Although President Obama would fire BP’s CEO if he had that power, that hasn’t stopped the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission from giving BP approval for the next stage in its Alaska pipeline plan:

SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- A joint-venture owned by oil majors BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) and ConocoPhillips (COP: 50.08, 0.47, 0.95%) said Monday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved its plan to solicit interest in a $35 billion natural gas pipeline the company plans to build between Alaska and Alberta, Canada.
The joint-venture, called Denali, said it plans to start seeking interest in the pipeline from Alaska natural gas producers July 6, in what’s called an “open season.” In its solicitation, which is scheduled to end Oct. 4, Denali said it will seek “multi-year, multi-billion dollar financial commitments” from potential customers. The company said it is holding a concurrent open season for the pipeline in Canada between July and October.
Denali plans to build a 1,700-mile pipeline to Alberta, Canada that would ship about 4.5 billion cubic feet of gas a day. The company also plans to build a natural gas treatment plant on Alaska’s North Slope and a series of pipelines to ship gas from Prudhoe Bay and Point Thomson to the treatment plant. The company has estimated that the gas treatment plant and long-haul pipeline will cost about $35 billion.
Denali’s pipeline is competing head-to-head with a similar pipeline project proposed by TransCanada Corp. (TRP: 33.36, -0.1, -0.3%) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM: 60.3, 1.02, 1.72%). TransCanada has estimated that its project, which has the backing of the Alaska government, will cost between $32 billion and $41 billion.
Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell, the FERC and others have expressed hope that the two sets of developers will merge their projects into one.
In April, Parnell said the state could reach a financial and tax agreement with the companies after they had come to terms on a single project.