Lawmakers weigh Alaska gov's gas pipeline plan

She'll have 60 days to convince the Legislature that TransCanada Corp. deserves a license to build a pipeline that would ship North Slope natural gas to power homes and businesses in U.S. markets.

Last year, the Legislature passed the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, calling for bidders to guarantee progress toward pipeline construction and be friendly toward new exploration.

TransCanada emerged as Palin's choice, but oil companies BP PLC and ConocoPhillips have said they are moving forward with their own joint project outside of the state's bid requirements.

Palin's administrators have submitted more than 2,000 pages supporting TransCanada's proposal, a plan which will undergo detailed scrutiny from some skeptical lawmakers these next few months.

"I'm fine with that," Palin said. "I welcome the scrutiny. But if any lawmakers have intentions of trying to shoot down AGIA for any illegitimate or political reason, they are not doing their job as a legislator.

"If any lawmakers are intent to not listening to the information that is provided to them--information which they asked for--and they are not abiding by the law they passed, they are not doing their job."

Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat and Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, said he likes what he sees so far, but approval is far from a slam dunk.

"For us to do our job, we have to truth-test every single word in these 2,000 pages," French said. "We can't go to the Alaska public 10 years from now if this deal goes sideways and say we voted for this because Sarah Palin said so."

Many lawmakers heard a pitch from Palin's gas line team and outside consultants last week in Anchorage, but the formal work begins when lawmakers gavel in late Tuesday afternoon.