Gov. Sean Parnell, Ms. Palin’s fellow Republican and former lieutenant, has announced that it is his top priority to undo parts of major oil tax increases that Ms. Palin made law. He argues that high state taxes, not just federal regulations, are preventing oil companies from exploring new drilling in Alaska and therefore jeopardizing future state revenues…
And the project Ms. Palin once portrayed as her principal legislative triumph, a plan to build a 1,700-mile natural gas pipeline that she said would transform the economy of Alaska and contribute to America’s domestic energy supply, seems an increasingly distant dream, undercut by low gas prices and more practical projects in other states.
“She made it an issue,” said Mike Chenault, the Republican speaker of the State House, who has sponsored a bill that would end Ms. Palin’s pipeline plan if firm evidence of progress is not documented by this summer. “That was the way that Alaska was going to move forward. As of yet, we haven’t, in my opinion, moved one step forward.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member