Hot Takes in a Cold Place – Page 17

Renewable Energy Goals

February 5, 2022/in Blog, Clean Energy, Climate, Leg with Louie, Legislative Session

[cs_content][cs_element_section _id=”1″ ][cs_element_layout_row _id=”2″ ][cs_element_layout_column _id=”3″ ][cs_element_text _id=”4″ ][cs_content_seo]We don’t often say nice things about our Governor, and that is because we disagree with many of his policies and tactics wholeheartedly. For instance, one of his first moves as Governor was to dismantle the Climate Action Leadership Team that The Alaska Center, Alaska Youth For Environmental Action, numerous partners, and frontline community members worked hard to help establish under the previous administration. However, in the case of a policy that will help our state do its part to combat emissions, we agree wholeheartedly with his proposed Renewable Portfolio Standard introduced today.
What is a Renewable Portfolio Standard, or an RPS as it is commonly called? It is a policy that requires utilities to sell electricity from renewable sources by specific dates or face financial penalties.
In short, an RPS for Alaska will push our electric utilities to accelerate their trajectory away from fossil fuel power generation. It will push utilities toward wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, and hydro projects, either funded by the utility itself or purchased from a company called an Independent Power Producer.
We at The Alaska Center, through programs such as Solarize Anchorage, Solarize MatSu, and Solarize Fairbanks, have actively organized Alaskans in support of increased renewable energy. We have helped elect members to Utility Boards that support increasing renewables. An RPS is something we are confident Alaska utilities can achieve when working together.
SB 179 and HB 301, the Governor’s bills call for regulated electric utilities to achieve benchmark renewable energy goals: 20% by the end of 2025, 30% by 2030, 55% by 2035, and 80% by 2040. Numerous exemptions are designed to accommodate utilities and help them reach the goal. For instance, should a major natural disaster impact a utility’s ability to meet its renewable goal, it would grant an exemption from the non-compliance penalty.
Faced with steadily increasing natural gas prices, many utilities, pushed by their members and their boards of directors, have moved toward renewable energy. The Homer Electric Association has adopted an aggressive goal of achieving 50% renewable energy by 2025. Large batteries are being incorporated into the renewable energy strategy to help balance the variable energy inputs of renewable energy production.
The recent passage of legislation requiring the Regulatory Commission of Alaska to approve an Integrated Resource Plan for the railbelt will help guide the process of integrating an increase in renewable energy and will provide the public and utilities with a process-oriented approach to the construction of new generation facilities. This legislation will help Alaskans avoid an ad-hoc, willy-nilly scramble by individual utilities toward renewable energy projects and instead will set standards and requirements for the projects on a regional basis.
While the Governor’s bills have a long and winding road through the committee process, the fact that this policy has been introduced is a good thing.
In hope,
The Alaska Center

