Weighing in on offshore drilling

Gov. Sarah Palin told the new secretary of Interior on Tuesday that Alaska needs new offshore oil and gas development or risks an early shutdown of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

"Once that line shuts down, it will mean the end of oil production on the North Slope," Palin said, adding that plans for a new pipeline to carry natural gas to Lower 48 markets are at stake, too.

But at the same meeting in downtown Anchorage, skeptical fishermen raised the spectre of the Exxon Valdez oil spill as an example of the dangers of development. The mayor of the North Slope Borough said new oil and gas projects in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas aren't worth the risk.

"That's because spill response (is) virtually impossible in Arctic waters," said Mayor Edward Itta.

This is the battle for the future of oil and gas development in Alaska. It hit the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center on Tuesday morning, as U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made his second stop in Alaska to hear whether oil and gas development off the state's coast is a good idea.

North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta pleads the Arctic Coast case to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar April 14, 2009, at the Dena'ina Center.

Protesters supporting oil drilling wave signs outside the Dena'ina Center, where U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar held a daylong public hearing April 14, 2009.

A costumed drilling suppoter holds a sign that says, "OCS drilling? We can work with that" outside the Dena'ina convention center Tuesday morning before Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's hearing.

A pro-development group demonstrates outside the Dena'ina Convention Center early Tuesday, April 14, 2009, where Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was to speak.

Congressman Don Young and Gov. Sarah Palin participate in Tuesday morning's hearing. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar conducted a hearing on offshore oil and gas drilling at the Dena'ina Convention Center in Anchorage on Tuesday, April 14, 2009.

U. S. Senator Lisa Murkowski gives comments as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar conducts a hearing on offshore oil and gas drilling at the Dena'ina Convention Center in Anchorage on Tuesday, April 14, 2009.

Protesters in support of offshore drilling march from the Egan Center to the Denaina Center where Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is holding hearings.

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