A $54 Billion Exercise in Revisionist History
So here we have Republican former legislator Charisse Millett claiming that President Donald Trump never claimed that a deal had been approved with Korea to pay $54 billion for the Alaska LNG project.
Millett claims that Trump, Sen. Dan Sullivan, Rep. Nick Begich the Third, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Glenfarne did not portray the Korean “investment” as a done deal.
Perhaps Millett was fed bad information by Sullivan.
Perhaps she failed to do any homework.
Perhaps she didn’t pay attention to what Trump said.
What’s certain is that her analysis is completely wrong.
Larry Persily wrote a good column in the Anchorage Daily News in which he told the truth about the gas line campaign fraud perpetrated on Alaskans right before the election.
The column obviously touched a nerve with Sullivan, who had been hoping to ride to reelection on the basis of winning the gas pipeline deal to end all gas pipeline deals.
Millett’s response in the ADN touched on exactly the same points that Suzanne Downing, whom Sullivan portrays as an exemplar of integrity, used to attack Persily — that his column was motivated by politics alone. That no one promised a gas pipeline, etc.
What the Sullivan apologists can’t confess is that Persily’s column was exactly right — the White House claimed it has a $54 billion deal in hand with Korea, but that nation says the claim is not true.
As they stood behind Trump in the Oval Office at the Sept. 30 campaign stunt, however, Sullivan, Begich and Dunleavy led a gas line victory dance.
I still don’t know if they knew the $54 billion was a charade or if they were desperate to believe a Trump lie because it would help con Alaskans into thinking a miracle had happened.
There was nothing conditional about the Trump announcement at all or how the Alaska politicians received it, contrary to Millett’s meandering missive.
“Thank you Mr. President!” Sullivan said afterward. “Glad we could get this across the finish line for Alaska!”
Fresh from the White House gas line party, Sullivan went on a right-wing talk show in Anchorage to say the money was in hand to build the gas pipeline, attack his challenger Mary Peltola and praise Trump, who had said that the pipeline would be built because of Dan Sullivan.
“I think the president has no interest in switching horses when he just said the guy who’s getting it done for Alaska and us is me right now,” Sullivan told Mike Porcaro, adding that the president of Korea had agreed to pay for the massive project.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick “really really drove a hard bargain with the Koreans,” Sullivan claimed. “But this is a really important day. It’s exciting.”
“It’s a big announcement. $54 billion. It’s a president to a president of an important ally,” said Sullivan. As Sullivan went after Peltola for being soft on the gas line, he said she was “saying anything to get elected.”
Dunleavy, who also appeared on Porcaro’s talk show Sept. 30, said, “Whenever you can get $50 billion plus coming your way for the largest gas project in the Arctic’s history and probably the largest project in the Pacific and certainly the largest project on the map in the world right now, that’s a good day Mike.”
Dunleavy said on social media it “was a fantastic day both for Alaska and for America as President Trump announced that the Republic of Korea is investing $54B into the Alaska LNG project, ensuring affordable, reliable gas for Alaskans.”
“Our South Korean allies are partners now, they are providing a lot of funding for this, upwards of $50 billion plus,” Dunleavy said.
Begich the Third also claimed the $54 billion deal was a historic accomplishment that Alaskans could take to the bank. He said the delegation was excited about what the pipeline would mean for the state.
And Sullivan and Begich should be reelected, Begich the Third said.
“When you’re putting up championships, you don’t trade Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. You come back and you win again,” Begich the Third told Porcaro.
The Third did not say whether he sees himself as Jordan or Pippen in that analogy.
by Dermot Cole, Anchorage Daily News | Read more:
Image:AP Photo/Alex Brandon
[ed. See also: In U.S. Gas Talks With Kremlin, Hidden Financing for Alaska Project Emerges (NYT):]
[ed. See also: In U.S. Gas Talks With Kremlin, Hidden Financing for Alaska Project Emerges (NYT):]
*****
An American energy company intends to buy Russian technology and use it to access a massive supply of natural gas in Alaska, liquefy it and export it to allies abroad.
But it turns out that the company was not an All-American affair. The multibillion-dollar project has received secret funding from the same powerful Russian company that was to provide the technology, according to the energy executive who until last month led the U.S. firm and two others involved in company negotiations. [...]
“It’s not only unlawful, but it’s not in the U.S. interest to have Russian technology controlling the commercialization of Arctic gas in the North Slope,” Mr. Riddle said in a brief interview.
These previously unreported tensions were also detailed in legal memos that Mr. Riddle attached to his resignation letter, which was reviewed by The New York Times. The memos, prepared by Baker Botts, an international law firm, said the Treasury Department’s sanctions enforcement unit had raised concerns that Polar LNG had ties to Novatek that might present “potential Russia-related sanctions concerns.”
Polar LNG on Friday issued a statement announcing a new acting chief executive, Tim Talkington, and described Mr. Riddle as a “disgruntled former employee.”
But in a statement to The Times, Novatek said on Friday that it, in fact, was moving to acquire “minority shareholder” status in the Polar LNG project — a striking effort by the Russian energy giant to seek ownership of American gas production.
The project, if it happens, is a long way off. In addition to the sanctions issues that would have to be negotiated, the technology envisioned is highly complex and must overcome some of the most brutal weather conditions in the United States. It also is competing with another Alaska gas plan that already has the support of the Trump administration. But that the Polar LNG deal is being discussed at all shows how business deals of almost any stripe are on the table during the talks with the Kremlin.
