Gov. Sarah Palin's signature accomplishment - a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 - emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration, an Associated Press investigation shows.
Beginning at the Republican National Convention in August, the McCain-Palin ticket has touted the pipeline as an example of how it would help America achieve energy independence.
"We're building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline, which is North America's largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever, to flow those sources of energy into hungry markets," Palin said during the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate.
Despite Palin's boast of a smart and fair bidding process, the AP found that her team crafted terms that favored only a few independent pipeline companies and ultimately benefited the winner, TransCanada Corp.
And contrary to the ballyhoo, there's no guarantee the pipeline will ever be built; at a minimum, any project is years away, as TransCanada must first overcome major financial and regulatory hurdles.
In interviews and a review of records, the AP found:
-Instead of creating a process that would attract many potential builders, Palin slanted the terms away from an important group - the global energy giants that own the rights to the gas.
-Despite promises and legal guidance not to talk directly with potential bidders, Palin had meetings or phone calls with nearly every major candidate, including TransCanada.
-The leader of Palin's pipeline team had been a partner at a lobbying firm where she worked on behalf of a TransCanada subsidiary. Also, that woman's former business partner at the lobbying firm was TransCanada's lead private lobbyist on the pipeline deal, interacting with legislators in the weeks before the vote to grant TransCanada the contract. Plus, a former TransCanada executive served as an outside consultant to Palin's pipeline team.
-Under a different set of rules four years earlier, TransCanada had offered to build the pipeline without a state subsidy; under Palin, the company could receive a maximum $500 million.
When you hear John Mccain and the other Republican talking heads waxing poetic about Sarah Palin's energy "expertise" this is the only thing they are referencing. Her ENTIRE energy experience is based on this one deal.
And it is terribly flawed. In fact it is NEVER going to come to fruition!
You see Sarah Palin is not an expert on energy. Nor, despite her recent "policy speech", is she an expert on special needs children. As far as I can tell, she is not an expert on ANYTHING. Except possibly passing her herself off as something she is not.
She is a faker. And she has managed to smile and wink her way into the hearts of millions of ignorant people and who want desperately to believe her.
The facts are that Sarah Palin seduced Alaskans into blowing 500 million dollars on a deal with a company that has no financial backing. And a deal that will soon fall apart taking her political career and her vaunted "expertise" with it.
In the end she is just a joke. But she is not a funny joke. Because she is a practical joke that was played on Alaskans, and we will be the ones with egg on our faces when this thing is finally over.
If Sarah Palin thought Alaska was a cold place to live when she left, just wait until she comes skulking back. Lady you have not seen cold yet!
(For more on this gas pipeline scandal you can visit the Huffington Post here.)
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And sadly for her- Everything she said and did is now going to undergo Scrutiny..and McCains Thugs won't be there to protect her......from herself...
ReplyDeleteshe is a pathological liar....and her Truth will start oozing all over...
the Pipeline will need lots of experts to look at closer...and not fellow Beauty Queens in Heels...but real Energy Experts....like maybe Hazel O'Leary down in Tennessee, or she was in 2004...( she was the Energy Expert under Clinton..she was his Sec of Energy...but her expertise is GAS Exploration and Pipelines...she is also a very brave and brilliant....look her up....she is impressive)...
I'd like to appeal to you as "a northern warrior for truth [who does] not like being lied to."
ReplyDeleteThat AP article is full of innuendo and accusations but awful short on facts.
Each of the bullet point claims you quote, the AP article either leaves unsubstantiated or distances itself from later in the article.
- The article distances itself from the claim "Palin slanted the terms away from ... the global energy giants that own the rights to the gas" noting Palin "saw problems if the firms that own the gas also owned the pipeline. They could manipulate the market or charge prohibitive fees to smaller exploration firms, discouraging competition."
- On talking with potential bidders, the AP notes she may have talked to them about details of the project (but doesn't even substantiate that with facts) but did not talk to them about the bidding process, which is the only thing that would have been ethically questionable to talk about.
- On Marty Rutherford (the partner at a lobbying firm), that lobbying work happened in 2003. Five years ago. As the AP later details to distance itself from this charge, "Rutherford never directly lobbied the Legislature for Foothills, and that Rutherford broke no rules based on 2003 state ethics guidelines."
- Finally, on the $500 million subsidy, the AP quotes Rutherford at the very article explaining why this deal included the subsidy and the previous didn't: The deals were different, "presenting a different set of trade-offs."
I hope you'll live up to your blog's About Blurb to have "the intellectual curiosity to ask the important questions" on this.
Like, why does the AP slam these charges against Palin but then go ahead, in the later part of the article that no one reads and bloggers won't quote, and actually dismiss the very charges they level?
It couldn't be that the AP has been in the tank for the Obama ticket, could it?
Additionally, the remainder of your post suffers heavily from "Palin Derangement Syndrom".
Palin's "ENTIRE energy experience" is NOT based just on the natural gas pipeline.
Prior to being governor, Palin served on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She ended up resigning from that position in protest over the corruption she saw.
Sarah Palin is not a faker. She's a woman of integrity, as her resignation from the Commission proves.
She does understand energy. Well. And her experience in advancing the natural gas pipeline farther than any of her predecessors who have been trying to get this done for 30 years speaks tremendously well in favor of exactly why she is competent and prepared to be the next Vice President of the United States.
Yeah I read the article in the ADN where the legislatures said the article was not fair. But I also know that many of them are counting on this deal to go through and they certainly are not going to say anything that helps to derail it.
ReplyDeleteBut I stand by my contention that Palin knows nothing about energy. Her time on the oil and gas commission was unremarkable except that she was willing to allow those who had issues with some of the "Old Bastards Club" to use her as a figurehead to out enough of the corruption to surgically remove the people they disliked without undermining the entire commission.
But the main point is that the AGIA is terribly flawed, will not happen in the long run, and the 500 million we spent as an incentive will be gone forever.
Don't bother taking my word for this, just pay attention and watch how it unfolds.