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It's hard to know what to think of the Little Susitna Construction Co. The company's head, Dominic Lee, explained his company's AGIA pipeline bid to the Senate Resources Committee this afternoon, and it was a puzzling presentation.

Lee seemed at once well informed and out of touch. He knows the dollar figures and barrels of oil for various China projects, and can tell you the pounds of steel needed for a 48-inch gas pipeline to Valdez. He also wrote his company's AGIA proposal largely by himself (for a project costing billions) and proposed something that didn't meet the requirements of AGIA for a long list of reasons.

The proposal, submitted with the Chinese government-owned Sinopec, called for a large-scale pipeline to Valdez and shipment of gas to China as LNG.

Gov. Sarah Palin's administration turned down the application because:

1. It didn't describe "any" services or tariff terms. Tariffs are key to any aspect of the project -- how it's financed, what the state gets from the gas, how attractive the line is to new shippers, to name a few. Little Susitna didn't offer any tariff terms because it planned to buy the gas from the producers before it went into the line.

2. It required the state to enter a "new contract" with Little Susitna after the AGIA license was awarded, and it stipulated that the People's Republic of China have final say on approval of the contract.

3. It required that the state prove there's enough gas to fill a 4.5 bcf/d pipe for 30 years (more than is proven now), agree not to charge any right of way fees, lower the company's corporate income tax, and so on.

At one point, Sen. Bill Wielechowski asked if Lee had talked with the producers about getting gas.

Lee said he hadn't, because he was so confident he would pass the first round in AGIA and could do it later. He'd already asked Sinopec about it, and they said they'd set up meetings with Chinese representatives for BP, ConocoPhillips, and Exxon Mobil.

Lee said he called to cancel the meetings, but added later that he's asking the state to consider its decision, which he said resulted from a misunderstanding.

During the hearing, Lee freely offered big-picture thoughts on the oil industry and Alaska. He said the cost of energy in rural Alaska is outrageous, and he suggested the state could easily subsidize heating and electricity costs by capping people's bills at $50 a month for each.

At the end of the hearing, committee chair Sen. Charlie Huggins offered praise of sorts.

"You're like a hard drive," he said to Lee. "Anyone can tell you've put a lot of work into this."

A consultant hired by Little Susitna chimed in to praise Lee for putting together an idea basically on his own.

"Clearly out of the box," Huggins said.

Clearly.