{"id":4550,"date":"2008-10-26T13:12:12","date_gmt":"2008-10-26T18:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=4550"},"modified":"2008-10-26T13:12:12","modified_gmt":"2008-10-26T18:12:12","slug":"ap-investigation-palin-pipeline-terms-curbed-bids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=4550","title":{"rendered":"AP INVESTIGATION: Palin pipeline terms curbed bids"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JUSTIN PRITCHARD and GARANCE BURKE
\nAssociated Press Writers<\/strong><\/p>\n

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Sarah Palin’s signature accomplishment \u2014 a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 \u2014 emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration, an Associated Press investigation shows.<\/p>\n

Beginning at the Republican National Convention in August, the McCain-Palin ticket has touted the pipeline as an example of how it would help America achieve energy independence.<\/p>\n

“We’re building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline, which is North America’s largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever, to flow those sources of energy into hungry markets,” Palin said during the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate.<\/p>\n

Despite Palin’s boast of a smart and fair bidding process, the AP found that her team crafted terms that favored only a few independent pipeline companies and ultimately benefited the winner, TransCanada Corp.<\/p>\n

And contrary to the ballyhoo, there’s no guarantee the pipeline will ever be built; at a minimum, any project is years away, as TransCanada must first overcome major financial and regulatory hurdles.<\/p>\n

In interviews and a review of records, the AP found:<\/p>\n

[Read the report<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JUSTIN PRITCHARD and GARANCE BURKE Associated Press Writers ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Sarah Palin’s signature accomplishment \u2014 a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 \u2014 emerged from a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-1bo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4550"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4553,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4550\/revisions\/4553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}