ANCHORAGE — Alaska lawmakers nervous about the state’s $500 million investment in a proposed natural gas pipeline have asked the company licensed to build it for proof that it was still viable.

Legislators spent two hours Tuesday questioning Tony Palmer, vice president of major projects development for TransCanada Corp.

They asked how many potential gas shippers had made commitments for space in the proposed pipe, which would carry gas from the North Slope to a distribution system in Canada.

ANCHORAGE — The commandant of the Coast Guard says the nation must decide what level of pollution cleanup response capability it wants the agency to have in the Arctic.

Adm. Robert Papp says that right now, the agency has none.

Papp spoke Friday in Anchorage at a U.S. Senate subcommittee hosted by Sen. Mark Begich. The Alaska Democrat chairs the Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard.

ANCHORAGE — BP Exploration Alaska will complete the cleanup of a spill at the Lisburne drill site on Alaska’s North Slope before digging up the pipe that burst and caused it, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said Tuesday.

An estimated 2,100 to 4,200 gallons of methanol, water and crude oil spilled early Saturday onto a gravel pad and into a tundra pond at the production facility.

The spill occurred as crews tested newly installed valves by pressurizing a section of pipe that crosses beneath a road.

ANCHORAGE — President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed an executive order creating an interagency working group to coordinate energy development in Alaska, a move hailed by lawmakers who want to see drilling in Arctic outer continental shelf waters.