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Denver energy on Palin radar

She earned political stripes taking on 2 deals with Colo. ties

By David Milstead, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published September 13, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Sarah Palin earned a reputation in Alaska as a reformer by questioning two deals that had Denver companies at their center.

Photo by Robyn Beck / Afp/Getty Images

Sarah Palin earned a reputation in Alaska as a reformer by questioning two deals that had Denver companies at their center.

A 180-foot coal silo stands ready to be filled at the KFx site in Gillette, Wyo., in 2004. That year, then-Alaska Attorney General Greg Renkes wanted the state to partner with Denver-based KFx to dry out wet Alaska coal for shipment.

Photo by Barry Gutierrez / The Rocky/2004

A 180-foot coal silo stands ready to be filled at the KFx site in Gillette, Wyo., in 2004. That year, then-Alaska Attorney General Greg Renkes wanted the state to partner with Denver-based KFx to dry out wet Alaska coal for shipment.

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The road to the White House for Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin may run straight through Denver's energy community.

Palin, Alaska's governor, made her political reputation in the state as a reformer by questioning two deals with Denver companies at their center, according to Alaskan news accounts from the period.

After her stint as mayor of the small town of Wasilla, Palin joined the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, serving as chairwoman and ethics supervisor.

In 2003, Palin heard from the commission's staff that fellow commissioner Randy Ruedrich, also the chairman of the state Republican Party, was conducting GOP business on commission time. He was also publicly advocating a deal to let Denver-based Evergreen Resources drill for coal-bed methane in the valley where Wasilla is located.

A commission staffer told Palin that Ruedrich leaked a confidential state document to an Evergreen Resources lobbyist. Palin took all the complaints to the governor's office, and Ruedrich resigned in November 2003. After a formal ethics complaint from the state attorney general's office, Ruedrich settled the case in June 2004, paying a $12,000 fine.

Evergreen Resources abandoned its drilling plans and was sold in 2004 to Pioneer Resources.

Palin's next prominent ethics battle came in 2004, after the Anchorage Daily News began to report that Attorney General Greg Renkes was advocating that the state partner with Denver-based KFx to dry out wet Alaska coal for shipment overseas. Renkes had a significant portion of his personal portfolio tied up in KFx stock.

Palin joined with a Democrat to advocate an investigation of Renkes, who had declined to step down after the conflict became public. The two said the process should be handled through the state's personnel procedures, rather than by the special investigator appointed by Gov. Frank Murkowski, a close ally of Renkes'.

Renkes "was the second major Republican she took on," said Paula Dobbyn, the former Anchorage Daily News reporter who broke the Renkes stories. "The word maverick is so overused, but she's not your typical Republican."

Renkes resigned in February 2005, blaming the news media and politics. In September 2005, KFx hired Mark Sexton, Evergreen Resources' founder and CEO and a five-year member of the KFx board, as its CEO, and changed its name to Evergreen Energy. Sexton left the company in April 2007.

Evergreen Energy continues to try to commercialize clean- coal technology but is struggling. Spokesman Paul Jacobson said the Renkes matter has "been widely reported, it's in the past, and it's unrelated to what Evergreen is trying to accomplish today."

Finance Editor David Milstead can be reached at milstead@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2648.

Comments

  • September 15, 2008

    1:47 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    rg writes:

    It is the bridge to nowhere that carps at me. She lobbied for the bridge; we sent her $millions; I read 27 million. Publicity cancelled the bridge. The latest commercial says Palin told Congress to shove it, that she didn't want the pork though she is the pork queen which does sound like the pig wearing lip stick which is a compliment because a pit bull, as she claims to be wearing lip stick, is not only vicious but is known as a (the b word). She must return the money or call it theft. Richard Grimes: Deicide, a man whose sword is the printed word focused on slaying Palin's god along with all gods sending them to Mythology Cemetery.

  • September 15, 2008

    1:50 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    jvb writes:

    Spooky from the wacky world of Assemblies of God: Sarah Palin believes in talking snakes, donkeys, witches, wizards, evil creatures, and Iraq is a "task from God." Would you vote for someone who hears the voice of god? The bulk of Americans voted that way in 2000 and 2004. If McCain wins and dies, once again the President will not only hear the voice of god but she will be endowed with prophecy; she will, like Joe Mormon, be singled out for revelation.

    Her pastor, who along with hubby Todd ("my guy" she says) say: "The storm clouds are gathering" while another of her pastors says, "Sarah is a great woman. A religious woman." Pentecostals don't want peace on earth--they want the violent biblical prophecies to be fulfilled so they can get to heaven and be rewarded with eternal life. Pentecostals (Sarah Palin) share Hitler's sentiment about Jews as "Christ killers. How can a human kill a god? In the case of Christ, it was assisted suicide with Romans chosen to hammer in the nails. Were it not for this, there would be no resurrection and no god named J.C.

    I suppose Christians will be voting for Sarah pursuant to the Hitler sentiment while the "bubba" i.e. Obama haters will do the same. Vote for Palin so that her God will be at the helm steering the ship of state