Former governor joining Texas law firm

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Former Alaska Gov. Steve Cowper is moving to Texas to join a law firm where he will specialize in energy and environmental issues.

Cowper, a Democrat who was governor from 1986 to 1990, is joining the Austin office of the law firm Hance Scarborough Wright Ginsberg & Brusilow, L.L.P.

The firm has offices in Austin, Dallas and Washington, D.C. The firm's senior partner, Kent Hance, is a former politician himself who once ran for Texas governor.

Cowper was Alaska's chief executive during the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He did not run for re-election when his term ended.

He has had an international legal and political strategy practice in Washington and Fairbanks for nearly a decade.