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Local Control

January 28, 2022/in Blog, Leg with Louie, Legislative Session

[cs_content][cs_element_section _id=”1″ ][cs_element_layout_row _id=”2″ ][cs_element_layout_column _id=”3″ ][cs_element_text _id=”4″ ][cs_content_seo]A very seasoned and shrewd retired politician said the other day, “sometimes a money spill can be worse than an oil spill,” meaning we should be careful how our current leaders handle an influx of federal infrastructure funds. We should watch how they use our State’s investment bank and how they look to our Permanent Fund as a means to develop roads to resources, mines, and other industrial development that can be extremely harmful to communities, tribes and the fish and wildlife and land and water they depend on.
A case in point is Ambler Road. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) has been called “The Governor’s Slush Fund.” It is poorly insulated against political winds, and the board of directors serves at the pleasure of the Gov. AIDEA has plowed ahead with financing for the highly controversial road to a proposed mining district in the heart of the country between the Kobuk and Ambler rivers. One major criticism of AIDEA is secrecy. Many of the board’s decisions are conducted in executive sessions and run counter to the expressed will of those Alaskans who provide testimony to the board.
There are also recent issues with AIDEA keeping tribes out of meetings and yesterday AIDEA had a board meeting in which they proposed spending another $15 million next summer on the Ambler Road proposal. AIDEA is unilaterally moving forward with approving this additional $15 million toward the Ambler Road – all outside of the legislative budget process. AIDEA has been getting away with shifting money around in legally dubious ways to date. They haven’t been able to get their money through the capital budget process, so now they are going big with this new expenditure and making those decisions outside the legislature’s purview.
To add insult to injury, Governor Dunleavy’s Department of Transportation (DOT) proposes a “man camp” for out of town and out-of-state workers right in the middle of the community of Bettles. The man camp would take over the community’s picnic pavilion area in Bettles. Bettles has been against the Ambler Road from day one.
One Bettles resident penned a compelling message regarding the man camp proposal:
“The baseball field in our tiny village of 24 people is the town gathering place. It is an open space where children play, by which we walk every day on the way to the ranger station or the airstrip. We have our Fourth of July festivities there – silly dress-up races, potato sack races, keep the egg on the spoon. If you’ve come to Bettles on your way to Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve for a backcountry trip, you’ve probably set up your tent and camped in this ballfield. You’ve probably enjoyed cooking a meal in the little pavilion there.
The Alaska Dept. of Transportation has proposed leasing our community ballfield in Bettles for the next 10 years as a man camp in support of the Ambler Access Project. Please help out our community by writing [email protected] and referencing ADA-72673 to voice your opposition to the development of a man camp in our town gathering place. Comment deadline is 4:30 pm on 1/31.
If this camp and all that comes along with it is permitted to take root, the heart of our town will belong to someone else – industry and its uncaring, itinerant strangers. The U.S. Bureau of Justice performed a study in 2019 that found that violent victimization increased by 70% in rural communities wherein a man camp was erected. That statistic is widely believed to underrepresent the issue, given how many offenses go unreported. Further, it is buffered by the presence in those communities of agencies and entities charged with the control and prevention of violence, whereas here in Bettles no such law enforcement exists.
Whoever occupies the camp over the next decade will leave one day, and behind them, their detritus and whatever their impacts. If they do nothing violent, if they victimize no person bodily, they will be an exceptional deviation from a statistic, but they will nonetheless have done a great deal to victimize a community.
If you can, please take a moment to email [email protected] and voice your opposition to this proposal.”
If the Ambler Road project is any indication, those large industrial concerns, often headquartered in other countries, have a powerful partner in our state government agencies. Future allocations of federal infrastructure money should be under the control of the arm of government directly accountable to local voters – the allocating body – the State Legislature. That way the citizens of the State will have a more significant say in how the money is spent.
HB 177 is a good start. Under HB 177, informally called the “Balance of Powers Act,” a Governor would be prohibited from unilaterally spending large federal appropriations should it flow into the State when the legislature is not in session. As Alaska prepares to receive a slug of federal infrastructure funds, we must remedy this statute to uphold the Alaska Constitution and ensure that full appropriation power resides where it should, with the elected representatives of the people, the Alaska state legislature.
Yours,
The Alaska Center

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State of State Predictions

January 22, 2022/in Accountability, Blog, Climate, Democracy, Legislative Session

The Governor’s State of The State Address is next week (7 p.m. on Tuesday, January 25). It is sure to contain grievances about the Federal Government, excitement about mineral resource development projects in Alaska, and a dash of “Election Integrity” talk. It will maybe/probably contain a few lines about renewable energy, fisheries, Alaska’s strategic economic and military location, and “greatest resource is the people of AK” platitudes, etc., to put a bow on it.

It is becoming clear through various releases of information that the Governor is actively lying about his role in the firing of the Permanent Fund E.D. and that the firing was political retribution as Ms. Rodell did not grant the Governor’s cherished overdraw of the Permanent Fund earnings reserve money – we expect that this will not be a part of the State of the State, and hey, it might cause the Gov. to not throw jabs during the speech at the Legislature on the issue of the big PFD never being approved by lawmakers.

With the new Ranked Choice Voting law in place, the Governor is free to pick a suitable running mate and facing at least two known challenges from the far-right flank in his bid for Re-election. Dunleavy made the choice to dump Lt. Governor Kevin Meyer from the ticket despite his faithful dealings with this evolving fiasco of an administration. There is a slight, outside, chance that the Governor will say some nice things about the Lt. Governor, but we would not hold our breath. After all, the Lt. Gov has defended the 2020 election in Alaska, which the far-right know with great certainty was “stolen.”

State Medical officer Dr. Anne Zink, also ever faithful in her dealings with the Dunleavy Administration, is under attack by supporters of Dunleavy and his challenger, political nobody Rep. Chris Kurka who has the firing of Dr. Zink as part of his campaign platform. If the Governor wanted to appear that he has a backbone, he would go strong in defense of Dr. Zink in his speech. To date, his defense has been very muted and wimpy as her credibility is attacked and she is personally threatened.

