Well, this helps explain his allure to Team Obama:

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Larry Persily to head a federal office tasked with pushing forward a long-planned — and long-delayed — pipeline project to bring large natural gas supplies from Alaska’s North Slope to markets in the lower 48 states.
Lawmakers confirmed Persily to be Federal Coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects by unanimous consent.
Persily served as an aide to several Alaska governors — including former governor and GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who Persily criticized after leaving her administration in 2008.”She’s not qualified, she doesn’t have the judgment, to be next in line to the president of the United States,” Persily told Bloomberg in August of 2008, one of several critical remarks he has made about Palin.
Persily will come to the federal pipeline position from his job as an aide to Mike Hawker, a GOP member of Alaska’s state legislature.