Six years ago, Wyoming's natural gas producers fretted about a quickly closing "window of opportunity" for a high-tech, single-shot supertube to the eastern market, noting their Alaskan counterparts were pining for the same customers.

Now that the Rockies Express pipe is in the dirt, industry officials say they're no longer fearin' vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's push for the Alaskan connection.

"A diversified energy supply for America is welcomed," said Colby Drechsel, associate director of the Wyoming Pipeline Authority. "Although the WPA has not completed a study internally on the economics of such a project, the general sentiment is 'non-threatening' and more a welcomed approach of 'what is good for the country is good for us.'"

After all, the Lower 48 needs to supplement a declining natural gas flow from Canada, so the market outlook for Rockies gas is good.

You could say it was the pipeline that really elevated Palin's political career in Alaska because it was the centerpiece of her gubernatorial campaign - and not without controversy, of course. As for that, Wyoming and Alaska certainly share more similarities than just moose. With energy-dependent economies, it's sometimes difficult to tell industry apart from government in the two states.

In 2002, Wyoming chipped in for a market analysis of a pipeline connection that would evolve into the Rockies Express pipeline. The study was finalized in December 2002, but only a portion of the study was released to the public four months later after the contributing companies made their investment decisions on it.

Anadarko Petroleum, Yates Petroleum, Marathon Oil Co., Nance Petroleum and Powder River Energy Corp. each paid $47,500 for the study, which was done by PACE Global Energy Services.

Wyomingites are always uneasy about mixing public dollars with private, but the only real corruption in this deal was the market manipulation which the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission assured was being perpetrated by other entities the study didn't look at.

Wyomingites don't get a $1,200 check each year from the state's energy revenues, but tax gurus say we enjoy the same value in not having an income tax. Rockies Express is responsible for helping boost the state's natural gas revenues close to where they should be, and it helps slow the bleeding on those years when production outpaces export capacity.

Since the Teapot Dome scandal, Wyoming's energy politics have remained somewhat boring in comparison to Alaska's (not that they don't exist). But true to form, Wyoming seems content to go on working quietly while others take the national spotlight, which of course, is powered by Wyoming coal.

As for Palin's pipeline; Bring it on.

Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 577-6069 or dustin.bleizeffertrib.com.