While he is defending Alaskans from attack by other Alaskans (seemingly something a Governor should do), he might include in his speech an apology to the former Assistant Attorney General, Elizabeth Bakalar. She was targeted with toxic animus and threats of all varieties from far-right Dunleavy supporters after she took legal action against her illegal firing by Dunleavy. Bakalar won on most grounds in federal court this past week. The state will be on the hook for damages. The action by the administration was wrong and will cost the state. Now that the case is settled, it is time to clear the air and address the cost to the state and (former) state workers like Bakalar in the State of the State.

Federal spending on Infrastructure will cushion the reality of our state’s structural budget deficit. Federal COVID relief has and will continue to protect vulnerable Alaskans and help prop up the economy. We hope the Governor does not adopt a posture of holding his hand out while flipping the bird to the Feds with his other hand. However, this is likely, since this particular brand of complaint has been refined and reworked in speeches since statehood and before.

We anticipate that there will be few surprises and many missed opportunities in Tuesday night’s address. We remain open to the possibility of shock, reflection, reconciliation, and rejuvenation. Wouldn’t that be something?

Yours,
The Alaska Center Team

A Look to What is Looming: Legislative Update

January 15, 2022/in Accountability, Blog, Clean Energy, Climate, Legislative Session

The second round of pre-filed bills was released today at approximately 9:32 a.m. There are not many bills compared to historical releases (in 2012, there were 27-second session, second release pre-filed bills – in 2022 there are a mere 13.) A sage observer noted that this might reflect the sense that not a lot of bills are going to move forward in the current legislative environment. It is an election year, after all, and absent a budget stalemate; our weary legislators will be eager to get out of Juneau and get on with their lives (and election campaigns if they want to remain in office).

A light schedule is taking shape for the first week of the session – though there are some points of interest to be sure. For one thing, the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee will be meeting on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to hold a hearing on the firing of the Permanent Fund Director by the Dunleavy-aligned PF Board of Trustees. Questions on rationale are outstanding, and the judgment of the Trustees and the Governor in removing an ED who oversaw the greatest increase in fund value since the inception of the fund needs to be seriously examined.

There are ominous rumblings that in addition to raiding the fund to pay out gigantic permanent fund dividends, the Dunleavy Administration wants to turn the fund itself into an in-state investment bank – an AIDEA* on steroids and growth hormones – pumped like the incredible hulk or a vengeful Nordic god to unleash a wrath of destruction and boondoggle projects across the state.
Oversight is good. Conservative theatrics around election integrity, not so much. However, theatrics are on the plate for the first week of session in Senator Mike Shower’s committee, where they will hear from an array of republican affiliated think tanks, likely teeing up another “Republicans must win every election forever or else the election was illegitimate” bill from Governor Dunleavy.
With so much BS in the world, the word “resilient” strikes a special note. It is about taking the long view, it is about bending, not breaking, caring for our communities in crisis now, and it is about HB 227 from the unflappable Rep. Calvin Schrage. HB 227 seeks to include climate resiliency improvements as eligible for financing under the new Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (CPACE) program. CPACE allows commercial property owners to finance clean energy and energy efficiency projects and repay the improvement loan on their property tax bills. It is an innovative program that must be adopted by ordinance in a local government, and so far, Anchorage is the first town to adopt CPACE. However, Juneau and the Mat-Su are also considering adoption.

Climate resilience is an essential consideration as we have seen a raft of disaster declarations this past month from communities impacted by winter storms. Considering what science tells us about our warming planet and its unpredictable weather, our buildings are going to need stronger roofs, fireproofing, better air conditioning, backup renewable energy, battery storage, floodwater management systems, and the list goes on. HB 227 would allow such projects to be financed under the CPACE mechanism. It is a good bill, and it will be heard in the House Energy Committee on Thursday at 10:15 a.m. The future is looking interesting this session. We hear that, as of now, the capitol is open to visitors. We will keep an eye on things and will report back every Friday.

Yours,
The Alaska Center
*AIDEA = Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority

New Year, New Session 2022

January 7, 2022/in Blog, Climate, Democracy

Happy New Year and new Legislative Session from The Alaska Center. We anticipate both opportunity and struggle in the year ahead, another year in the lifetime work of protecting and nurturing our Democracy and saving our home from the ravages of climate change.

