The Land of Ozz

The major national news stories of the week related to aftermath of Hurricane Wilma, the CIA Leak investigation, and the US Supreme Court nomination have overshadowed a very interesting story in Alaska related to a proposed Natural Gas Pipeline to be supported by US tax dollars. This pipeline has been on the drawing board for several years. The pipeline would deliver natural gas from the artic region of Alaska to the Mid-West of the lower 48 if endorsed by several major oil companies along with state and federal governments. The companies involved are none other than ConocoPhillips, BP and Exxon Mobil. The same companies that reported some of the highest corporate profits in US history this week. All of these companies are being courted by Alaska’s Gov. Frank Murkowski and other government officials to get these oil companies to endorse this project. The project is estimated to take approximately 18 years to construct and will come with a price tag of an approximately $20 billion.

What makes this story interesting is the resignation of several high level government officials who have been working close to the contract negotiations with these major oil companies. The Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin was at the forefront of the resignations this week. His resignation comes less than a week after he sent a five-page memo to the state attorney general questioning the legality of some concessions being offered to the major oil companies by Gov. Frank Murkowski. The details of the contract negotiations have not been released, but there are issues with the contract that may end up before the state supreme court. The Fairbanks New-Miner reports:

“North Slope oil giants Exxon Mobil, BP and ConocoPhillips want the state to provide fiscal assurances on the $20 billion project in the form of a set tax rate, potentially stripping legislators of the ability to raise taxes on gas, and possibly oil, well into the future.”

The Governor of Alaska is not the only politician or Murkowski family member working hard to get this project rolling. His daughter US Senator Lisa Murkowski is greasing the skids in Washington. Senator Murkowski landed her position in Washington when her father appointed her to fill his vacant senate seat in 2002. She has since won a full blow election and continues to offer her full support of this project. Senator Murkowski is working hard to make sure the project gets full federal support. This support would come in the form of federal tax dollars to support the construction of a pipeline that will most certainly make these high profit oil companies even more profitable.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 30th, 2005 at 3:09 am and is filed under News, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.