Time for Alaska, Big Oil to lay gas line cards on the table

It is time for TransCanada, Exxon and the state to lay their cards on the table; time to tell Alaskans whether their natural gas pipeline project is deader than Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

To almost nobody's surprise, BP and Conoco Phillips yanked the plug on their Denali gas line project, an effort to build a $35 billion, large-diameter natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope to points south. Who could blame them? The companies said that after more than three years and $165 million they could not drum up enough binding "ship-or-pay" agreements to secure financing.