Fact checking the AP on Palin pipeline story

Anchorage Daily News:

Gov. Sarah Palin's signature accomplishment -- a contract to build (sic) 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."

This report from The Associated Press is a remarkably skewed account with little new information to support the charge it implies. Presumably, readers are supposed to conclude that Palin tilted the gas line bidding toward a favored company, one that had previously employed one of her key staffers.

Here's the truth: The pipeline terms were not "Palin's." They were the terms requested by the sovereign state of Alaska, as provided in the Alaska Constitution.

While Palin did indeed start by proposing very similar bid terms, all of Alaska's key decisions about those terms and the contract award itself were made through an unusually open public process that culminated in formal and enthusiastic approval from the Alaska Legislature.

...

AP's version didn't include the voices of legislative Democrats, who overwhelmingly supported the Republican governor's recommendation to award a state license and state matching funds to the independent pipeline company.

Reacting to the AP story, House Democratic minority leader Beth Kerttula told the Juneau Empire, "I don't think this story was fair and accurate."

...

The AP report said that Palin had contacts with potential bidders even though she said she would avoid those one-on-one communications. Among the potential bidders, Alaska's major oil companies have many types of business with the state they might want to discuss with the governor. Palin had two contacts with independent pipeline companies, but the AP offered no proof that Palin's contacts were anything other than legitimate queries for information about the bid process.

The AP story gave no sense of the frustration Alaska has experienced waiting 30 years for multinational oil companies to begin shipping North Slope gas to market. AP's account gave only a passing mention to why Alaska might want an independently owned gas line instead of one controlled by the oil majors.

AP's readers did not learn that the state's decision to seek an independent pipeline contractor prompted BP and Conoco to launch a competing gas line construction initiative, with less favorable financial terms than the state would like.

...

Sarah Palin's handling of the gas line license was a good example of how she was an independent-minded governor who worked with Democrats to overcome the old guard in her own party.

The Daily News is not a mindless hometown cheerleader for our governor. We have endorsed the opposing ticket in the presidential race.

But voters should make their judgment based on sound information. The AP report has offered a distorted picture of Sarah Palin's admirable performance in Alaska's long-running quest for a North Slope gas line.

...

This is a remarkable rebuke of the AP for a mainstream paper. I think it is well deserved. AP has approached this election with an agenda of knocking down the Republican ticket and lifting up the Democrat ticket. They have been especially eager to find reasons to vote against Sarah Palin and they have not been fair about their criticism of her. It setting out to damage Sarah Palin they have wound up damaging their own credibility. Because of the AP's hostility toward blogging I did not cover the original story and that decision is looking wiser at this time.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains