Bill Walker, an Anchorage lawyer who is running for governor, is planning to file a request on Thursday morning for records related to the state's natural gas pipeline open season.  The request will seek access to all documents submitted by all open season bidders to TransCanada Corp. or to the administration of Gov. Sean Parnell.

An open season is when a company that wants to build a pipeline lays out the details of its plans, such as how much it will charge to move the gas. In response, producers make bids reserving space in the line by promising a long-term financial commitment to the project.

Walker believes the open season process should be more transparent. He doesn't like that the offers and conditions the oil companies make won't be made public until after the election. Since TransCanada will know, and the producers will know, the public should know too, he said.

"When the election comes about, Alaskans need to know whether we've had a failed open season or not," Walker said. "It looks a little convenient and coincidental that Parnell's going to keep it confidential until after the election."

Walker's records request, which was first reported by Alaska Dispatch, will also seek access to any documents related to Parnell's veto of Senate Bill 305, the so-called "decoupling" bill which, among other things, would have separated oil and gas from one another in Alaska's production tax structure.

"I want to find out what influenced his decision to overturn 305," Walker said.

Gov. Sean Parnell, who faces both Walker and Ralph Samuels in the August primary, inherited the pipeline plans of Sarah Palin when she resigned the governorship in the summer of 2009. Those plans mean the TransCanada project is eligible for up to $500 million in state subsidies under the Palin administration's Alaska Gasline Inducement Act.

Samuels agrees that the TransCanada open season should be public.

"Alaska paid for half the bill of this open season, so we deserve to see it," he said. "It belongs to us as much as it belongs to the shippers or TransCanada."

Samuels said he can't think of anybody who thinks this open season is going to be a success. The best thing for Alaska, he said, would be to open up the bids and the conditions so the whole state can argue and jaw over whether they're any good.

"I know what (Parnell) wants to do. He wants to say that it's very technical and nobody would understand it, so we'll let you know how it went in February," Samuels said. "It is in his political best interests to keep this thing quiet."

Walker said his decision to request the records wasn't a political calculation to fire up his campaign, which faces both a strong incumbent in Parnell and a charismatic challenger in Samuels.

There are currently two pipeline projects going through the open season process. The first is the Denali Project, a joint effort between BP and ConocoPhillips. The second is the Alaska Pipeline Project, a joint effort between TransCanada Corp. and ExxonMobil Corp.

Walker said that he'll post any records he receives on his website.

"There's no reason other than politics as usual to keep that secret," he said.

Contact Joshua Saul at jsaul(at)alaskadispatch.com.