It might be that they didn’t remove the Anchorage attorney…

The FBI is investigating whether Alaska political appointees improperly punished state regulators who tried to enforce environmental rules against oil companies operating in Alaska, according to people contacted by investigators.

The inquiry, which is being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s office in Anchorage, is connected to an ongoing criminal investigation of BP PLC for allowing pipelines it operates to corrode enough to cause a large oil spill on Alaska’s North Slope in 2006. Similar pipeline corrosion discovered later that year forced the shutdown of Prudhoe Bay, the most productive oil field in the United States.

Now, the actions of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, which is responsible for overseeing oil operations in the state, have come under scrutiny from federal investigators, though it’s unclear whether current or former state officials would face criminal charges.

Critics of the department say senior political appointees are partly to blame for the state’s environmental woes, such as last year’s oil spills. They say these appointees repeatedly shielded oil companies from enforcement actions that would have required better maintenance and oversight of the industry’s facilities and pipelines.

“We’re aware of the allegations, and we are looking into it,” said FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez. He declined to comment further.

One incident that has caught investigators’ attention occurred in December 2001, when the department shifted responsibility for oil-spill prevention and response on the North Slope. Michele Brown, who was then the department’s commissioner, took away that job from Susan Harvey, a civil servant, and gave it to a person appointed by Brown. Environmentalists have long claimed that Harvey’s oversight of the North Slope was stripped because Alaska oil producers complained that her interpretation of the state’s environmental rules was too harsh. Conoco Phillips and Exxon Mobil Corp. hold major stakes in Prudhoe Bay, which is operated by BP.

Harvey resigned in March 2002, convinced, she said, that its leadership wouldn’t allow her to enforce environmental laws against the oil industry.