More on Alaska

Past Diaries that all gives details on the F.B.I raids of 5 Republican and 1 Democrats offices in Alaska nearly three weeks ago. Ben Stevens, son of Ted 'Tubes' Stevens, had his offices raided, and 12 boxes of evidence removed. The Justice Department's Public Integrity Section (Enron, Abramoff) is heading the investigation.

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The Corrupt Bastards Club

What You Need To Know About The Alaska FBI Raids

What Else You Need To Know...

Wave Goodbye To The Republican Party

Lots of interesting news coming out of Alaska in the past few days. Some to do with the raids, some not but what I really wanted to bring to DKOS attention today is This Article at the Christian Science Monitor.

When Gov. Frank Murkowski announced last spring he had struck a deal with three major oil companies on terms for building a huge natural-gas pipeline to the Midwest, he said it would fulfill Alaska's decades-long dream of commercializing the North Slope's vast natural-gas resources.

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But now Alaska gas-pipeline politics has exploded.

Governor Murkowski was dumped from his job, finishing with 19 percent and in third place in the Aug. 22 Republican gubernatorial primary. Terms of his gas-pipeline contract led many voters to scorn the deal and the governor who proposed it.

Shortly after this primary is when the FBI raids took place. Remember that its not just legislators involved, there are 2 republican polling companies and the top VECO executives. More from the CSM article:

Adding to the public's sour mood is the partial shutdown in August of the huge Prudhoe Bay oil field - stemming from pipeline leaks that BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. is supposed to prevent. All together, the events are causing Alaskans to reevaluate their relationship to the oil companies that have long dominated the state's economy and politics.

National Democrats need to be more aware of whats going on in Alaska currently, and highlight some of these races. The public backlash at their Republican leaders has CQPolitics.com changing its rating on the race to Leans Republican from No Clear Favorite. Republican Sarah Palin has a lead in the polls over former two-term Gov. Tony Knowles but Knowles has proven campaign skills, and the strongest independent candidate is the race is a Republican could draw some votes away from Palin. in 2004 while running for Senate Knowles finished within 3 percentage points of Lisa Murkowski, in a state that Bush was winning by 25 points.  I kind of got off topic, on to more from the CSM about controversial provisions in Murkowskis Gas-Pipeline bill.

Freeze oil and gas tax rates for decades, forbidding the imposition of any new taxes on the three oil companies' Alaska operations, either by the legislature or by citizen initiative. "That's impossible. It's not constitutional, and it's wrong for Alaska," says Knowles.

* Require the state to take its tax and royalty earnings in the form of natural gas rather than cash, giving the state - which has never before marketed natural gas - the task of finding buyers and ensuring deliveries. "The state doesn't have a very good track record - and neither does any other state - of being in competition with private businesses, including three of the biggest oil companies in the world," says state Sen. Tom Wagoner, a Republican from Kenai.

* Omit any deadlines or performance benchmarks. The deal requires only that the three companies advance the project "as diligently as is prudent under the circumstances." "The contract doesn't do anything. All it does is lock us up for 35 or 40 years," says former Gov. Wally Hickel, a famously pro-development Republican.

* Surrender Alaska's right to take disputes with the companies to court and exempt them from oversight by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, which regulates utilities (including pipelines). Instead, disputes would be resolved by an arbitration panel, with some members chosen by the oil companies.

Is he effin serious?

Its backers - including Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials - say that unless this deal is approved quickly, the market niche that Alaska gas would fill will be satisfied by imported liquefied natural gas.

Ohh, well  Cheney said it, so it must be true. And imported liquid gas... Does Free Gas for every household in 151 Alaska Villages donated by Hugo Chavez count? You know the drill by now... more on VECO from the CSM:

Those who voted against the net-profits tax say their suspicion that the vote was tainted heightened after the FBI raids of the six lawmakers' offices, in a probe of VECO Corp., an oil-field service company based in Anchorage.

House minority leader Ethan Berkowitz (D) says he was outraged to find oil lobbyists in the House chambers giving signals to direct some members how to vote. During one heated debate, he made a speech decrying the telephone calls and other messages that were reaching the House floor during the proceedings.

"I saw votes taken, strong-arm tactics used on various legislators, votes reversed. I saw ugly efforts to turn this legislative body into a rubber-stamp for an administration that was in lock step with the oil industry," says Mr. Berkowitz, who is running for lieutenant governor.