committee for a week, a House-passed bill authorizing state officials to grant the license cleared the Senate Special Committee on Energy late Wednesday by a vote of 7-5. The bill could be ready for a floor vote as soon as today.

That's the plan of Committee Chairman Charlie Huggins, who chaired the final committee hearings on the bill.

The Senate has until 11:59 p.m. Saturday to vote, but some senators say this is cutting it too close.

The House on July 23 backed Palin's recommendation to award the license to TransCanada Corp., which is proposing a 1,715-mile pipeline from the North Slope to Alberta.

Since then, Huggins' committee resumed hearings with members of Gov. Sarah Palin's administration, TransCanada and even former Govs. Wally Hickel and Tony Knowles, both of whom urged senators to reject the bill.

Depending on who is talking, the week lag in the Senate is either to allow members to get further clarification of the bill or something akin to a filibuster.

Or redundancy. Some lawmakers wanted to vote on the bill earlier this month when hearings returned to Juneau after the first 30-day special session, saying they had heard enough debate during traveling hearings across the state about the bill.

Huggins said any references to a filibuster is unfair.

He said he is keeping the schedule he and Senate President Lyda Green, both Wasilla Republicans, established last week after the House passed the bill, 23-16.

"We never wavered on that," Huggins said. "We will go as long as it takes to have a vote on this bill. Who can take exception to bringing two former governors in who said they wanted to come in?"

He said the process has to be very thorough, and if state law gives them 60 days to digest information Palin's administration had six months to prepare, so be it.

Sen. Tom Wagoner, R-Kenai, said letting every Senate member weigh in on what may be one of the state's most crucial votes in decades is a responsibility the Senate owes the public.

But they need to vote. If the Senate doesn't take a vote, it would amount to another failed attempt over the decades to move natural gas from Alaska's North Slope to market.

"I think it would be an embarrassment of the total Senate if we don't go to the floor for a vote on this issue; we have to have this on the floor," said Wagoner, who supports Palin's plan.

"Otherwise we spend 60 days and accomplished absolutely nothing," he said. "We may spend 60 days and accomplish nothing anyway, but at least every person in the Senate will have had a vote."

While a license in no way guarantees construction of a multibillion-dollar natural gas pipeline, it calls for TransCanada to move forward on a costly process of pursuing a federal certificate. Along with the state license comes $500 million in seed money from the state.

Even if the Senate ultimately concurs, it will be at least 10 years before any North Slope gas moves to market. Plus, there is still a competing pipeline moving forward without the state's startup money.

That project is a joint venture between North Slope oil producers and gas leaseholders Conoco Phillips and BP. Both believed the state's application process was too restrictive, and didn't apply under those guidelines.

The project is called Denali. Over the last week, the executives from each company told Wall Street analysts they are moving forward with their project even if the Senate supports TransCanada.

The companies rolled out the Denali plan in early April and say field work has begun; they have also been touting the work with a statewide advertising campaign.

Wagoner said TransCanada has made its case with a solid application that has withstood a blitz of television spots and full-page color ads from Denali. Despite the media blitz, officials with the joint venture have presented scant documentation to lawmakers, especially when compared to the reams of paper filed by TransCanada.

"This company has been busy putting together a very good proposal that is very beneficial to the state of Alaska and that opens up the basin," Wagoner said. "They are not playing on the sympathy on the public. Their radar is focused on the license from Alaska to build a pipeline from Alaska."

Daily News reporter Wesley Loy contributed to this story.