Sen. John Torgerson: Producer threats won’t sway Legislature

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

Sen. John Torgerson, R-Kasilof, chairman of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Natural Gas Pipelines, has restated the Legislature’s opposition to an over-the-top gas pipeline route in response to published threats that natural gas producers would abandon their pipeline feasibility studies if government ruled any route off limits.

In a statement released Sept. 12, Torgerson said:

“The ‘over-the-top’ line is just not going to happen. The Legislature passed a law against it last session, Rep. Don Young inserted language in the energy bill the House passed opposing it, Senators Ted Stevens and Frank Murkowski oppose it in the Senate, the North Slope Borough opposes it, the Eskimo whalers oppose it and folks all over Alaska oppose it. How much clearer do we have to be?”

Rep Joe Green, R-Anchorage, vice chairman of the joint pipeline committee, said:

“Bringing North Slope gas through a southern pipeline is our best chance to fuel Alaska’s economy into the 21st century.”

Green said the southern pipeline means more construction and operations jobs for Alaskans, a source of power for communities and hydrocarbon feed stock that could nurture a petrochemical industry.

The statement said Torgerson and Green had had “full and frank discussions” with BP's Gas Business Unit Leader Ken Konrad Sept. 10, and that Konrad told them the industry group would work with the Legislature to find mutually acceptable solutions.

“We are not going to do a project that Alaska doesn’t want,” Konrad told Torgerson and Green.