The 2022 legislative session will likely be consumed with election-year grandstanding antics. We already see some of this in the move by the Dunleavy Administration to remove the more or less moderate and politically seasoned Lt. Governor Kevin Meyer as a running mate – due in part to his honesty about the Division of Elections efforts in the 2021 elections and the fact that they are considered the most secure and legitimate in history.

This runs counter to partisan lies about elections that exposed much of the Right to be in a feverish tilt toward authoritarianism. Though it likely was not the Lt. Governor’s decision to leave the ticket, it is good for his legacy that he will not be made to bow in fealty to the dangerous bullpucky of the new Right. The Governor will be introducing new election legislation soon, and we will be monitoring it closely for poison pills relating to voting rights and election subversion.

As we recognized the one-year anniversary of the bloody insurrection of January 6, 2021, it is clear that we can never back down from the effort to halt legislation that would erode democratic norms. We all must work as if the future of the country depends on it to end the politics that ultimately seek to facilitate violence between Americans.

The list of pre-filed legislation for the 2022 legislative session hit the streets today. You can peruse the full list here. A second pre-file release is scheduled for next Friday, January 14, ahead of the convening of the legislature on January 18. There is no special magic to a pre-filed bill though it gives the sponsor a chance to introduce and develop an argument for the idea and get it into the public sphere in the relative quiet before the start of the session.

We look forward to communicating with you after the second pre-file regarding our analysis of those bills that The Alaska Center supports and opposes in the raft of the pre-files. Lawmakers and staff are headed to Juneau by land, sea, and air as we speak. We wish them safe passage and a healthy session.

Here is to the future.

The Alaska Center Team

PS: We are evolving our blog this year to include the Legislature and beyond. We will still be a resource for legislative updates but are inviting more voices in and will be providing more insights into the way we can all engage to defend our democracy, push for proactive climate policies and ensure Alaskans are at the decision-making table.

Community members gather around flagpole at Loussac Library holding candles in vigil to defend democracy on anniversary of Jan 6 violent insurrection and Nation's capital

January 6 Vigils Called On Lawmakers To Uphold Democracy

January 7, 2022/in News

Anchorage Community Members Join Nationwide Vigil in Coordination with Over 300 Events Across the Country

Anchorage, AK: In case you missed it, yesterday Stand UP Alaska, The Alaska Center and community organizers held a candlelight vigil at the Loussac Library. The event took place on the one-year anniversary of the violent insurrection at the nation’s capital on January 6th. The vigil was organized in coordination with over 300 events across the nation to give community members a moment of reflection and silence.

The vigil also served as a starting point to remind people of the continued threats upon democracy in our own communities and ask that leadership pass policies that protect voting rights and ensure the violent attack of democracy we say on January 6, 2021, is never repeated again.

At 5:30 pm a gathering of people sipped hot beverages and held candles around the flagpole at the Loussac Library in the -10 degree weather. Participants stood around the circle of candles and took turns sharing why democracy mattered to them. From mothers to elected officials to retired service members each story was personal and powerful. “I am a recently retired Air Force officer with 24 years of service. I’ve been deployed to Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan in defense of my country. It was hard many times but it was always worth it because the unique democracy that America has is a beacon to the entire world.” Major Felisa Wilson, US Air Force (Retired) shared why she came out in the cold. “It means a great deal to those who are oppressed in corrupt countries where the citizens have no power, yet, to see America with our steadfast commitment to democracy and the peaceful transfer of power. We as Americans and Alaskans should be united in the shared belief in our democracy and the promise that it holds for our future.”

Polly Carr, Executive Director of The Alaska Center explained her commitment to the vigil, “A true democracy is one in which all feel safe, respected, and able to participate. On this day, we thank and remember those who stood up for democracy. We stand in solidarity in asking our leaders to support the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the Freedom to Vote Act, and the Protecting Our Democracy Act. Here at home, we renew our commitment to protect Alaskans’ voting rights, access, and security.”

Stand UP Alaska asked participants to light a candle with a hope and a promise–Hope for our amazing democracy and a Promise to stand up for it.

With the temperatures dropping, the presence of the few dozen participants was a powerful testament to this community’s commitment to a safe and fair democracy.