Alaska Governor Bill Walker ordered a halt to state funds being spent on a state-led North Slope natural gas pipeline as a budget contingency, a spokesman for the Alaska Gasline Development Corp said Tuesday. The order affects unencumbered state funds appropriated for a 36-inch pipeline being planned by the state gas corporation as a backup in case an industry-led 42-inch pipeline plan associated with a large LNG export project does not proceed, AGDC spokesman Miles Baker said. “The governor’s order does not affect state funds being spent in support of the larger industry-led project in which the state is a partner,” Baker said. The state’s gas corporation is also the entity participating with North Slope producers BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil and pipeline company TransCanada in the larger project, he said. Walker’s action affects several other large state-funded projects and was taken in view of […]