A bill sponsored by House Speaker Mike Chenault of Nikiski to push forward a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to Southcentral Alaska cleared its first committee Monday but it wasn't a slam dunk.
House Bill 9, co-sponsored by Rep. Mike Hawker of Anchorage, passed the House Resources Committee 6-3. Typically, bills pass out of committees without a roll call vote.
The complex bill gives a state corporation set up by the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. the power to pursue a pipeline project and outlines how that would be done. Some of the most controversial aspects, such as a requirement that local communities provide free gravel to the project, were stripped out by the Resources Committee.
Chenault and Hawker, both Republicans, urged the committee to back their proposal even though other gas line projects are also being considered by public agencies and private companies.
"This is the only project that I see moving forward," Chenault said.
State Rep. Peggy Wilson, a Republican from Wrangell who had questions about the bill, asked to vote last. If Rep. Paul Seaton, a Republican from Homer and the committee chairman, had voted no, she would have been the tie-breaker. But ultimately both supported it, as did Republicans Cathy Munoz of Juneau and Alan Dick of Stony River, and Democrats Neal Foster of Nome and Bob Herron of Bethel.
Two Democrats on the panel, Scott Kawasaki of Fairbanks and Berta Gardner of Anchorage, voted against it, as did Republican Eric Feige of Chickaloon. Kawasaki and Feige both said the projected gas line would bypass their communities, where energy costs are extraordinarily high.
Reach Lisa Demer at ldemer@adn.com or (907) 500-7388.
By LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News