We’re Almost Through! Your Last Minute Guide to Election Day
Dear Friends,
If you haven’t voted yet, and especially if you’re not sure how you’ll be voting, this is a deeply abbreviated catch-up-to-speed that tries to put all the important information we’ve sent about this year’s elections into one place.
Federal elections: You might have heard that there’s a consequential presidential race happening—you should vote! And while that’s important, we focus our work a lot closer to home. The Alaska Center has endorsed Mary Peltola for Alaska’s sole seat in the US Congress. Congressman Mary Peltola is the only candidate in the race who shares our vision of a thriving, just, and sustainable future, and we hope she returns to Washington to continue her good work!
State Legislative elections: Every voter in Alaska gets to vote for their State Representative this year, and half of the voters get to decide on your State Senator (Senate terms are longer than Representative terms, and only half are up each cycle). We’ve endorsed a suite of candidates here—they’re organized by district. (Not sure what your district is? Enter your address in this form to find your current officials and their district numbers/letters.) We talk about state legislative elections a lot because they impact so much: like how easy it is to vote, where our energy comes from, and how much we invest in our public education system. (Also: do you like more than one candidate? Great! Rank them!)
Ballot Measures: We’ve made endorsements on both of the ballot proposals this year. Voting Yes on 1 is a vote in favor of increasing the minimum wage to $15 over 4 years, requiring employers to provide paid sick leave, and protecting worker freedom. Voting No on 2 is a vote in favor of protecting Alaska’s voting system which includes open primaries, ensuring that Alaskans (most of whom are not registered with any political party) can have their full voice heard at the polls.
Judicial Retention Elections: The last thing on the ballot are judicial retention elections. Alaska does not elect judges—instead, we vote to retain appointed judges. An independent, nonpartisan commission (the Alaska Judicial Council) conducts a rigorous investigation of each judge and makes recommendations. They’ve recommended retaining every judge up this year. (Want to learn more? Our previous guest-authored blog is a great starting point.)
Phew! That’s it! There’s more information on our endorsements page here.
The most important thing you can do, whether you plan to vote in agreement with the above recommendations or not, is to get out and vote. The second most important thing: tell your friends, family, neighbors, and your community.
Thank you so much for being a voter.
With hopes for a bright future,
Jenny-Marie Stryker
Political Director
The Alaska Center
Beyond Juneau: Renewable Regulations and You!
If you joined us in celebrating some major policy wins with us this summer, you may have started to wonder what comes next. While we set our sights on our next policy goals for 2025, we also have important opportunities to continue to move toward a clean energy future for Alaska by engaging in the world of regulations.
On August 13, Community Solar was signed into law by Governor Dunleavy. Now, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) has one year from the effective date to determine exactly how this program will function. The RCA regulates public utilities and pipeline carriers throughout the state, making decisions about rates, compliance with regulations, quality of service, safety, and more. In addition to support staff and analysts, the RCA is structured to be led by five full-time Commissioners, but currently only has four serving Commissioners.
With our partners, we have written about some of the specific decisions the RCA will need to make, including whether to extend its full net metering policy to community energy facilities so that subscribers are equitably compensated for the energy produced. As the RCA considers exactly how Community Solar will be structured, we encourage members of the public to make their voices heard. At the beginning of each biweekly public meeting of the RCA, members of the public are invited to speak for up to five minutes. During this period, you can introduce yourself and make a comment about Community Solar, clean energy, or anything else relevant to their work (as long as it is not related to an open docket).
Meanwhile, the Railbelt Reliability Council (RRC) is also making key decisions in the world of renewable regulations. This body, created by the legislature to create a more reliable and efficient railbelt energy system, is directed by a fourteen member board of stakeholders with an interest in railbelt reliability, representing the state’s Alaska Energy Authority, consumer advocates, environmental advocates, independent power producers, the electric utilities, and unaffiliated representatives.
The RRC has been moving forward toward the creation of an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for the railbelt, which will lay out the energy priorities for the railbelt for a twenty year period. This process includes identifying how much renewable energy should be brought online, what transmission and grid upgrades are necessary for proper integration and exchange of renewable energy, and how to ensure the overall system functions well (or how to ensure reliability across the system). Each of the railbelt utilities has created or will create their own version of an IRP, but an overarching plan will be an opportunity to build out the railbelt’s renewable energy generation most efficiently.
