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The economic collapse has reduced the chances of getting the gas pipeline built in a timely fashion, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

“Today, the global economic slowdown is making it harder to maintain momentum behind the project. At the same time, the combination of falling oil production and falling oil prices has left state officials wondering if they can balance their budgets in the current or coming fiscal years,” the Journal said.

“There is growing pessimism in Alaska that the pipeline will be built anytime soon,” the report said.

“Mike Chenault, the incoming Republican speaker of the state House of Representatives, said he believes the odds of it moving forward in the next couple of years are less than 50-50.”

“The economics of building a pipeline are deteriorating as demand for cleaner-burning natural gas slows and prices fall,” the newspaper reported.

The report quoted Pedro van Meurs, who worked under former Govs. Tony Knowles and Frank Murkowski, as saying: "Current economic conditions are not good for the Alaska gas line, and I expect considerable delays in the initiation of its construction.”