Lawmakers stress public input on gas line decision
Published Wednesday, June 25, 2008
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Stumble It!JUNEAU — State lawmakers, after three weeks of tightly packed gas pipeline hearings in Juneau, Fairbanks and Anchorage, will spend the next two weeks at a handful of hearings in smaller communities before returning to Juneau in early July.
Legislative leaders responsible for the schedule on Tuesday stressed the importance of gathering public input and said days off are needed simply to handle the logistics of meeting outside the capital city.
Lawmakers met Tuesday in Palmer and are scheduled to meet in Kenai, Barrow and Ketchikan in the coming weeks.
“It’s our job to involve the public, and it takes a little time,” said House Speaker John Harris, R-Valdez.
But Senate Minority Leader Gene Therriault, R-North Pole, suggested the slow-down could be intentional.
“I am concerned that there is an effort to eat up a lot of the time,” he said.
Lawmakers have 60 days under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act to review and vote on TransCanada’s natural gas pipeline proposal. If they fail to vote, the state license and subsidy will not be awarded.
“If you push things past 60 days without getting a decision, that would bode well for those people that want to be a ‘no’ vote,” Therriault said.
In recent weeks, legislative leaders have generally remained skeptical of TransCanada’s proposal while minority members and other lawmakers have been more willing to support the plan, which has the backing of Gov. Sarah Palin.
Harris and Sen. Charlie Huggins, a Wasilla Republican who is chairing the hearings, both denied there was any effort to drag things out.
Huggins noted that Palin’s administration spent six months and millions of dollars studying the TransCanada proposal, and he said it was important to hear from the public, even if the turnout was modest.
A few dozen people testified at each of the hearings in Anchorage and Fairbanks, Huggins said.
Local lawmakers said they valued the public testimony — especially testimony from Fairbanks residents — but didn’t think the public hearings alone would change how individual lawmakers voted on the deal.
“The public testimony helps to get a feel for what the average person is thinking about it, although they may not have received all the information we did over and over,” said Sen. Joe Thomas, D-Fairbanks.
Rep. David Guttenberg, D-Fairbanks, said he thought the Legislature’s hearing schedule would allow BP and ConocoPhillips time to build up their argument against TransCanada. The two North Slope producers are pursuing their own pipeline project outside AGIA.
Legislative leaders and other lawmakers all said they thought the TransCanada proposal would pass in the end, although Harris said he thought there might be some “caveats” added through amendments or intent language. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a separate hearing today in Anchorage on legal issues relating to the AGIA license.
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Well put BigMike. I know I want to be on that bus!!!
What's the point of public testimony if the votes are already lined up? Regardless of what viewpoint you have on AGIA and the TransCanada proposal, as an Alaskan I think people should be highly irritated with a "dog and pony" show that seemingly won't move legislative opinion.
Not to be overly partisan, but the legislative Democrats are using this as a political football and will almost certainly vote for it regardless of personal opinion. Even more legislators are going to be "coereced" into voting for it because they're afraid of the Governor's 80% job approval rating. Doesn't seem very open and transparent to me.
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