Palin No Pushover on Pipeline Project

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In the end, no one expects two pipelines to get built. Most likely TransCanada and the big producers will join forces in some manner. Presently both the Denali partners and TransCanada are performing the initial fieldwork on their projects. They plan on soliciting customers by 2010. At the earliest, says Tony Palmer, who heads TransCanada's pipeline operation, the new line could open by 2018. That effort would be expedited, he says, if the Republican ticket wins. But he notes that Democratic candidate Barack Obama also supports a gas pipeline.

"Barracuda" with Backbone

Marty Rutherford, deputy commissioner of the state's Natural Resources Dept., headed a team that developed the pipeline inducement program. She says the state's major goal was to keep the pipeline open to all producers. A pipeline owned solely by the big three operators might make it difficult for other companies to gain access. She says a number of independent producers including Anadarko Petroleum (APC), BG Group (BG.L), and Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) hope to exploit Alaska's natural gas reserves.

Palin, 44, came to prominence in the state as ethics commissioner of the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission, where she raised concerns about ethics violations on the part of two prominent local officials, the state's Republican Party chairman and Attorney General, both of whom later resigned. She faces ethics charges of her own involving alleged pressure by a member of her staff to fire her former brother-in-law, a state trooper who is involved in a child custody battle with Palin's sister. Still her approval rating is a sky-high 76%, according to a recent poll by Anchorage's Dittman Research, although that's off from the 86% rating she got in February. Palin's husband, Todd, is a union member who works for BP at oil fields in the North Slope. She is a former mayor of her hometown of Wassila, Alaska, where she earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" for her aggressive play on the basketball court.

Deputy Commissioner Rutherford says Palin has been under constant pressure from the big oil companies to alter her pipeline plans. "It took a lot of backbone to make the deal that she did," Rutherford says. "The governor has that in spades."

Palmeri is a senior correspondent in BusinessWeek's Los Angeles bureau.