WASHINGTON - For a first-time attendee of a National Governors Association, Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell had a full schedule: meetings with Cabinet secretaries, other governors and even a dinner at the White House.

The aim of his trip, said Parnell, is to focus on "jobs and families." And in particular, the Republican governor said, his focus has been on removing what he sees are federal barriers to resource development in Alaska and promoting the state's proposed natural gas pipeline.

"We all face a strained economy, we all want to grow our economies," he said of fellow governors. "So it's been good to gather with people of similar mind."

Monday afternoon, he sat down with the Daily News:

Q: What has been your focus in Washington?

A: It's resource development, it's being able to determine our own destiny ... The gas line is potentially the single largest private-sector jobs project we have ahead of us and I'd like to see this administration speak more to it. Frankly, we need to raise awareness in the Lower 48 that we've got a natural gas, that we can be that bridge to the future. That's a message I've carried to the Secretary of the Interior -- I think he understands it. And the gas line is one of the president's five national green projects he's identified. I would just like to see more emphasis placed on it.

Q: Who have you been talking to about the natural gas pipeline?

A: As many of the governors as I can. I tell them Alaska's story, I tell them we've got 8 billion cubic feet of gas coming up every day out of the North Slope and that we're pushing it back into the ground. I tell them there's a lot of affordable, abundant energy on Alaska's North Slope and we'd like to bring it to them. More of that message needs to get out nationally. I've been talking up Alaska gas.

Q: What about the possibility of China as a market for natural gas?

A: I'm really trying to re-establish those international ties and the commercial ties between us so that our businesses can sell products and services to other countries all around the world. I extended a general invitation to Chinese officials to visit -- and Japanese officials -- our state and see what market opportunities we can open. Timber, minerals, oil and gas. The bottom line is, we're trying to attract investment to Alaska, we're trying to attract jobs to Alaska, and I'm open to ideas on how we can do that.

Q: A year after the economic stimulus bill took effect, what effect do you think it has had in Alaska?

A: There's a short-term effect and long-term effect. The short-term effect has been positive, in the sense we've gotten more money for roads, created more private-sector jobs in that way. Long-term, Congress has created a huge deficit that our kids are going to be paying for. But once Congress made that decision to spend, our taxpayers are paying those dollars and we're going to make sure that Alaska will benefit from them. We've had road projects, we've had weatherization completed in homes ... that's why I said there's been short-term benefit but long-term harm.

Q: How partisan have you found Washington?

A: I have been pleasantly surprised by the willingness of governors to work together. And frankly I think that's because all of us governors, we serve in a place where the rubber meets the road. We are in states, serving our constituents, facing common problems. There's no competition among governors. We're really trying to do a good job. That doesn't mean that politics doesn't enter in, but it does mean we work extremely well together compared to say, the Congress.