Going Rogue: An American Life (43 page)

Going Rogue

be open and transparent, with no behind-closed-door deals. The plan also included a series of mandates, or must-haves, including specific timelines, provisions related to pipeline access and expansion, reasonable tariffs (or transport rates) so more energy could affordably
low through the natural gas pipeline, and better energy prices for Alaskans.p>

Those provisions would allow local consumers to benefit appropriately from a pipeline running through their backyard. For instance, rather than pegging Alaskans’ gas price to the price paid in Chicago, the AGIA bill insisted

the project sponsor

licensee essentially provide a “pay for whar you need” transport rate, allowing Alaskans to pay transportation “tolls” relative to the distance the gas had been transported.

Some accused uS of taking too hard a line with the oil companies. I knew we were acting appropriately to hold the companies’

feet to the fire.

This project would

the private sector a tremendous

amount in government fees and prep work to get through local, state, and federal regulatory and environmental processes, so it made sense, along with the state’s number

must-haves, for

us to put some skin in the game by reimbursing the winning bidder for some of the up-front

costs.

Therefore, in crafting what would become the landmark Alaska Gasline Inducement Acr,’ or AGIA, we promised to reimburse up to

500 million in matching funds for the exclusive gasline license.

Throughout the process, it was our goal to take one of the state’s most historic-and most technical, buzzworded, boringto-read-bills and boil it down to the common sense levelbecause that’s my world. We had to articulate clearly and simply what we were doing

that Alaskans could trust us to do it right.

While our gasline team crunched away on the technical issues

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SARAH

PALIN

and lawyers, economisrs, scientists, consultants, and specialists from around the world provided drafts of potential language, the communications team-Marty, Bruce, Meg, and I-would cut to the chase like Ronald Reagan used to do and just talk to the people in plain language.

The task was all-consuming: many hours a day for many months with office meetings, conference calls, cabinet meetings, town hall meetings, legislative discussions, e-mails, video messages, and media interviews. None of it felt like work though. Instead it was exciting and exhilarating because we felt we were making history.

We knew we were headed in the right direction when the threats from some oil industry players began-everything from nasty e-mails to multimilliondollar ad campaigns. Though none of the Big Three oil companies wanted to move away from their relationships with the previous administration, ExxonMobil seemed particularly hostile. As we got ready to present AGIA to the legislarure, ExxonMobil’s chairman, Rex Tillerson (we called him “T_Rex”), told journalists at an energy conference in Houston, “I don’t really know where we are. I don’t think it looks like Alaska knows where it wants to go, either.”

Privately, I was frustrated with the industry’s posture against
the new competitive environment we hoped to cteate. Publicly, I tempered my comments;

What bothers me is that Alaska tried it Exxon’s way. The result was a contract [Murkowski’s] that is not viable. It did not have the support of the public or the legislature. That’s why we need a competitive, open, and transparent process. It’s painfully obvious that ExxonMobil does not want that process. We know exactly where we’re going and have a plan •

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Going Rogue

to move forwatd. Exxon doesn’t like that plan because it puts the interests ,ofAlaska and the nation first-and not Exxon.

Still, Big Oil slammed us in the media-again, confirmation that we were making the tight decisions. Soon after, we introduced AGIA to the legislature. That new word, “ah-gee-ah,” quickly became part of the 49th State’s vernaculat.

When I was labeled “anti-business,” it wasn’t difficult to connect the dots back to Big Oil. The motive was clear: it would spend millions of dollars to paint us as bad

Alaska because it

no longer had control of the state’s decisions. The smear campaign was obvious to many, thank goodness. I attribute that to the fact that we conducted business out in the sunshine for everyone to see. And the people appteciated that: my administration’s approval rating hit an all-time high. After much debate, the legislature adopted AGIA. In the end, only
one
lawmaker voted against the measure. Interestingly, it was the legislatot who had told Meg early on that bill passage is all about relationships and who is sleeping with whom. We wete tremendously excited about signing the bill into law. We planned the ceremony carefully: we wanted to bring this historic law, decades in the making, outside the state offices and directly to the people. After all, it was their bill-this was truly their future. We decided to hold the ceremony at the Fox Visitor Center right outside Fairbanks, next to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. On the morning of the signing on June 6, 2007, friends, family, and staff all headed to Fox. I my best pair of Carhartts, clogs

hand-painted by the Alaska artist Romney Dodd, and a T-shirt that said FREEDOM.

We placed a podium underneath the pipeline. Across the street, John Reeves (the Fairbanks Democrat who had

me