Gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker is pushing Gov. Sean Parnell -- again -- to turn over information on the recent bids to ship North Slope gas through a state-supported pipeline project.

Friday was the close of the open season for the Alaska Pipeline Project, a joint venture of TransCanada Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. that is moving forward with the help of the state. The Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, passed by the Legislature when Gov. Sarah Palin was still in office and supported by Parnell, commits as much as $500 million in taxpayer money in pre-construction costs. TransCanada officials estimated Friday the state has spent about $75 million so far to reimburse TransCanada for costs it has incurred in the open season.

The open season is a bidding process aimed at helping the companies figure out whether there are enough buyers interested in enough gas to justify -- and finance -- a large-diameter pipeline estimated to cost at least $40 billion. The AGIA-backed project has two alternatives: One is a pipeline that would run from the North Slope to Alberta, Canada, to provide gas to North American markets; the other is a line from the North Slope to Valdez, where gas would be liquefied and shipped on tankers to markets overseas.

Walker has long been a proponent of the so-called all-Alaska gas line and has made the construction of a pipeline to Valdez the signature of his gubernatorial campaign. So it's not surprising that his public records request to the governor on Tuesday wants to know if bidders were more interested in the Valdez alternative or the Canadian alternative.

It's the second public records request Walker has filed in an effort to get information on the viability of a gas line out before the Aug. 24 primary. Walker has said Parnell, in refusing to release information about a project where so much public money is on the table, is just playing politics and trying to win an election at the expense of the public.

At issue is whether a gas line ever really will get built because shippers and producers are expected to want so many conditions from the state -- like favorable tax rates -- that it will simply never be politically possible. Walker has said Parnell is holding out the political carrot of a gas line simply to win the primary.

On Friday, Tony Palmer, TransCanada vice president for Alaska development, said simply that his company had received "multiple bids from major industry players and others for significant volumes" of North Slope gas. He declined to be more specific and wouldn't say whether bidders were more interested in the Valdez or Canada option.

The state and TransCanada officials insist revealing the information would compromise the competitive business process and out the project at risk. There's a second competing gas line in the works -- the Denali project sponsored by BP and ConocoPhillips -- and TransCanada doesn't want its bids made public while that open season, which ends Oct. 4, is still ongoing. Pipeline officials have also said revealing the bids could affect bidders' other business interests elsewhere in the world.

Neither Parnell nor his staff responded to a request for comment for this story on Tuesday afternoon. But various state officials have said they don't have any more information than what Palmer said on Friday.

Walker's not buying it, and wants an answer from Parnell within the 10 days set out under the public records law. He wants all the documents submitted to TransCanada by bidders that would include the conditions they are asking for.

If the state won't do that, Walker says he will accept answers on a simple three-line form that he provided which asks for the total volume of gas nominated for the Canadian route, the total volume of gas nominated for the Valdez route and a list of all conditions accompanying the various gas nominations.

"It is clearly within your authority to release this information," Walker wrote in a letter to the governor. "To hide this basic information from the public under the auspices of protecting the competitive process of other open seasons in Canada or with the Denali Project is in dereliction of your duties to represent Alaska's best interests and is a violation of the public trust. Alaska taxpayer monies are not involved in the Denali Project or open seasons in another country."