This multi-year planning process is underway with the Board currently working on establishing certain reliability standards that must be created before an Integrated Resource Plan is completed. The RRC currently aims to begin the IRP process in earnest by the first half of 2025, and complete that in a year. Additionally, the RRC’s Public Involvement Committee has been working hard to create clear opportunities for public outreach and engagement throughout this process.
Members of the public are always welcome to attend RRC Board meetings or Public Involvement Committee meetings, and to give feedback to the Board during the public comment section of their meetings. Information about upcoming meetings, including agendas, can be found on the RRC website.
Interested in learning more about the regulatory process or attending one of these meetings with support? Email Alex at alex@akcenter.org or stay tuned for future opportunities.
With energy for the future,
The Alaska Center
The Alaska Impact of the Inflation Reduction Act, Two Years Later
This Op-Ed was originally published in the Anchorage Daily News on August 14, 2024. It is authored by our board members, Gavin Dixon and Griffin Plush, who share their insights on the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act on Alaska over the past two years.
Two years ago this week, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed, marking a generational investment in energy and climate infrastructure. This funding is now beginning to flow into Alaska, benefitting our homes and communities in myriad ways. With numerous new tax credit programs, financing tools, and grant funding opportunities, the IRA has created so many funding opportunities that people are beginning to take advantage of all across our great state.
Alaskans are starting to benefit from the IRA through a wide variety of programs, including rebates on new efficient appliances such as stoves, dryers, heat pumps and water heaters; tax credits for home energy efficiency improvements; and expanded tax benefits for installing renewable energy and battery energy storage on homes. These new programs help keep money in Alaskans’ pockets, encourage job creation and investment in our homes and businesses, and help reduce energy costs. These direct energy and financial improvements for individuals will be even more important to help mitigate the negative impacts of escalating energy costs on the Railbelt due to the natural gas crisis in Cook Inlet.
Beyond the individual tax credits, the IRA has also established Direct Pay, a system for non-taxpaying organizations such as nonprofits, Tribes, local governments and utility cooperatives to benefit from these clean energy tax incentives for the first time. By enabling creative financing options like this, we are starting to see movement toward clean energy across sectors.
New financing and grant opportunities have also been secured for Alaskans, with many millions more to come. The Alaska Energy Authority and Tanana Chiefs Conference and their partners Alaska Housing Finance Corporation and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium together received more than $120 million from the IRA’s Solar for All Program, which will support rooftop solar, community solar programs and utility-scale solar for communities all around Alaska primarily benefiting low-income residents and Tribes over the next five years. Golden Valley Electric Association received $100 million from the IRA’s Powering Affordable Clean Energy to develop grid infrastructure that will improve reliability and enable the development of large-scale solar in Nenana. Southeast Conference received nearly $40 million from the IRA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Program to install thousands of residential heat pumps all over southeast Alaska to reduce energy use and heating costs for residents. These infrastructure projects will reduce energy costs, create thousands of good-paying jobs, and help to improve the resilience of our electrical systems across Alaska. That’s to say nothing of IRA investments in fisheries research and protection, forest fire mitigation programs, transportation infrastructure and much more.
Alaskans are excited to see the investments of the IRA propel Alaska’s transition towards more sustainable, local and clean energy. We look forward to communities and families around the state fully leveraging the IRA. We are thankful to the federal and state agencies working to implement these programs correctly, and to the elected officials, like Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Mary Peltola, who continue to support these smart investments that build the framework for growing our state’s clean energy economy, fighting the impacts of a changing climate, and building a brighter, more resilient future for us all.
– Gavin Dixon and Griffin Plush volunteer together as board members of The Alaska Center; they are both lifelong Alaskans who work professionally with energy projects across the state.
New Name, Same Old Coal
This month, a company named Flatlands Energy has been making the rounds at Southcentral Alaska’s electric utilities, cheerily describing a future where coal power is safe and environmentally responsible. We know better. The vision they present of “carbon capture and storage” on a coal power plant relies on unproven technology and a number of false assumptions, and Alaskans are smart enough to see through these claims and refuse new coal development in our state.
While the rest of the United States, and most advanced economies throughout the world, are working to phase out coal usage, Flatlands proposes developing a brand new coal power plant in Matanuska-Susitna Borough. This is not a conversation about mitigating the emissions from existing projects – this would be starting from scratch with coal, fully aware of its many environmental and health impacts. A new open-pit coal mine along with a power plant fitted with carbon capture infrastructure would be constructed near the proposed pipeline to Donlin Mine.
Carbon capture technology on power plants has not been proven successful. In fact, existing projects have been consistently under-performing when it comes to the actual carbon captured. Notably, Flatlands claimed during its presentation at Chugach Electric Association that coal with carbon capture would put out lower emissions than even wind and solar with natural gas backup. However, that claim relies on the system capturing a whopping 90% of carbon emissions, which is completely unrealistic. Petra Nova, the only coal plant to operate with carbon capture in the United States, also aimed for a 90% capture, but likely only captured 55-70% of emissions while it was online. Including methane emissions from coal mining itself also significantly drops the amount of carbon that can be captured.
What’s more, these projects fail consistently on economics alone. Even with substantial government funding, carbon capture projects have not been profitable. Flatlands bets on a future of tax credits that is not guaranteed, and key players like the Mat Su Borough Assembly claim this will reduce the cost of importing liquefied natural gas (LNG). However, a new coal mine and coal power plant would certainly not be online soon enough to offset LNG imports.
Instead of getting distracted by false promises, our electric utilities should continue their work to conserve as much gas as possible and move toward the most cost-effective mix of energy for the Railbelt, which includes 76% renewable energy generation.
Alaskans will not be fooled: coal power is the past, not our future.
Energizing Change: Reflections on Chugach Electric Board Elections and Future Goals
Early this spring, we endorsed two pro-renewable, pro-union incumbent candidates for the Chugach Electric Association Board: Mark Wiggin and Sam Cason. We worked hard alongside volunteers and partners to knock nearly 3,000 of our neighbors’ doors, call over 15,000 community members, and send over 4,500 texts to friends, family, and other voters about the candidates.
This year’s total turnout was 14%. While this is slightly lower than last year’s record-breaking turnout, it is still significantly higher than the historic average of about 10% participation. As we spoke with folks in person and on the phones, we heard our hopes confirmed: many of our community members are aware that they have a right to vote in utility elections. We are thrilled to see this greater awareness, and hope the trend continues.
One of our endorsed candidates, Mark Wiggin, won his seat for another four years, while opponent Dan Rogers beat out our other endorsed candidate, former Board Chair Sam Cason. At the first Board meeting after the election, Mark Wiggin was voted in as the new Chair of the Board in a 5-2 vote.
We are eager to see Chair Wiggin continue his leadership on this Board, and for the entirety of Chugach Electric Association to move forward with its work to get more renewable energy online. After we have rested and recharged, it is time to support the Directors in charting the course that is best for our communities and achieves the triple bottom line of reliability, affordability, and sustainability. Member-owners of the utility are always permitted to attend and comment at the public meetings of the Board, which you can find listed on the Chugach website.
Some of the Board’s current focus areas include: the new 500-kilowatt community solar project that will start taking subscriptions later this year; a potential wind power development which could provide 20% of Chugach’s total power needs; updating its facilities to include solar panels on site; and the One Campus plan which will bring all former Municipal Light & Power employees onto the same working campus as the pre-existing Chugach Electric teams.
Additionally, the Board is hearing from experts on emerging technologies, like tidal power. At the most recent Board meeting, Ocean Renewable Power Company presented about the potential in Alaska, which is home to the vast majority of tidal energy in the United States.
If you are interested in getting more involved with your electric utility, but aren’t sure where to start, contact Alex Petkanas at alex@akcenter.org to figure out the best way for you to plug in. Board elections are over – now it’s time to get to work!
With Renewable Enthusiasm,
The Alaska Center
Legislative Highlights: Celebrating Wins and Community Action in Alaska
Is it just us, or does spring feel extra busy this year? In a week with multiple elections closing, we hope you are celebrating Suzanne LaFrance’s significant lead in the Mayoral runoff and plan on joining us Friday for the Chugach Electric Annual Meeting! – we also watched closely as the 2024 Alaska state legislative session came to a close.
