Whether the liquified natural gas pipeline could be built at all as a stand-alone project is questionable since the authority doesn�t control any gas and can�t get enough without extended litigation against the North Slope producing companies.

And it would take too much gas to the wrong place, the West Coast, which couldn�t absorb the 4.5 billion cubic feet a day the authority now claims it wants its line to carry.

There are many reasons why the LNG pipeline as proposed makes no sense. It might, however, be viable as an offshoot of the main line, which would run down the Dalton and Alaska highways to the U.S. Midwest.

Under that scenario, the Alaska Highway pipeline would carry up to 4.5 billion cubic feet a day of gas to the Midwest and the LNG line would carry up to 1.5 billion cubic feet along the Richardson Highway to Valdez. The liquified gas would then be tankered to ports in British Columbia or Mexico for shipment via pipeline into the U.S. West Coast.

The producing companies say they will need all the gas available for their project. And most experts say there is not at present enough in proven gas reserves to fill even a single large-diameter line to the Midwest.

The same experts, however, say that the prospect for additional large discoveries is high and it�s likely that proven reserves will eventually be much larger than those now on the books.

Gov. Frank Murkowski is apparently sending signals that he thinks the LNG project might work as a future spur line running off the main pipeline at Delta. The Alaska Economic Report noted in a recent edition that recent statements by the governor appear to be political jargon for a spur line.

Bill Walker, lawyer for the Gasline Port Authority, has told both the Alaska Economic Report and the Voice of The Times that his group could support a �Y� design involving both a line through Canada and an LNG line to a port in Valdez.

The economics of an in-state LNG line would not be better than for a standard gas line through Canada. Despite claims to the contrary, the benefit to the state in royalties and taxes - as well as in construction jobs - would be less than for a large-diameter, land-based, non-LNG pipeline.

But authorizing both might be a way for the state to avoid having all its eggs in one basket with a single line to a single market.

And since a smaller LNG pipeline might be able to obtain gas without extended litigation, doing both could be a way to avoid the legal bills, time delays and market disruption - and reduce the loss of state revenues - of an LNG-only line.

Whether a "Y" line is a good idea in the grander scheme of things is unknown, but it looks like a potential compromise.

High gas prices encourage biking

By ELISE PATKOTAK

What with the price of gas nowadays, it would seem that those of us fortunate enough to have friends with bikes who are not gloating should be grateful. Because there is nothing worse than an adult in a helmet, riding a bike with more gears than my car, laughing at me as I watch my life savings being depleted while I fill up at the gas station.

Now most bike riders are perfectly nice people. In fact, I have to admit that I am a closet bicyclist. But I don�t want to spread that information too far and wide for fear I�ll be blackballed from the "If God wanted man to ride a bike to work he�d have put a gas engine where his heart is" club. I�ve been a member of such good standing for so many years I�d hate to be tossed out.

I got into biking when I got to Anchorage and realized there was enough time without snow and darkness to actually enjoy it. In Barrow, you have to be way more dedicated than I am ever apt to be to the whole idea that fun can include two wheels, legs pumping madly over icy roads and temperatures hovering at 25 below.

For me, that really makes biking nothing more than a sheer endurance contest and I�ll leave that to Lance Armstrong. Here in Anchorage, if you can avoid cars that seem determined to eliminate the competition one rider at a time, bike riding can be quite enjoyable.

I started out with my three-wheeler and have now graduated to a two-wheeler just because I want to feel a little more grown up. I still have not exactly re-mastered the skills needed for a two-wheeler so I stay in the woods near my home where the only thing I will have to avoid is the occasional angry moose.

That is much preferable to the angry driver who doesn�t understand that I don�t have complete control yet over the steering mechanism and spend a lot of time swooping and swerving down the road. The moose is actually more reasonable.

I always thought that once learned, riding a bike was like driving a stick shift - it�s something you just never forget. You get on the bike no matter how many years separate rides and in just a few minutes you are back at Grand Prix level. I was very wrong on both counts - and I can only hope my sister will not connect her car�s stripped gears with my visit.

Somewhere between youth and now, I lost my basic sense of balance. (Pause for eruptions of hysterical laughter from my family at the idea that I ever in my life had anything in balance.) When I got on my sister�s two-wheeler recently for a ride on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, I quickly realized that I was having a distinct amount of trouble not steering into railings and people.

As we negotiated the streets from her house to the boardwalk, she�d ride ahead to an intersection and yell when it was clear so that I could sail through without stopping since I can apparently no longer stop without falling over sideways like Arte Johnson on his little tricycle on Laugh-In.

You would think that experience would sour me on anything but my trusty tricycle. But I am nothing if not a little stubborn. I�ve decided I should be able to balance on a two-wheel bike despite all evidence to the contrary. So when I got back to Anchorage, I went out and bought a two-wheeler, determined to re-learn how to steer it down a street without looking like a scene from an early Woody Allen movie.

I�ve not yet reached the point where I will take either bike near real traffic. But as gas prices slide up the scale with the ease of greased pigs sliding down a pole, the thought occurs that if I can just conquer this brave new world, I can ride my bike to the store and use my trusty little basket to haul my groceries home at a great potential cost savings. And the higher the price of gas rises, the more determined I am to find an alternative to paying those ridiculous prices.

So maybe my bike-riding friends have a right to be laughing at all of us with smug superiority. Their cost of living didn�t double when the price at the gas station did.

Elise Patkotak, an Anchorage free-lance writer and author of Parallel Logic, a humorous look back at her 28 years in Barrow, lives in Anchorage and owns Precious Cargo Ltd, a writing/graphics company.