Legislators who want the Alaska Railroad to spearhead an in-state natural gas pipeline are trying to undercut the state’s chief executive.

They want to remove the governor from the picture because the administration sees the in-state line as a backup plan to the big pipe to Canada.

At a press conference Thursday, Rep. Jay Ramras, Sen. Lesil McGuire, Sen. Charlie Huggins and Rep. Mark Neuman spoke about why they want to go around the governor.

Their opposition to the administration’s handling of gas pipeline issues does not justify a change in the structure of state government.

An in-state gas pipeline would be billions of dollars bigger than anything the state has ever attempted. Delegating this to the state railroad and expecting overnight success is unrealistic.

And it’s not as if the head of the railroad or its board can afford to blow off the governor. Two commissioners serve on the railroad board and the other board members are appointed by the governor.

Financing this project and keeping the design to a flow rate that would not trigger the penalties under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act are two of the complex challenges that don’t seem to be within the railroad’s mission.

The proponents are calling this ASAP for the “Alaska Stand Alone Pipeline” and speaking as if an in-state natural gas pipeline will require no subsidy, that the gas will be cheap and building it will be a snap.

I’ve seen nothing that justifies those assertions.

If the major goal is to subsidize the cost of fuel, then the easiest way is for the state to cut the price of its royalty oil and work out a deal with in-state refiners. The Supreme Court has never declared that unconstitutional. 

McGuire said the group is “not concerned so much about AGIA or other things, but really how do we get in-state gas to the residents of Alaska both for their residential use and their commercial use.”

McGuire said the project should be removed from the executive branch of state government and placed with the railroad, where there is no potential conflict between a smaller in-state pipeline and promoting the big pipe.

“Let’s put it in an independent agency that can be passionate about this without any perceived conflict of interest,” said McGuire.

Ramras said the railroad would try to find industrial customers who want to buy gas or export gas, which the Parnell administration has not done. Those customers are needed to make a pipeline economically feasible.

“We’re not looking for a librarian to steward a project and to create reports and to create options,” said Ramras. “We are looking for an org chart that puts somebody at the tip of the spear that is arctic icebreaker class.”

In Alaska’s government, our governor is at the tip of the spear.

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TIRED IRON: The ancient snowmachine contest known as Tired Iron is headed to the Chena River downtown this weekend, thanks to the abundance of water flowing at points downriver.

This year it will be a two-day event, starting Saturday with kids racing on small snowmachines from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the “Wired Iron,” followed by the “Jurassic Classic” for “seasoned riders,” such as Cliff Everts, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The “Radar Run” for pre-1977 air-cooled snowmachines and pre-1980 liquid-cooled snowmachines is from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

There will be a bunny boot golf contest, a Butterball turkey toss and a “kids as curling rocks” contest Saturday from about noon to 2 p.m. or later. In addition, look for an on-the-ice slingshot that Craig Compeau calls a “kid-a-pult.”

Theresa Bauer will be singing some Patsy Cline songs and there will be lots of room for spectators.

The main event of the weekend is the 22-mile Tired Iron Classic on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., open to snowmachines built before 1975 that were designed to go at least 50 mph.

Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell will drop the flag for the classic.

On Sunday afternoon, there also will be an event for liquid-cooled snowmachines and the Fun Run, for any old machine that can go at least 25 mph. The races continue until about 5 p.m.

For more information and registration details, go to www.fairbankstirediron.org or call Compeau’s at 479-2271.

Dermot Cole can be reached at cole@newsminer.com or

459-7530.