Alaska sues Exxon, BP over natural gas
Lawsuit alleges the two oil giants restrict supplies, keeping prices artificially high.

I am no defender of the oil companies, but Fortune did a terrible job reporting the complexities of this story. The oil companies are not the bad guys here.

Just about every state and municipal entity in Alaska wants to build a giant pipeline that traverses the state from the gas fields in the north down to the Canadian pipelines in the south. The federal government has already earmarked $20 billion for the project, thanks to the same congressman who chairs the energy committee and got approval for the now infamous "bridge to nowhere". It will surely provide lots of jobs and pad lots of pockets for our northern countrymen.

The problem is that the pipeline is not the best way to get the natural gas to the lower 48. Not even close. Private interests are proposing to build an undersea pipeline from the northern Alaskan ports to Canadian ports. The private Canadian proposal is much less expensive, much shorter, and most importantly, not nearly as destructive to the environment. Undersea pipelines rarely rupture, while overland pipelines rupture all the time. The great Alaskan oil pipeline is constantly springing leaks. Economically, shipping the gas will be cheaper for the energy companies, so it is no wonder that they would like to obstruct the Alaskan project in favor of the Canadians. Of course, the Canadian project will not get built if a massively subsidized competitor takes all the gas. The Canadian project is cleaner, cheaper, less destructive, and requires no federal money. Moreover, the end user's price will be higher using the Alaska scenario. How much more evidence do they need?

Fortune should recognize this lawsuit for what it is -- a cynical ploy by the Alaskans to embarrass the oil companies into complicity at a time when they are already universally reviled. Meanwhile, Alaskan governments deserve the "piggy" award in this case.