NEWSMAKER-Alaska governor defies oil giants and own party

By Robert Campbell

ANCHORAGE (Reuters) - Alaska's Sarah Palin has made a habit of taking on big opponents and winning, but the Republican governor is facing her toughest fight yet after locking horns with the state's powerful oil industry.

Palin, 44 has taken direct aim at the traditional comfortable partnership between the big three oil companies in the state - BP (BP.L), ConocoPhillips (COP.N) and Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) -- and the state Republican party.

"The oil companies have been hugely influential in Alaska, certainly over the last decade and a half with the prior two administrations," Palin told Reuters in a recent interview.

"(For) Alaskans, as owners of the resource ... it is time to embrace our sovereignty."

Palin's clashes with the three giants that control the state's vital oil industry have endeared her to some Alaskans wary of the companies' power.

But they have made her few friends in the oil industry, which accuses her of hurting investment in Alaska's shrinking oil sector and delaying the construction of a long-sought natural gas pipeline.

REPUBLICAN REBEL

A former small town mayor and mother of four, Palin was appointed chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC), the board that sets technical standards for oil and gas produced on state lands, by Republican governor Frank Murkowski in 2003.