JUNEAU - Alaska's legislative leadership has asked Gov. Bill Walker to consider expanding the scope of the special session here to clarify what lawmakers think is an ambiguity in the law governing the state's pursuit of a natural gas pipeline megaproject.
Senate President Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, and House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, met with Walker on Sunday to make their request, Meyer said.
Walker called the Legislature to Juneau to vote on his request for about $150 million for work on the pipeline project that Alaska is pursuing with three oil producers and a pipeline company, TransCanada.
Much of the money would go toward buying out the stake in the project currently held by TransCanada, which controls a share of the theoretical pipeline and a plant that would treat natural gas before it enters the pipe on the North Slope.
Some House members say that the state corporation that works on the project, the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., lacks authority to take on the share of the pipeline and gas treatment plant if it's transferred from TransCanada.
"It looks to me by reading 138 that we took away that authority," Rep. Steve Thompson, R-Fairbanks, said in a brief interview Sunday. He was referring to Senate Bill 138, the bill passed by the Legislature last year that governs the state's participation in the pipeline project.
A spokeswoman for Walker, Grace Jang, said the legislators' request was being reviewed by the state's law department.
If Walker declines to expand the scope of the special session that he convened, lawmakers could call their own special session to take up the issue, said Meyer, the Senate president. But, he added: "It's easier if the governor does it."