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Ted Stevens Pushing Earmark For Son's Employer
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) wants to make sure an earmark left over from 2005 gets to the right oil company – the one that employs his son, former Alaska Senate President Ben Stevens.
Roll Call (sub. req.) has the story today on the $2 million that is supposed to help a subsidiary of SEMCO Energy to study the feasibility of a pipeline in Alaska.
When the earmark appeared in the Senate version of the SAFETEA-LU bill where Stevens chaired the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, it was left a little unclear where the money should go:
“That earmark came to us as an orphan,” said Mike Chambers, spokesman for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. “When an earmark comes in, and if it is general enough, several people will stand up and claim it ... sort of like a custody battle.”
Stevens, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are making it clear who should win custody:
ENSTAR Natural Gas and ASRC Energy Service. The companies are working to see if a pipeline can be built between Fairbanks and Anchorage.
ENSTAR Natural Gas is a subsidiary of SEMCO Energy, a Michigan-based energy company. Ben Stevens has served on the board of SEMCO since 2004 and was paid $77,810 for his service in 2006, according to the company’s most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
This latest news does not appear to have come out of the FBI's ongoing probe into Alaska politics.
Comments (8)
Eric Ferguson wrote on June 7, 2007 1:03 PM:One correction: Murkowski is in the Senate. Young is Alaska's at large representaitve.
feitlowitz wrote on June 7, 2007 2:59 PM:Isn't the real question "why aren't the record profits being used for the study?" Don't we always hear that the return on investment is not that great and that the industry needs the money for exploration?
brianm0122 wrote on June 7, 2007 3:10 PM:Maybe if the oil companies didn't spend so much on graft, they could afford to build their own pipelines...
Anonymous wrote on June 7, 2007 4:24 PM:Wonder how much of this GOP pork we'll hear about in the MSM.
Eric Paulsen wrote on June 7, 2007 5:09 PM:I'm sure H&C, Bill O, Tweety et al will jump on it right away.
Remember how the MSM screamed about all that Democratic pork in the Iraq budget bill?
You can't blame Ted 'bridge to nowhere' Stevens - he's a series of tubes!
michael dunatov wrote on June 7, 2007 9:46 PM:I posted this earlier at the DailyKos:
Why should anybody be shocked at this item?
It hardly warrants an asterisk in Ted Steven's long list of gifts to his pals in Alaska. To big oil, to little oil, to native tribes, to fishermen in the Bering Sea, to construction companies, and of course, to consultants to the above. All of the them very wealthy, very wealthy indeed thanks to Stevens' great generousity. Why do you think the very right citizens in Alaska call him "Uncle Ted"?
Now, he is grooming his son to take over for him in Washington to steer immense amounts of money to the resource rich State. After marketing Porkbarrels in Washington DC, Alaska specializes in nepotism in politics. But you need them because if you listen to Stevens, they are all poverty stricken in the wilderness and are desperate! They are especially desperate for bridges to nowhere. Remember how Ted said that he would resign the Senate before he would relent on his bridge? He didn't get it and he is still there...some principles there Teddy!
Grumpy wrote on June 8, 2007 8:21 AM:Trivial trivia: "Land Utilization" was added to the title of the Transportation Equity Act by then-House Transpo chair Don Young -- so that the bill would be named for his wife, Lu.
ktj wrote on June 11, 2007 1:47 PM:"Alaska State President Ted Stevens"
That's a new one.