Alaska Governor Sarah Palin introduced a bill on Friday that she hopes will kick-start stalled plans for a natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope. Palin said she hopes the state can pick a winning proposal this year and that construction can start in 2008.
Any group that shows it can quickly build the gas line could get tax and royalty breaks as well as up to $500 million in matching funds for start-up costs, the bill proposes. The builder would have to meet deadlines, expand the pipeline to accommodate new gas producers, minimise costs and guarantee natural gas for Alaskan markets as well as jobs for residents.
"If our timelines are met, we'll see the final applicant or applicants undertake design and financing and engineering work next summer," the Republican governor told a news conference in Juneau, monitored via telephone.
The Alaska Gasline Inducement Act does not choose a route but leaves that and the likely cost of the project up to bidders to build the gas line. The line could stay in Alaska and deliver gas to liquefied natural gas tankers in southern Alaska or run through Canada to the lower 48 US states.
The bill establishes a framework for would-be pipeline sponsors to bid for rights to build and operate the project, and once bids are submitted, Palin's administration and the legislature would select their preferred plan this year.
"We're looking for competition here. And one of the areas of competition is the speed to which they plan to move this project forward," Revenue Commissioner Pat Galvin said at the news conference.
"What we're looking for is a project that commits to a timeline that will be as aggressive as possible." The North Slope producers have some 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas available to them at existing discoveries and state officials believe that recoverable onshore gas reserves could be as high as 200 trillion cubic feet - enough to fuel the entire US natural gas market for more than 18 years.