Green's conduct unbecoming

Sen. Lyda Green's conduct at a Saturday hearing of the Senate Finance Committee was nothing short of disturbing. And it came at a time when great decisions are about to made regarding the oil industry, and when Alaska needs legislators to act with open minds and in the best interests of the state.

What Sen. Green, the co-chairwoman of the Finance Committee and the person overseeing the committee's handling of controversial oil tax legislation, did was inhibit discussion of another viewpoint precisely at a moment when our system of government expects it - needs it - to appear.

Several times on Saturday, Sen. Green, a Republican from Wasilla who is widely considered to be in favor of oil tax measures closer to what Gov. Frank Murkowski has proposed than to what her committee had been handed by an earlier panel, rejected a request by Fairbanks Sen. Gary Wilken - the committee's other co-chair, no less - to have Sen. Gene Therriault of North Pole speak to the committee about amendments that Sen. Wilken was offering on Sen. Therriault's behalf. Sen. Therriault is not a member of the committee; he is, however, the Senate's point person on the oil tax issue and the proposed natural gas pipeline and is co-chairman of a House-Senate committee that is a central player on both topics. To not let him speak was preposterous.

Three of Sen. Therriault's four amendments failed. Perhaps one or more would have passed had Sen. Therriault, the person given the task of becoming the senator most knowledgeable on oil and gas issues, been allowed to speak.

And perhaps Sen. Therriault's words are what Sen. Green feared.

What Sen. Therriault's amendments sought to accomplish is, really, immaterial here, although one of the defeated amendments is of particular importance in that it could make it financially easier for smaller companies to compete on the North Slope - and thereby prevent a consolidation of control among BP, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips.

What is material is that Sen. Green's quashing of a rival viewpoint is not compatible with the legislative process. And Sen. Therriault was Sen. Green's second victim of the day; earlier she had denied Sen. Tom Wagoner the ability to speak on a separate amendment, which the committee did approve.

Sen. Green, whose behavior Saturday has been described in the Capitol as unheard of, acted against not only the interest of the state in the matter of the oil tax legislation but also against the general principle of an open exchange of ideas and against the well-established protocol of the Legislature's upper chamber.

At a time when public confidence is most needed in the process, when Alaskans must have faith that their legislators are working on the oil tax bill with them in mind, Sen. Green made a grave error. She undermined what remains of an already waning public trust in the handling of the proposed oil tax legislation and, by extension, the forthcoming gas pipeline agreement.

How the full Senate responds to this action will be telling. But there really is only one appropriate course, and that is for a public rebuke of Sen. Green's behavior and to give full and fair consideration of Sen. Therriault's amendments after the tax bill comes to the Senate floor today.

- From the Fairbanks Daily News Miner,

April 24, 2006