New York — Joe McGinniss, bestselling author of Going to Extremes, a nonfiction account of his year in Alaska, reports on how Alaskan governor and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin struck a deal to build a $40 billion natural-gas pipeline through Alaska back in 2007, though it has little chance of being built (“Pipe Dreams,” p. 50). “Everything she is doing is the opposite of ‘Drill, baby, drill,’ ” former governor of Alaska Tony Knowles tells McGinniss. Despite the pressure from the Obama administration to get the pipeline construction underway, the prospects of it actually getting started have only worsened since the presidential election. McGinniss reports how Palin has virtually ignored the pipeline issue and focused instead on her 2012 presidential campaign strategy. McGinniss notes her absence from major oil-company summits, and hears from a rising chorus of critics, including some of her former supporters. Alaska Republican Mike Hawker tells McGinniss, “The only thing standing in the way of an Alaska gas pipeline is the Sarah Palin administration.” Although Palin is still claiming credit for snubbing Big Oil and launching the much-needed gas-pipeline project, the contracted company, TransCanada, has no access to the gas. Two oil companies that do, BP and ConocoPhilips, have agreed on a rival plan. McGinniss writes, “What Palin had done… was contrive to pay as much as $500 million to a foreign company to look into the possibility of someday building a line.” Since the election, the price of oil and gas has continued to plummet and Alaska’s budget deficit is now at least $1.65 billion—quadruple what it was as recently as December. McGinniss argues that it’s hard to see how the state will ever come up with the money to pay $500 million to TransCanada and actually build the pipeline. Hal Kvisle, the CEO of TransCanada, has conceded, “I don’t know whether we’re going to see this [pipeline] get built or not.”

“Exxon vs. Obama” (p. 58) Exxon Mobil is the largest private oil company in the world and is also the most resistant to the shift in green energy, contributing editor Peter Waldman reports. In 2008, the company spent $26 billion on oil and gas development, and it insists that only a third of the planet’s oil reserves have been tapped. Yet in an age where the future of energy is changing in an effort to reduce carbon emissions and pollution, Exxon refuses to change with the times. President Obama’s visions of an American energy plan include doubling U.S. production of renewable energy by 2012, ceasing oil imports from the Middle East and Venezuela, and investing in clean-energy sources such as clean coal and wind energy. While other Big Oil giants like BP and ConocoPhillips have invested in renewable-energy projects to meet this change, Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, aka “T. rex of the hydrocarbon age,” is fighting the pressure from Washington all the way. “If the energy market is transforming, you wouldn’t know it by listening to Rex Tillerson,” Waldman writes. “Let’s be realistic,” Tillerson scoffed, when asked about Obama’s green-energy ideas. “Let’s not fool ourselves!”

Also in the April Issue:

“Spoils of Prosperity” (p. 90) Contributing editor Andrew Rice profiles Jacob Zuma, the militant South African populist who is all but certain to become the country’s next president. Zuma’s rise to power is exacerbating a new rift in South Africa, but this time the division isn’t between black and white; it’s between rich and poor. A self-proclaimed populist with a history of legal troubles, Zuma is openly polygamous and often photographed wearing the traditional leopard-skin finery of a Zulu warrior. As the ANC’s leading candidate, Zuma will most likely win the presidential election later this year, which concerns South Africans who question his ability to reconcile the nation. Zuma maintains that people have no reason to fear. “Naturally, the change brings uncertainty,” Zuma tells Rice. “But people should not have anxiety. We will be continuing with the financial regime that we have, the fiscal discipline that we have. Nothing’s going to go wrong.”

“The Prime of Mr. Nouriel Roubini” (p. 74) Once regarded as a crank for his bleak view of the stock market and the financial world, New York University professor and party-boy economist Nouriel Roubini accurately predicted the current economic bust and parlayed it into fame, rising fortune, and a vigorous social life. “I’m a serious professional economist. I live in New York and have a social life,” Roubini says. But Helanie Olen wonders if the recession’s “Doctor Doom” is just a one-hit wonder.

“The O Team” (p. 32) Contributing editor Matthew Cooper lists seven behind-the-scenes Washington players you need to know in the Obama administration, including deputy assistant to the president Michael Froman, health-care adviser Jeanne Lambrew, and deputy White House chief of staff Mona Sutphen.

“The Thriller Is Gone” (p. 64) The King of Pop, Michael Jackson, who racked up more than $24 million in debt on the Neverland Ranch, is now putting almost its entire contents on the auction block this month. Photographer Henry Leutwyler and contributing editor Amy Wallace highlight some of the finer items up for sale, including a collection of Jackson’s bejeweled gloves and a Swarovski crystal jacket.

“How to Value It: The Steve Jobs Economy” (p. 30) Contributing editor Duff McDonald and Julia Dennis make a back-of-the-envelope calculation of how much the ailing CEO has been worth to Apple and to the tech industry overall. Looking at Apple’s profits, as well as Apple-compatible accessories (the company demands up to 10 percent of most of these items’ retail prices in fees and royalties) and the money generated from competitors’ innovations, McDonald and Dennis estimate Jobs’ total annual value at $30.8 billion.

“Cool Hand Lou” (p. 36) Tyler Ray reports on disgraced boy-band impresario Lou Pearlman, who has a new act: managing a music group from his jail cell. Convicted of fraud and money laundering, Pearlman faces 25 years in jail and is hoping to repay some of his duped investors with profits made from managing the career of Southern rock band Biteboy from prison.

 
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