IBD: Palin's Pipeline No Pipe Dream

Investors' Business Daily's editors say that the agreement (see here and here) between ExxonMobil and TransCanada to cooperate on Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's signature energy project to build a pipeline to transport natural gas to the lower 48 states is a "big home run" and "must be sweet vindication for Alaska's governor." Her critics on both the left and the right have said that the major pipeline project would never go anywhere, and several have said in recent days that no progress was being made on the endeavor, known as AGIA.

Calling ExxonMobil the "big gorilla" of American energy, the editors say that the oil giant coming on board is a "big vote of confidence" in the governor's project:

This is another in a series of successful steps to build the world's largest commercial construction project. For this, credit Palin. Despite the too-hip ridicule of comedians like David Letterman, she was the one who got the pipeline past Alaska's legislature, something governors had tried — and failed — to do for 30 years.

Other partners are sure to join, and the near-impossible task of bringing Alaskan energy to the continental U.S. is that much closer.

If there are any doubts left, note that it's Alaska's officials giving Palin the most credit. As Deputy Natural Resources Commissioner Marty Rutherford told IBD, Palin relentlessly drove this project, walking the process through the bureaucracy, asking questions, even going to Texas on Thursday to hear from Exxon itself.

As the editors point out, it's about time Governor Palin received due credit for her efforts on behalf of American energy security and less attention for "having to defend herself from the dirty jibes of over-the-hill comics."

- JP