05 December 2006

"Acting" at DNR

It occurs to me, as I read about the first days of the Palin administration and the initial negotiations, that it might not have been the wisest move to make the DNR commissioner an "acting" position.

The natural gas pipeline was the central issue of the campaign and getting one of them built was a central promise of the Palin campaign. In any such process, the DNR commissioner is going to be kind of important. And the Palin administration is taking the right first steps (at least optically) and meeting with all the "major players."

So imagine one of those meetings: "Hi, I'm Sarah, this is Sean, and this is our acting DNR Commissioner Marty." Are those energy producers going to take one of the central figures very seriously if they're not sure how long that central figure is going to be around? I'd say no.

I realize the transition period is relatively short in Alaska but she couldn't have made finding a permanent solution for this very important position a top priority?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good point. My thinking has me wondering if this is the carrot and stick approach to dealing with the oil companies. Finding someone palatable while leaving the big dog in the background, on a lease, ready to go and wait to see what the oiled patches do. Makes the move off dead center in a hurry at which time we start to play ball.