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Gas and the gas line continue to be major topics down here, obviously, so here's an update.

-- House Speaker John Harris this morning released a letter he sent Gov. Sarah Palin yesterday urging her to consider building an in-state gas pipeline -- fast. "Simply put, the rising cost of energy statewide is becoming a threat to the economic viability of many communities, as well as individuals," he wrote, noting that a major pipeline project would take at least 10 years to build. "It is imperative that the State make the initial steps to advance an in-state natural gas pipeline."

When asked about it today, Palin said she agrees 10 years is too long to wait. In addition to the AGIA process to get a major pipeline going, the state could look at other steps, she said. Palin said she liked the work ANGDA was doing in-state, but she didn't really address the idea of a bullet line. She did mention the deal announced yesterday between Exxon Mobil and Fairbanks Natural Gas.

-- The Fairbanks Natural Gas deal got a lot of attention yesterday and was praised by some lawmakers as a great boon for Fairbanksans and a good omen for a gas line. But it remains to be seen whether the deal will lower natural gas prices in Fairbanks, and the scale of the project hardly symbolizes a step toward a gas line.

On the House floor today, Rep. Mike Kelly called it "particularly good news" for Fairbanks. Rep. Jay Ramras, an FNG customer, cautioned that ratepayers will ultimately bear the cost of the new infrastructure, suggesting the whole deal could be a Trojan horse. "We should be very careful how we unwrap that gift," he said, noting that the utility is not state-regulated in how it sets its rates.

-- The Senate Resources Committee will start reviewing the TransCanada application some time in the next few weeks, according to committee chair Sen. Charlie Huggins.

This has been something of an issue lately. Sen. Gene Therriault said he'd like to see the Senate Judiciary Committee take a look at some of the legal issues in the application. Sen. Tom Wagoner said he'd like Senate Resources to "hit the ground running" and go through the TransCanada application "portion by portion." It's clear that people haven't read the application, he said last week. Senate Resources and the House Republican majority have both held meetings with TransCanada, the Alaska Gasline Port Authority, and others, but only some lawmakers have come.

Assuming Palin chooses to go with TransCanada, lawmakers will have 60 days to figure out whether the proposal is good enough for the state. IMHO, that's a rather big task, and for now, it seems like lawmakers don't have a very good understanding of what the proposal is.

It's also not clear how they're going to get a better understanding. A few weeks ago, Huggins suggested it was the gov's responsibility to feed information to his committee. Now he's planning to hold hearings. The House majority isn't planning to hold any committee hearings until the governor issues an intent to award a license, assuming she does, according to a majority press officer. Adding to the confusion is the fact that the administration is still reviewing the proposal and isn't in a position to promote it. Save whatever PR TransCanada puts together, it seems like there won't be much -- if any -- public debate over the proposal before the public comment period ends March 6. And without public debate, I don't imagine there will be much press coverage. So for anyone who wants to learn more now, the best option is probably an unguided tour of the application. Everything that's not confidential is on the AGIA Web site (you can find it at www.state.ak.us). And don't worry, it's only a few hundred pages.