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
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.
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