Gasline to Valdez Causes Controversy across State

Gasline to Valdez Causes Controversy across State

By Lee Revis
Editor, Valdez Star

VALDEZ - The media attention generated by the Alaska Gasline Port Authority’s ad campaign, designed to get politicians and the Alaska public behind an all-Alaska natural gas pipeline to Valdez, has been effective in drawing attention to the issue. However, not all of the publicity generated by the campaign has been positive for the Port Authority but has generated plenty of controversy in the media.

One of the biggest stories being published around the state, and across the nation, is a story about Joe Marushack, an executive for Conoco Phillips, which is one of the largest lease holders on the North Slope holding leases on the oil fields that also hold vast quantities of natural gas. GAS LINE CLAIMS IN AD CALLED FALSE read the headline on the front page of the Anchorage Daily News. In the article, Marushack blasts claims made in the print ads, saying that it is not true that an actual offer to buy gas was made to producers by the Port Authority, only that the producers had agreed to talks. The executive also claimed that the Port Authority has overestimated the number of jobs that will be created in the state should a gasline come to Valdez, among other issues.

An Associated Press story that hit the newswire a couple of weeks ago about the Alaska Legislature’s failure to make a contract between the state and North Slope producers to bring natural gas to market through a Canadian Pipeline only mentions the all-Alaska pipeline towards the end of the story saying, “About a month ago, a third group entered the mix with a drastically different plan a very visible public relations campaign to go with it.”

Ironically, the Alaska Gasline Port Authority is not the Johnny-Come-Lately organization they have been portrayed as in many news stories throughout the state. The Port Authority was the first voter approved entity created to bring North Slope gas to any market when voters in Valdez, Fairbanks North Star Borough and the North Slope borough voted to create the group for the sole purpose of building a natural gas pipeline to Valdez from the North Slope back in 1999. In the year 2002, a statewide vote created the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Authority.

Perhaps the story that has caused the most controversy across the country was caused when Joe Holbert, an administration spokesman for Governor Frank Murkowski identified himself as a journalist in a letter to the editor that was published in the Juneau Empire that was critical of the Port Authority’s plans.

The story stirred considerable debate in newspapers across the country as to whether a government spokesman can call themselves a journalist. "I think spokespersons who handle news announcements are certainly journalists," he said in a story widely printed across the country.

While Holbert claimed he wrote the letter as a private citizen representing only himself.

According to the Associated Press, the letter said the Alaska Gasline Port Authority's proposal for a pipeline to ship North Slope Gas to Valdez and carried by tanker to the West Coast has a formidable obstacle in the Jones Act.

The Jones Act prohibits foreign-built ships from engaging in trade from port to port in the United States.

The concerns about the Jones Act hurting the port authority's proposal were previously stated by Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski in an April update to legislators on the progress of pipeline negotiations.

Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker, a port authority board member, said he did not believe Holbert was speaking for administration or was being deliberately deceptive in representing himself.

But, he acknowledged, the port authority's gas proposal is a tough political sell.

"It is very difficult politically in Alaska to do that which may be in the state's best interest (but is) contrary to the major (oil) producers," he said. "From time to time, those two interests come into conflict. We are in that situation today."

Whitaker said the port authority has only requested a partial and temporary Jones Act exemption, and if and when American ships are available, the exemption would no longer be needed.

(Editor’s note: The last six paragraphs of this story were taken directly from the Holbert story from the Associated Press)