A Citizen’s Guide

Gov. Frank Murkowski on Friday pulled back from his vow to call legislators back into a third special session on a natural gas pipeline contract with North Slope petroleum producers.

Murkowski lost to Sarah Palin by a margin of almost 32 percent on the Republican gubernatorial ballot Tuesday.

“Obviously this is a change of circumstances here that has to be taken into account,” said Jim Clark, Murkowski’s chief of staff and lead gas pipeline negotiator.

“We’re looking into whether the necessary support from legislators and producers is there,” Clark said.

The decision about whether to proceed will be up to those players, Clark said.

“We’re not proposing to lead the ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ here,” he said. “The reason we’re raising it all is we think the greatest risk to Alaska is in not getting a gas line. Time is not our friend.”

Neither Palin nor her spokesman could be reached Friday. Palin was at the Alaska State Fair and her spokesman was taking a few post-election days off.

Palin has stated throughout the campaign that she wants to pull away from the governor’s negotiated agreement with North Slope producers and talk with other potential pipeline builders.

A special session could highlight the conflict between Murkowski and Palin even as Palin is in the midst of her own clash with former Gov. Tony Knowles, the Democratic nominee from Tuesday’s election.

Clark said the administration isn’t looking to pull down Palin by pushing the governor’s plan.

“There is no intent to undermine her at all,” Clark said.

The governor’s office will consult with the major candidates in the gubernatorial race, too, he said.

“We’ll be briefing those folks,” he said.

Knowles, at a campaign kick-off in Fairbanks on Friday morning, said he doesn’t foresee success in another special session.

“Once again, Alaska is in the dark. I can’t imagine a Legislature would want to go into a special session and act on something they haven’t seen, at the 11th hour,” Knowles said. “And certainly the public, I think, would be outraged.

“There has been overwhelming rejection, across party lines, across regions, of some of the concessions, unnecessary concessions, and structure of what that contract did,” Knowles said. “So as I say, show me the contract prior to that. Open it up. Put a little sunlight on it.”

Clark said legislators would be full participants in any effort. They would need to agree on the structure of a limited liability corporation to own the pipeline, he said. The administration also has several proposed changes to the earlier contract proposal that it wants considered. Several pieces of legislation would be needed to put everything in place as well, he said.

Clark said the administration doesn’t have a date by which it wants the parties to agree to a special session. “No, but we need to make a decision sooner rather than later,” he said. “They probably need 30 days (to study the contract), and they need to campaign.”