Palin was unaware of Gazprom's visit to Alaska
By PAUL JENKINS
Is it just me, or is it disconcerting that Gov. Sarah Palin was left in the dark when the entire senior management of Gazprom waltzed into Anchorage to meet with an oil company executive and the state? They wanted to talk about their company and investing in energy projects here, perhaps even the proposed gas line from the North Slope to points south — and nobody told Palin?
How can that be?
Gazprom is not Uncle Bob’s Gas Co. and Hubcap Shoppe. It is beyond huge. It is Russia’s largest company and a market force. In fact, it’s the largest natural gas extraction company on the planet, accounting for more than 90 percent of Russian gas production. It controls something like 16 percent of the world’s gas reserves.
Imagine: Gazprom’s senior management — and several pals of Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin — show up in the governor’s conference room in the Atwood Building in downtown Anchorage for a chat with Deparment of Natural Resources officials and Jim Mulva, ConocoPhillips’ top executive.
Nobody wonders, “Hey, should we tell the boss? After all, she’s spending a lot of time slapping around the Russians, especially Putin, and the media is nosy and all that.” Instead, the lovely and fashionably dressed Sarah P. is left campaigning . . .
(cont'd from front page) somewhere in Podunkville to be ambushed by a pesky reporter.
Apparently that is exactly what happened. Here’s what CNN said:
“The campaign of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said the Alaska governor was unaware of a visit by Russian energy officials to Anchorage on Monday. . . .
“Palin has argued that her state’s proximity to Russia, as well as trade missions between Alaska and Russia, have helped give her the foreign policy experience necessary to be Vice President. But the campaign said the governor did not know that the Gazprom delegation was meeting with the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, who is a Palin appointee.
“Asked if Palin supports Gazprom doing business in Alaska, an aide to the governor said that ‘Alaska state officials routinely meet with government representatives from energy companies around the world.’ ”
I wonder if anybody bothers to tell Palin about any of those meetings.
CNN says DNR chief Tom Irwin later said he told Palin’s chief of staff about the meeting before it occurred, and he said he swapped e-mails with Palin about energy issues, but that neither mentioned the Gazprom meeting.
“Despite Palin's absence from the state, Irwin said, ‘it remains business as normal, and the governor has stayed very involved in state activities and is still leading state government,’ ” CNN reported.
Really? How about the Gazprom huddle? Maybe business as normal is part of the problem.
If you take a moment to think about the Palin administration and its myriad woes, it is easy to wonder whether she has chosen her staff — from her attorney general on down — with the care and thoughtfulness of someone who understands that her reputation and the fate of the state rest in large part on the abilities, intellect and experience of her subordinates. Given the screwups, lack of communication and the missteps, that largely does not appear to be the case.
If I were Palin, the first thing I’d do is stop saying, “You betcha,” but that’s for another time. What I’d really do if I were forced to return to the Frozen North after a defeat on the national level, is weed out my staff. From DNR chief Tom Irwin, who has cost the state hundreds of jobs and cold hard cash by blocking Exxon development of Point Thomson, he says, because he does not trust the company, to the attorney general for his role, or lack thereof, in Troopergate. And then I’d ask for the resignation of whoever did not tell me about Gazprom and left me to look like a doofus.
Palin will be facing a new playing field if she returns to Alaska and will have new enemies and problems. Why tolerate sabotage, intentional or not, from her own team? It’s time to clean house. Is it absolutely necessary?
You betcha.
Paul Jenkins is an editor of The Anchorage Times. His e-mail address is This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it