Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority, the embattled state agency created in 2002 through ballot initiative, has never been short on fight. It was, in fact, born on the bed of it. Scott Heyworth, the man with the idea to create the agency, walked through neighborhoods all across Anchorage, knocking on doors. Although his efforts relegated him to the fringe of Alaska’s politics, the initiative passed; its charge to bring some of those huge North Slope natural gas reserves to Alaskans.

Sounds simple and sane enough. But as a handful of governors, a slew of legislators and reams of studies have shown, the simplest concepts in Alaska are often the most politically charged. Ideas can gain you all sorts of political enemies.

This is what appears to have happened to ANGDA last year, when its mission was handed by the Legislature to another state agency, the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. AGDC was conceived to help realize an in-state gas line, funded to the tune of $23 million to try and get Alaska's gas to Alaskans.

ANGDA may enjoy a voter-approved mandate to operate but its budget pales in comparison to AGDC, a paltry $300,000 this year.

Given this, it's perhaps not only natural, but smart that ANGDA chose to focus on something besides in-state natural gas delivery, at least for the time being.

And that something else is propane.

Propane has the potential to do more than just power your outdoor grill. It can heat Alaska homes, cook Alaskan meals and even fuel Alaskan vehicles, thanks to advances in technology. A company called ROUSCH CleanTech has delivered a propane fuel-injected carburetor that works even in the coldest North Slope temperatures. And ANGDA has decided to partner up with ROUSCH.

Propane-powered vehicles could save Alaskans money while making Alaska air even cleaner. Turns out propane is kind of a wonder fuel. Though it isn't a true renewable, propane costs about a third of unleaded gasoline or diesel, has about a third fewer greenhouse gas emissions and, if nothing else, could serve as a "bridge" fuel until renewable fuels are financially viable.

And because propane comes with natural gas, we've got a lot of that bridge fuel. Every day, the producers re-inject between 50,000 and 80,000 barrels of propane back into Alaska's North Slope oil wells.

"We have a bounty of propane on the slope," said Harold Heinze, the head of ANGDA. "But we're bringing it in from Canada at a much higher price than we should be paying."

For the past nine months, two ROUSH CleanTech trucks have been cruising Alaska's roads. One of the trucks was used on the slope and weathered conditions up to 55 below. Other demos are planned too: the National Park Service plans on trying out a propane-powered vehicle in Denali National Park and Preserve. Matanuska Electric Association also plans to demo the vehicles.

Heinze believes that if he more Alaska businesses or agencies -- particularly the state's fleet of trucks -- consider the switch, it would incentivize oil producers to build a facility that could process Alaska propane for Alaska use.

More than 15 million on-road vehicles worldwide are fueled by propane and about 270,000 of those are on roads in the United States. The public school fleet in Portland, Ore., runs on propane, and other states and municipalities are considering switching their public fleets to propane power.

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell seems not be aware of propane's potential. Heinze has been keeping the governor informed of propane's potential, not to mention other projects ANGDA has delved into. But Parnell has been "uninvolved" in the propane discussion, Heinze said. 

When asked if he had any plans to consider switching Alaska's state vehicle fleet to propane, Parnell  spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said via email that he is not familiar with "this particular proposal" but "is is interested in hearing any ideas about how to commercialize our gas reserves."