Palin's Pipeline at Risk as Economy Slows

[DogPoundPup]

Source: Wall Street Journal

The troubled economy that helped sink Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's hopes of becoming U.S. vice president now is undermining prospects for building the $30 billion natural-gas pipeline she touts as her administration's signal achievement.

The state faces an increasingly gloomy future if construction is delayed, since the majority of the state's unrestricted revenue comes from energy-production taxes and royalties -- a situation unlike any other state. Without a gas pipeline, the annual dividend checks Alaskans get would eventually dwindle and residents could face their first income tax.

As Gov. Palin returns from the campaign trail, she is finding a very different landscape than when she left Juneau in August. Shortly before she was selected as Sen. John McCain's running mate, the Alaska legislature passed a bill to jump-start preliminary work on the pipeline. Not long afterward, the state began handing out record-high annual checks to every Alaskan, sharing the state's windfall from high oil prices.

Today, the global economic slowdown is making it harder to maintain momentum behind the project. At the same time, the combination of falling oil production and falling oil prices has left state officials wondering if they can balance their budgets in the current or coming fiscal years.

There is growing pessimism in Alaska that the pipeline will be built anytime soon. Mike Chenault, the incoming Republican speaker of the state House of Representatives, said he believes the odds of it moving forward in the next couple of years are less than 50-50.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122706058287939735.html

[Deja Q]

1. I saw gas prices today - holy bleepies; $1.78/gl. That's pre-9/11 pricing.

:wow:

[ladywnch]

3. actually it was in the $1.50 - $1.60 range the summer of 2001 (us avg)

it was closer to $1.50 here in Colorado before 9/11.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. This author doesn't seem to have an understanding

of our Permanent Fund. Maybe it would "eventually" dwindle, as he says, but it's quite a ways to go. The oil revenues have been invested for over 30 years now and even with the hard hits to the stock market it still contains about $30 billion. Our dividends are paid out from only a portion of the invested money. The amount of the dividend has gone up and down over the years, but even back when oil was $9 a barrel, we still got a $300 dividend check.

I didn't particularly care for Sarah's gas line anyway, so it wouldn't hurt my feelings if it didn't work out.

[Kolesar]

6. Environmentalists has endorsed the natural gas pipeline to the Midwest

The Sierra Club, in particular.

I imagine that Alaska could build an ammonium nitrate fertilizer plant to synthesize fertilizer from methane. They could ship the fertilizer from a port in Alaska.

[Winterblues]

8. Well you have to remember though Democrats have been pushing for the pipeline for over a decade

Gephardt and Daschle were very strong advocates for this during Clinton's Presidency. It was the Republicans that stopped it back then..

[Blue_In_AK]

9. It's not the idea of a pipeline that bothers me

I'm just not real crazy about the Trans-Canada deal. I'm more of a supporter of the all-Alaska route. It bothered me that only one applicant in that process qualified under AGIA, and I don't like the fact that we have to pay them $500 million.

And I've read that much of the natural gas will be used in Alberta for extracting oil from the tar sands, which also doesn't appeal to me much.

I'm no oil and gas expert though, so I suppose I should keep my mouth shut.

[Bravo Zulu]

4. But,but,but,

palins an energy expert!

[MilesColtrane]

5. Why do the words "Palin's Pipeline" make me shudder and feel nauseous?

[Bake]

7. Palin's Political Future at risk as Alaska's Economy Slows ...

Since she's almost totally dependent on oil revenues.

Bake

[truthisfreedom]

10. "The $30 billion natural-gas pipeline she touts as her administration's signal achievement."

Hey Sarah, try single achievement.

You're just like bush. You can't finish anything. Couldn't finish the race, couldn't finish the pipeline, town of Wasilla will never finish paying for your "build me a free house" bullshit sports center, just like bush couldn't finish his stint in the military, couldn't finish running any of his companies or taking care of the Texas Rangers without his dad's buddies paying for everything, couldn't finish the Iraq war, can't finish taking care of the economy, can't finish in Afghanistan, can't finish ANYTHING.

bush in a skirt, Sarah. That's what you are... bush in a skirt. Legacy? Leaving everything unfinished.