ADN by Elizabeth Bluemink.  Dana Tindall (File Photo), the General Communication Inc. executive who died in Monday’s plane crash in the Bristol Bay region, was a major figure in Alaska’s telecom industry.  … Tindall’s work on GCI’s behalf is a major reason why Alaskans have a choice in telephone companies, said Nan Thompson, a former state regulator who now works for Enstar Natural Gas Co.  Thompson called Tindall a "brilliant strategist." … Tindall was a key GCI strategist in this ultimately successful fight, and local service since has expanded within Alaska.  "Understanding telecommunications law and regulations is a very esoteric and disciplined science, and she had that science down pat," said Dave Harbour, former chairman of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.

Reuters by Yereth Rosen.  A pipeline bringing natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope to the populated region in Dan Fauskethe southern part of the state would cost $5.7 billion to $11.8 billion to build and would likely require state subsidies or at least partial state ownership, members of a task force told state legislators on Monday.  …  The "Alaska Stand Alone Pipeline Project" would comprise a 737-mile (1,186-km), 24-inch (61 cm) diameter pipeline delivering up to 500 million cubic feet of natural gas from Prudhoe Bay to the Anchorage region.  Lawmakers established the task force to study the feasibility of such an in-state project as a backup to the long-desired natural gas export pipeline that would deliver 4.5 billion cubic feet a day from Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope to major North American markets. …  Even if one of those competing groups is successful in building a huge export line and starting operations in 2020, as they envision, Alaska’s population centers will likely need new natural gas supplies before then, Dan Fauske (NGP Photo), chairman of the team studying in-state pipeline options, told lawmakers at a hearing in Anchorage Monday.  "The big pipeline is everyone’s goal. But it’s 10 years away," he said.  With the construction cost so high and the market relatively small and isolated, it is likely that the state government would have to pay for at least part of the project, Fauske said.  "I have a view that there will need to be some kind of equity (investment) or subsidy for construction," Fauske said.