New Palin email release shows gasline image concerns

Remember all of those Freedom of Information Act requests that were filed on then-Gov. Sarah Palin's office during the 2008 presidential election? Well, another one came through. The state released to The Associated Press some 2,000 pages of email correspondence connected to then-Gov. Palin's Alaska Gasline Inducement Act. The emails show that Palin's administration was highly sensitive to public perception and criticism of the plan itself, the decision to license TransCanada under the act, and of the way the governor was handling the process. Just one of the digital tidbits: After TC's chief publicly said that the project would require the participation of ExxonMobil (a company still disliked -- despised even -- by many Alaskans), Marty Rutherford (a prominent aide on gasline matters in the Palin administration) chided TC's Alaska boss, Tony Palmer, about it and wrote, "We need to ensure that comments about the Producers are scripted in the future." Palmer responded that the state and his company should be coordinated as things moved forward and that he'd make his company aware of "that requirement." In addition to the released emails, the state included a 72-page log of withheld emails featuring subject lines like "Messaging/Strategy," "Myth Busting" and "Bad News." Read much, much, much more, here (via the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner).