Anchorage Daily News

In a rare tag-team appearance with Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. Ted Stevens pitched a multipronged plan to lasso runaway energy costs Wednesday in Anchorage.

The proposal includes:

• Targeting oil speculators who buy and sell barrels without ever intending to use them, which Stevens says has inflated gasoline prices.

• Trying once again to open ANWR to oil companies, and spending all the federal revenue -- which he estimates could be $300 billion over 30 years -- on alternative energy projects.

• Give the state more than a third of federal revenue from offshore leasing and production, with a quarter of that cash going to nearby coastal communities.

The price of gasoline, heating fuel and power are the talk of the state as Alaskans from Fairbanks to the Bush warn of a looming crisis. They're looking to politicians for answers.

Stevens is running for re-election and his potential opponent this fall, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, outlined his own energy plan in June.

Begich made opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a centerpiece of his proposal. He also called for sending offshore lease money to Alaska, as well as setting goals for more renewable energy and fuel efficiency.

Palin asked the Legislature to approve a plan this summer to give $1,200 to each Alaskan to help cover energy costs -- something Begich and Stevens say they support.

Just before Stevens was scheduled to present his energy blueprint Wednesday, Palin announced she'd be there too.

Alaska political junkies aren't used to seeing the Republican heavyweights side by side, but the pair said the notion that there's a chill between them -- Palin called on Stevens for answers when the FBI searched his home last year, after all -- is overblown.

Stevens jokingly called the pairing the first edition of the "Sarah and Ted show."

Palin wouldn't say whether her presence implied an endorsement of Stevens' re-election campaign.

"I'm on the clock and we're in a federal building, so we won't talk about campaigns or endorsements," she said. "All that comes later."

UNLOCKING ANWR

In Washington, D.C., both parties have proposed energy proposals designed to cut the cost at the pump for consumers, with few bipartisan successes.

So far, one major initiative has been signed into law: curtailing deposits into the national Strategic Petroleum Reserves to boost supply of oil.

Last week, Republican senators repackaged their energy proposal, making it more in line with the energy platform of their presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

The Republican package, called the "Gas Price Reduction Act," dropped the call for drilling in ANWR, which had been in previous proposals.

Stevens said he plans to propose an ANWR amendment. His energy plan also calls for creating a coal-to-liquid fuel plant in Alaska, looking at new ways to store energy in villages and streamlining the permitting process for a natural gas pipeline.

McCain opposes drilling in ANWR, but recently said he supports lifting a moratorium on offshore oil drilling in other parts of the country.

DEFLATING OIL PRICES

One other proposal seems to appeal to Republicans and Democrats alike: curbing speculation in oil markets. Stevens, with California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, has introduced legislation to tighten oversight of those markets.

The legislation, one of about 17 similar proposals in both the House and the Senate, would require the federal Commodities Futures Trading Commission to change how it classifies some investors so that it's easier to tell how much of the trading of oil supplies is being conducted by institutional investors betting on oil prices. The legislation would also limit the size of their holdings and require speculators to disclose all energy holdings -- even if they're not being traded on energy commodity markets.

Unlike airlines, trucking interests and other commercial traders who actually take delivery of the product they're trading and can buy as much as they want, speculators would be limited in their holdings.

About 30 percent of oil is traded on markets that are not subject to U.S. regulation, although the CFTC has moved to require that buyers on those markets disclose their holdings.

Stevens said economists tell him tightening regulations on oil speculators could reduce the cost of oil by 30 to 35 percent. Alaska oil prices reached a record high price of $142.97 a barrel on Wednesday. They started the year at just under $100.

Begich said Stevens could have championed a crackdown on speculators years ago as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"He's a little late to the game on speculation. I'm glad he's now supportive, but it has cost millions of dollars to Alaska families over the last six years," said Begich, who held his own news conference Wednesday at the Rabbit Creek Shooting Range, where he talked about gun rights and civil liberties.

Stevens dismissed Begich's complaints as an attack from Senate Democrats hoping he'll lose.

Stevens and Begich won't face each other in the general election unless each wins his party's August primary.

Stevens' Republican challengers include Mike Corey, Dave Cuddy, Gerald Heikes, Rick Sikma, Vic Vickers and Rich Wanda, according to the state Division of Elections.

Find Kyle Hopkins' political blog online at adn.com/alaskapolitics or call him at 257-4334. Find Erika Bolstad online at adn.com/contact/ebolstad or call her in Washington, D.C., at 202-383-6104.

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