Fairbanks Natural Gas Pipeline Route - Up in the Air

If there is a reason for Fairbanks to support a small-diameter gas pipeline from Fairbanks to Anchorage via the Richardson and Glenn highways, the proponents did not provide one Monday.

Instead, they justified the longer route with vague comments about development of Ahtna lands that might have natural gas potential — an uncertain prospect at best — and providing natural gas to the missile defense system.

Neither of those ideas warrants going the long way around and the extra hundreds of millions, including an unknown state subsidy, that would be required.

We need to hear far more from the Palin administration, as well as from Enstar and the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority before this largely undefined “partnership” goes ahead.

And the Palin administration should make sure it is not advertising more than it can deliver, pledging “the first phase of a bullet line to bring Alaska gas to Alaskans within the next five years.”

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. In this case, the straight line is more or less along the Parks Highway, not the Richardson and Glenn highways.

With a state subsidy in the offing, the long route needs a better defense than was offered Monday by the governor.

Also unclear from the announcement is where the gas would come from, who would pay for the construction and what the costs would be to get gas to Fairbanks within the next five years.