Rift grows between Begich and Palin over gas line

Former Gov. Frank Murkowski also weighed in with an opinion column asserting Palin's approach to getting the gas pipeline is a waste of time that's stalled progress.

Murkowski, whom Palin trounced in the 2006 Republican primary for governor, has long been at odds with his successor. Palin's relationship with Begich, a Democrat, also appears to be increasingly sour.

This is just the latest flare-up.

In April, Palin said Begich should give up his Senate seat to a special election after prosecutors abandoned their case against Ted Stevens, whom Begich beat last fall.

Then last month Begich slammed Palin for turning down federal stimulus money for energy, saying her claim of strings attached seemed "little more than a political red herring targeted at an agenda other than Alaska's."

This latest fight follows comments that Begich made earlier this week during a speech in Anchorage. The speech was mostly about Begich's recent trip to Afghanistan but he mentioned the gas pipeline, focusing primarily on his desire for President Obama to put it on "the national energy agenda."

He earned Palin's ire by citing his "frustration" that the proposed pipeline hasn't moved forward. He also said during the speech to business leaders that in "recent conversations with the president and his top advisers, there has been frustration expressed at the lack of progress on the Alaska gas line."

The governor's office responded Wednesday with a statement saying Palin's commissioners "are disappointed that Alaska's junior senator has failed to recognize the progress that has been made on one of the largest construction projects in North America." They urged Begich to keep up to speed on what's going on.

State revenue commissioner Pat Galvin and natural resources commissioner Tom Irwin also wrote Begich a letter saying they were "surprised and dismayed."

"We must believe that you are uninformed about the current situation in Alaska regarding this project," they wrote.

Begich fired back through his spokeswoman, Julie Hasquet. She said Begich appreciates receiving the letter promising new information about gas pipeline progress "but we had a hard time finding any new information or progress."

"The senator will continue working in Washington and with project sponsors to get the project off high-center," Hasquet said.

The commissioners insisted in their letter that the project is on track. They asserted that, as a result of Palin's Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA), there are two competing projects spending money on pipeline design and engineering, as well as getting ready for an "open season" next year. An open season is when oil companies decide whether to pledge to ship gas in the proposed pipeline, an important measure of the project's viability.

The pipeline company TransCanada has the state license and $500 million in state incentives to pursue a pipeline approved by Palin and the Legislature. Oil companies BP and Conoco Phillips have a competing gas line project called Denali. Galvin said in an interview that progress is clearly being made and Begich's complaint "just does not meet reality." He said Palin's team has not heard of any frustration from the Obama administration.

Begich's position isn't shared by many of his Alaska colleagues. The Democrats in the state Legislature unanimously voted for Palin's Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, and several objected vigorously when a Republican state legislator suggested this spring that the approach wasn't going anywhere.

But over the past year, a growing number of Republican lawmakers have expressed doubts, and on Wednesday, former Gov. Murkowski wrote an opinion column in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner touting the approach he tried during his term in office and slamming Palin.

"The bottom line is that by the end of the Palin administration, Alaska will have wasted four years in attempting to get a gas line that could be far along by now had the Palin team simply picked up the (Stranded Gas Development Act) contract we handed it," Murkowski wrote.

While in office, Murkowski proposed a tax contract between the state and oil companies he said would lead to the pipeline. But legislators thought he made too many concessions to the companies and it never came to a vote.

Murkowski wrote Wednesday that, instead of negotiating with the oil companies that hold the gas leases and have money to build a pipeline, Palin has an agreement with a pipeline company that doesn't have gas or financing.

Revenue commissioner Galvin said Murkowski's column was "misinformed" -- an overstatement of the accomplishments of Murkowski's approach as well as a mischaracterization of what Palin is trying to do.

Murkowski did not respond to a request for an interview.

Find Sean Cockerham online at adn.com/contact/scockerham or call him at 257-4344.