Bush appointee resigns as U.S. coordinator for Alaska gas pipeline project

ANCHORAGE - Republican Drue Pearce, the federal official responsible for coordinating planning for the proposed Alaska natural gas pipeline, has resigned her position at the request of the Obama administration.
Pearce, a former Alaska state Senate president who has held the position since it was created by then President George W. Bush in 2006, said she will step down effective Jan. 3.
The Office of the Federal Coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation is reviewing competing plans offered by both TransCanada Corp. and a joint venture formed by BP and ConocoPhillips to build a pipeline to ship natural gas from Alaska's North Slope to domestic U.S. markets.
Pearce was the first person to hold the job, which is designed to keep federal agencies working together to get the pipeline built without undue delay. Some 22 federal agencies in the United States - plus others in Canada Thomas Barrett- must sign off on an environmental impact statement before the project can move forward.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said she was pleased that Pearce's deputy, retired U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thomas Barrett, will serve as the interim coordinator until the White House appoints someone new.

Federal bill gives incentives for building Alaska gas pipeline

FAIRBANKS, Alaska - U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has announced several provisions benefiting an Alaska gas pipeline that she’s secured in a comprehensive energy bill.
Murkowski is the ranking Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
If approved by Congress, the bill would increase a federal loan guarantee for an Alaska gas pipeline project from $18 billion, set in 2004, to $30 billion plus inflation from 2004 values.
In addition, a project could tap into super-low-interest loans from the Federal Financing Bank, a federal corporation, and clarifies 2004 language to specify that the federal loan guarantee will cover a full 80 percent of the total project costs.
“This is a recognition that Alaska’s gas resource is necessary for the country, and that we as a nation will step forward in helping to facilitate such a project,” she said. “The federal government is not nationalizing this. We are not taking it over. But, we are helping to facilitate it.
All provisions are available to either TransCanada, licensed by the state under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, or Denali - The Alaska Gas Pipeline, a joint venture between producers BP and ConocoPhillips.