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The following editorial first appeared in the Anchorage Daily News:

Southcentral Alaska has seen years of deadlock over how best to replace the region's shrinking supply of cheap natural gas. Gov. Sarah Palin has appointed an in-state gas czar, Harry Noah, to help break that deadlock. Good luck.

It's hard to see how the state can do more than help around the edges. Southcentral is stuck with a worsening energy situation because too many private sector players have conflicting interests that prevent them from coalescing behind a common energy solution.

This is a case where there are many options and no single one is clearly best for all. Is the answer more gas drilling in Cook Inlet? A bullet line from the foothills of the Brooks Range? A spur line from a gas pipeline between the North Slope and the Lower 48? A spur line off a pipeline shipping gas to Valdez, for export to Asia? What about hydro power from Lake Chakachamna? Or geothermal power from Mount Spurr?

Given the realm of possibilities, the state has to be careful not to make the quest for Southcentral energy solutions even more complicated. Continuing to ask whether a bullet line from the Brooks Range foothills should make an expensive detour through Delta Junction and Glennallen may be an unnecessary complication. Based on today's conditions, the company pursuing the bullet line, Enstar, clearly favors a straight shot down the Parks Highway from Fairbanks.

Of all Southcentral's big energy supply options, the bullet line seems to have the most private sector momentum. Now that it's getting traction, critics are starting to carp about how expensive the gas deliveries may be or question the basic economics of it, even though Enstar is not asking for any public money.

Besides anointing an in-state gas czar, Gov. Palin also filed a bill to clear up some technical in-state pipeline regulation issues facing a potential bullet line from the Brooks Range foothills. That's a worthy goal, but the measure could become a political football, if backers of other gas supply options try to pile on conditions that actually hamper the bullet line.

The task for that legislation is pretty simple: It should make sure Railbelt consumers are protected against an overly expensive bullet line that delivers unnecessarily expensive gas. The Palin administration should assure the project backers that the necessary state permits will be processed quickly and competently.

Beyond that, the state should step back and let the private sector work out whatever is going to happen with a bullet line. A serious proposal is steadily moving forward, which was not the case when Gov. Palin sought and got the state to offer financial incentives for an open-access, independently run pipeline from the North Slope serving the Lower 48.

Gov. Palin also wants to expand the mission of the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority. The agency was created by voters to pursue a gas export project based in Valdez. Gov. Palin wants ANGDA to be able to promote gas supply projects throughout Alaska, including the Bush, which is suffering brutally high energy prices. There's probably no harm in making that change - provided the agency's management doesn't run around trying to insinuate itself into private sector projects that are progressing of their own accord. Sometimes politicians and critics have a tendency to let the perfect become the enemy of the good. It's easy to point out the flaws in any one potential way of solving Southcentral's gas supply dilemma. So far it has proven impossible to put together all the pieces needed for a workable solution.

The solution requires business leaders who can forge a common path forward, and political leaders who make sure that government doesn't throw any obstacles in the way.