Once more Sean Parnell finds himself in the mix of negotiations between the state of Alaska and the world's most powerful oil companies, but this time there is one big difference: No longer is Parnell a bit player.

Today, as he stands for election for the first time as Alaska's head of state, he finds himself an incumbent governor sitting on about $35 billion in what the 49th state calls the Permanent Fund, and holding in his hands the power to manipulate oil taxes that could be worth even more over the long term. Both could be key, or not, to finally getting work started on a long-anticipated gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope to anywhere.

This is old, familiar territory for Gov. Sarah Palin's replacement. He has been involved with oil and gas issues in Alaska for decades now -- first as the co-chair of the state Senate Finance Committee and a member of the Energy Council, a coalition of elected representatives from 10 oil producing states; then as director of government relationships for ConocoPhllips, one of Alaska's biggest oil producers; then as deputy director of the state Division of Oil and Gas under Gov. Frank Murkowski; then as a partner in the global law firm Patton Boggs, which just happened to represent the Alaska interests of Exxon Mobil Corp., another big Alaska oil producer; and finally as the energy adviser to Palin, the anti-Murkowski.

Over the years, Parnell has jumped the fence between public and private oil interests more than a snowshoe hare being chased by a pack of Arctic foxes. Congressman Don Young once labeled Parnell "Captain Zero," but the better label might be "Captain Who."

Parnell talks little about his years spent working for the oil industry in Alaska. His campaign website makes no mention of his past associations with Big Oil.

Asked about his work history, Parnell answers that the best way to learn about the oil industry in Alaska is to work in the oil industry.

All he really cares about, he adds, is the best interests of Alaskans.

Friends and supporters echo this view. State Sen. Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River, who has known Parnell since the governor delivered newspapers as a kid in Anchorage, can't imagine Palin's replacement putting the interests of himself or the oil industry over those of average Alaskans.

"I reject the whole idea," Dyson said.

Parnell himself looks a reporter smack in the eye and says the reason people believe that is because "it's the truth."

Ties to Big Oil

Still, it is interesting to backtrack the trail that led Parnell into the governor's office. It is not the post to which he was elected four years ago. Parnell was elected instead lieutenant governor. He moved up when Palin abandoned the governor's job halfway through her first term to pursue national fame and fortune after her failed bid as a Republican vice presidential candidate.

Left in charge of the state was a man whose last private sector job catered to the needs of ExxonMobil, among others. In his role as partner in the Anchorage office of Patton Boggs, a global political powerhouse that touts itself as "among the first national law firms to recognize that all three branches of government could serve as forums in which to achieve client goals," Parnell helped Exxon deal with a state still angry at the company for smearing Prince William Sound with 11 million gallons of crude oil back in 1989.

For Parnell, being on the private side in the long-running, push-pull between the state of Alaska and the oil industry was nothing new. He went to Patton Boggs from the state Division of Oil and Gas where he arrived after leaving ConocoPhillips.

An attorney by training, Parnell was hired by ConocoPhillips as director of government relations after schooling himself in the oil and gas business as a state lawmaker. Parnell was a member of the national Energy Council and co-chairman of the state Senate Finance Committee in the late 1990s when Alaska was struggling through a major budget crisis.