During the final few days of the session, we saw many of our clean energy and climate priorities across the finish line. We’ll have more to come on what this means for our next steps, but for now, we’re excited to share this brief recap.
PASSED! Community Solar (SAVE Act)
The Alaska Center has worked closely with Alaska Public Interest Research Group outwardly and behind the scenes over the past year to move a community solar bill forward. The goal of the legislation is to allow more people to access clean energy, by subscribing to solar arrays or other clean energy generation that is centrally located rather than placed on individual properties. We informed the public about community energy, testified ourselves, and encouraged supporters to call or write in to provide testimony, and met with legislators to answer specific questions and concerns about community energy programs. The bill went through many iterations and ultimately became known as the SAVE Act (Saving Alaskans money with Voluntary community Energy).
In late April, the SAVE Act passed the Senate unanimously, with Senators from various parties and districts speaking in favor of the legislation on the floor. We celebrated but knew we had to keep working to get the word out about the bill and clarify any concerns raised on the House side. Finally, this week, the bill passed the House and will head to Governor Dunleavy’s desk for his signature.
We are so excited to see community energy programs launch in Alaska and view this as one step toward a more equitable energy future.
PASSED! Green Bank
Late Wednesday night, before gaveling out for the year, the legislature passed a bill with language to create a Green Bank. A Green Bank is a financial entity that leverages private financing and invests in renewable energy technology like heat pumps, electric vehicle charging stations, and more critical new infrastructure that a traditional financial institution is less likely to finance. The bill states that the entity “serves a public purpose benefitting the people of the state” by financing sustainable energy development.
Alaska’s Green Bank will be housed under the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, a community-oriented agency, that will strive to invest in renewables in a way that best serves the people of Alaska. We look forward to finding opportunities to collaborate with the Green Bank to ensure a transparent and just process.
STILL WORK TO BE DONE! Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS)
Although multiple versions of renewable or clean energy standards were introduced this session, they ultimately did not move forward. Utility providers themselves were heavily involved in the conversation, as both Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA) and Chugach Electric Association (CEA) took up the issue in their own Board meetings. CEA passed a formal resolution in support of a general RPS, but raised issues with the specifics of the legislative proposals. Utility providers generally expressed concerns about the grid’s transmission capacity and limitations, the exact percentages included in proposals, and the enforcement mechanisms associated with standards.
Grid transmission capacity ultimately became a major focus of the session (more on that below). In terms of enforcement, we spoke with partners about alternatives to fines or penalties, which utilities said risked raising rates for consumers. One option is to provide significant incentives for meeting goals. Either way, we believe it will only be possible to actually meet these goals if there is some related consequence for achieving them or failing to do so.
The Alaska Center will continue to advocate for a state standard to be set to ensure we are on track to reduce our overall carbon output.
PASSED! Railbelt Transmission
We wrote to you last month to update you on the shift to transmission that took place in the energy space this year. With various bills and conflicting views on the most efficient way forward, this was a complex legislative issue. We weighed in by providing testimony and written analysis throughout the process, as well as meeting directly with legislators about the various transmission issues being addressed.
First, $30 million was included in the budget as the first phase of a state match for GRIP (Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships) funding. This federal grant of $206 million requires a state match, and will be used to upgrade elements of our transmission system, which is key to our ability to send renewable energy from wherever it is generated to wherever the power is needed at that moment.
The final transmission legislation got rid of duplicative charges to reduce the overall costs of sending energy up and down the railbelt, updated requirements for commissioners to serve on the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, and addressed the taxation of new power projects. It also created a new organization under the Alaska Energy Authority called a railbelt transmission organization (RTO) but left planning in the hands of the existing Railbelt Reliability Council. Instead, this RTO will focus on cost recovery of transmission operations.
An efficient and upgraded transmission system is a critical part of our clean energy infrastructure, and we look forward to thinking about the next steps in the coming year.
STILL WORK TO BE DONE! Voting Rights
Voting rights were a hot topic this session and both the House and the Senate attempted to pass substantial updates to our current systems and policies. HB 4 (the repeal of open primaries and ranked choice voting (RCV)) had a hearing on day one of the session, and HB 129 (purging voter rolls), moved quickly out of the House and into the Senate for consideration. The Senate then turned HB 129 from a bad voting rights bill into a good voting rights bill by adding a provision to remove the witness signature requirement on mail-in ballots, adding a system to fix mistakes on ballots, and allowing Alaskans to register to vote on election day.
Unfortunately, the House would not support these provisions and this bill did not make it over the finish line. What does this mean for voting rights? It means that many of our leaders and community members want to see voting rights expanded, and that next year we will work even harder to pass positive voting reforms. The repeal of ranked-choice voting and open primaries will likely be on the ballot this November, so we will continue to update you on how you can take action to protect our democracy.
PASSED! Juneteenth Bill
Finally, at 11:05pm the House voted to pass SB 22 – establishing Juneteenth Day as a legal holiday. Juneteenth is a crucial recognition of our shared history, emphasizing the central role of Black leaders. Specifically in Alaska, many of those leaders were brought up to build both the physical and the political infrastructure of this state, moving Alaska toward statehood. By officially recognizing Juneteenth, we honor the labor and sacrifice Black communities contribute and we join the rest of the nation in one day of celebration and liberation. Thanks to our leaders and community members for helping this get across the finish line! If you are in Anchorage, stop by and say hi at our booth at the Anchorage Juneteenth Celebrations on June 15 and 16!
We are grateful to the many elected officials who worked hard this session to move forward highly technical, politically charged, and crucial bills for our climate and our communities. We are looking forward to a summer full of advocacy to prepare for what the next session has in store for us! Stay tuned!
Powering forward together,
The Alaska Center
Shifting to Transmission
Two weeks ago, several members of our team went to Juneau, in Á’akw Kwáan territory, for the Just Transition Summit. Over the course of four days, we heard from Indigenous leaders, youth, elders, labor movement experts, legislators, and other partners of ours about efforts to transition our economy away from extraction and toward resilience and regeneration.
We discussed a wide swath of issues related to a just transition, including building a true multi-racial democracy, circular economies and waste, and Indigenous Knowledge. We also made time for conversations around healing, and found opportunities to connect with one another between sessions. You can watch some of the keynote panels, and see a complete list of speakers on the Just Transition website. One highlight we are especially proud of: a legislative lunch and learn about transitioning our energy system, featuring three wonderful panelists. Our Alaska Fellow, Marta Ditzler, worked tirelessly on coordinating this over the past few months with support from the rest of our team, and we are so grateful for her work.
While there, The Alaska Center staff met with twelve legislators to discuss our energy policy priorities for the remainder of this session. We outlined the importance of things like Community Solar, a Renewable Portfolio Standard, annual net metering, and opposing any new coal projects. All of our conversations, however, turned to one key topic: transmission planning and upgrades.
The “transmission system” refers to all of the infrastructure that allows us to send energy from one place to another along the railbelt – which serves about 75% of the population in Alaska. When we talk about transmission planning, we are referring to a process that currently rests with the Railbelt Reliability Council. This group has been carefully organized to include stakeholder representation of small consumers, environmental groups, labor, regulators, and utility providers. They have been tasked with the responsibility of coming up with a holistic, efficient plan for the railbelt to get energy to everyone from Fairbanks down to the Kenai Peninsula.
Multiple issues are popping up related to this transmission system in the legislature. One current bill (SB 257) would take planning responsibility away from the Railbelt Reliability Council and create a new organization with less oversight and stakeholder input to handle planning. The Alaska Center has raised concerns about this proposal, as we believe this would result in less public input and transparency in planning. Other proposals would reduce the cost of sending energy back and forth by removing something called “wheeling fees” which utilities currently charge to one another. Another crucial issue is providing a state match for the federal Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) funding that will go toward transmission upgrades.
As the legislative body focuses on energy and transmission, The Alaska Center strives to be a resource on energy policy. We are working collaboratively with our partners to advocate for clean energy and transparency, and have provided legislative staff with our positions on these transmission issues while continuing efforts to bring our other policy goals to the forefront. We will continue our work throughout the rest of this session and will keep our supporters updated on opportunities to provide public testimony or otherwise get involved.
Whether you write to your representatives, call in to testify during public hearings, or author op-eds about your priorities, you are a key part of making sure the Alaska state legislature is acting in the best interest of the people. Looking for ways to participate? Sign up to volunteer with us!
Together for Alaska’s Energy Future,
The Alaska Center
Beyond Bill Numbers: Clean Energy Update
It’s the year of energy legislation in Alaska – and we’ve seen lots of big ideas introduced in Juneau. As bills make their way through committees and amendments, none of them come out looking exactly the same as the version that was introduced. To that end, we want to highlight the clean energy issues that have popped up in various bills, and update you on our focus: getting clean energy online now.
THE GOOD NEWS
We have seen multiple efforts to create new standards along the railbelt for renewable/clean energy generation. The Chugach Electric Association passed a resolution supporting a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) in general, but has not publicly taken a position on any specific bill. While the details of these proposals look different, the basic effect is that utilities along the railbelt (like Chugach Electric Association, Homer Electric Association, and others) would be required to get some amount of their energy from renewable or clean energy sources by a certain deadline. Many states have standards like this, and it is imperative that we develop similar standards in Alaska to achieve our vision of a Just Transition. Critically, these standards mean nothing unless backed by either an enforcement mechanism or a significant incentive for utilities to meet these goals – we have seen nonbinding aspirations like 50% renewable by 2025 fail to materialize without these things.
Legislation has also been introduced that would make renewable energy more accessible to many Alaskans through a program called Community Solar. This would allow Alaskans who cannot directly install solar panels on their property to subscribe to a solar array elsewhere, opting into renewable energy even if they rent, have a suboptimal property for generation, or do not have the upfront capital to install solar panels. It would also allow Alaskans to develop solar arrays or run of the river hydro projects, and sell the energy generated directly to the local utility provider. This tool for getting more renewables online and in use has been rolled out in 43 states – which gives us the opportunity to learn from the experiences of others as we get things started here.
Bills to create a Green Bank have been introduced in both the House and Senate in Alaska, which would create an energy independence fund to leverage private financing and invest in renewable energy technology. This could fund things like heat pumps, electric vehicle charging stations, and more critical infrastructure that a traditional financial institution is less likely to finance. More information about Green Banks can be found here.
And finally, we’ve heard calls to match the federal government’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) funding awarded to Alaska. The U.S. Department of Energy has allocated $206,500,000 to the Alaska Energy Authority for railbelt resiliency, which will allow our state to modernize transmission infrastructure and make our grid more efficient and affordable across the railbelt. This funding requires the state to make a dollar-for-dollar match. We strongly urge the legislature to allocate a state match to federal GRIP funding in order to secure these critical infrastructure upgrades.
THE BAD NEWS
At the same time, we’ve seen some troubling things put forth that threaten Alaska’s energy future. While you may have heard about the shocking inclusion of coal as “clean energy,” here’s what else we find concerning about proposed energy legislation this session.
Rather than focusing on transitioning to alternative energy sources, some legislators are making efforts to expand oil and gas production within our state. One bill suggests creating a working group made up of resource developers and related legislators, whose sole purpose would be “to determine methods to increase oil and gas exploration and production in the state.” Others suggest pouring more public money into subsidizing the oil and gas industry directly, or reducing taxes for gas exploration and production. Whatever the method, we oppose formalizing the favoritism of an extractive industry over renewable energy development.
Finally, we’ve heard concern that new renewable energy cannot be brought online until grid transmission upgrades have been made. We disagree. Though our railbelt transmission system is in need of physical and policy upgrades, we must move forward on every step of the transition process now in order to reach our decarbonization goals by 2040.
THE TAKEAWAY
As we close in on the first half of the 2024 legislative session, you can call your legislators and let them know that you support investment in renewable energy for Alaska. While bill numbers may come and go, our message is simple: we must use every tool we have to transition to renewable energy sources now. In order to avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change and secure a liveable future for ourselves and generations to come, we cannot afford to wait.
Thank you for standing with us in pursuit of clean energy. Let’s make 2024 a turning point for renewable energy in Alaska!
Warmly,
The Alaska Center