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The public had its chance to weigh in on Gov. Sarah Palin's gas line plan; now the waiting game begins.

Next up: the Legislature - maybe.

Lawmakers are waiting to learn whether TransCanada's application will hold up as the one to be submitted to the Legislature for review under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act.

The Canadian company's application was deemed compliant to the state's bid-requirement law among the five proposals submitted.

But the Legislature couldn't act on it - just hold informal hearings - while the application underwent public comment scrutiny for 60 days.

Should the Legislature receive TransCanada's application as the one to consider for a pipeline license, lawmakers then have their own 60 days to approve or disapprove the proposal.

Palin said Thursday she was not ready to set a timetable for submitting a plan to the Legislature.

"Not knowing what all of the comment is going to be, it's tough to limit the gas line team to how much time they'll need to put into this," Palin said.

"We want to take it seriously, this commitment to consider all the public comments, including comment from the industry players," she said.

The sooner, the better, said many lawmakers, including House Speaker John Harris, R-Valdez. Session ends April 13, so lawmakers believe a special session, probably two 30-day terms, will be necessary.

"There are still a lot of questions to be answered," Harris said. "It's an important decision to be made, and it's not going to be an overnight journey.

"We'll want to know why they think TransCanada is good enough; can they make it happen? They all have to be answered satisfactorily. It's not adversarial; it's due diligence."

The public comment period ended with executives from ExxonMobil Corp. paying Palin and members of her gas line team a visit Thursday morning.

The company sent Houston executives Marty Massey and Jim Morse to Juneau for the brief meeting.

ExxonMobil spokeswoman Margaret Ross declined to discuss the content of the meeting, but added the materials discussed will eventually become public record.

She said in an e-mailed statement that it was "important for ExxonMobil to participate in the public comment process established by the state."

Palin said the Irving, Texas, company reiterated a long-standing position that the North Slope producers that also include BP and ConocoPhillips are the most qualified to build a pipeline.

"We have different views of Alaska's world," Palin said. "I respect where Exxon is coming from when they tell me AGIA is not in their best interest.

"They are competitive corporate experts, and they are doing what competitors are supposed to do, and in their case it's looking out for Exxon shareholders."

ExxonMobil capped two months of periodic hearings, meetings and a public campaign by Houston-based ConocoPhillips to consider its plan.

ConocoPhillips applied, but not under AGIA. Even though Palin rejected it, ConocoPhillips - the state's largest oil producer - is trying to advance its plan with lawmakers.

The company is forging ahead with its own pipeline proposal, which was submitted outside the bid requirements set by the state of Alaska for companies wishing to vie for a state license.

Palin said it's not a forgone conclusion that TransCanada will get her official recommendation, but she still defended her plan.

"I think our comfort right now is knowing AGIA is working because competition is rearing its head, which is what we wanted," Palin said. "Competition is working.

"You have TransCanada proposing a good application at the same time you have ConocoPhillips saying forget the state we're going forward to get a gas line anyway, and that's good."

TransCanada is proposing to root the gas line in Arctic oil fields on Alaska's North Slope, the bedrock for the state's robust oil industry since the 1970s.

The line would travel 1,715 miles southeast to a pipeline hub in Calgary, Alberta, that connects to all the major markets on the continent.

North Slope gas line interest comes at a time when natural gas has become an increasingly valuable source of energy with U.S. natural gas demand growing about 1.5 percent a year for two decades since 1986.

And with so many regions in the continental U.S. off limits to oil and gas development, Alaska's gas line could help meet American demand by shipping trillions of cubic feet of gas to market.

A gas line, discussed since Alaska began shipping oil in an 800-mile, trans-Alaska pipeline 31 years ago, has major long-term implications toward powering North American homes and business.

As of 2006, about 19 percent of electricity generated domestically comes from burning natural gas, a 10 percent increase from 1986, according to a recent Rice University report. Additionally, more than 50 percent of Americans heat homes with natural gas.