Alaska's natural gas getting left out of clean energy debate

Along the Gulf of Mexico coast, the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil geyser daily replenishing an offshore oil slick has sparked a discussion of a ban on oil drilling on America's continental shelf.

"Offshore oil production is too risky," some say, though damage from this BP oil spill has so far been minimal, and the track record of past production is good.

"Offshore oil is a necessary evil," answer others, who point to American dependence on oil.

Unmentioned in any of these discussions is the clean, readily available source of energy on which America is now sitting: Alaska natural gas.

You can't put natural gas in a car, but automobiles can be converted to run on natural gas. And natural gas can be used to fuel clean-burning electric power plants to provide the energy for a growing number of hybrids and soon-to-arrive electric cars.

Larry Persily, head of the federal gas pipeline permitting office and a former Alaska state official, said last week he doesn't know whose job it is to advocate for the gas pipeline as a safe, clean energy source for the U.S., but he noted it could provide safe, clean energy.

Is it time for the State of Alaska to amp up that lobbying now?

In disaster there is sometimes also opportunity.