Legislature(2009 - 2010)BUTROVICH 205
04/01/2009 03:30 PM Senate RESOURCES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Governor's Appointments | |
| SB150 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | SB 150 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE RESOURCES STANDING COMMITTEE
April 1, 2009
3:35 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Lesil McGuire, Co-Chair
Senator Bill Wielechowski, Co-Chair
Senator Charlie Huggins, Vice Chair
Senator Hollis French
Senator Bert Stedman
Senator Gary Stevens
Senator Thomas Wagoner
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
Governor's appointments:
Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission - Judge Peter Froehlich
Alaska Oil And Gas Conservation Commission - John Norman
Big Game Commercial Services Board - Dirk Nickisch, Betty J
"BJ" Schmitz, Paul E. Johnson
CONFIRMATIONS ADVANCED
SENATE BILL NO. 150
"An Act establishing an emerging energy technology fund."
HEARD AND HELD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: SB 150
SHORT TITLE: EMERGING ENERGY TECHNOLOGY FUND
SPONSOR(s): SENATOR(s) MCGUIRE
03/13/09 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
03/13/09 (S) ENE, RES, FIN
03/26/09 (S) ENE AT 11:00 AM BUTROVICH 205
03/26/09 (S) Heard & Held
03/26/09 (S) MINUTE(ENE)
03/27/09 (S) ENE AT 11:00 AM BUTROVICH 205
03/27/09 (S) Moved SB 150 Out of Committee
03/27/09 (S) MINUTE(ENE)
03/30/09 (S) ENE RPT 3DP
03/30/09 (S) DP: MCGUIRE, KOOKESH, WIELECHOWSKI
04/01/09 (S) RES AT 3:30 PM BUTROVICH 205
WITNESS REGISTER
JUDGE PETER FROEHLICH, Commissioner
Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC)
POSITION STATEMENT: Nominee for the Commercial Fisheries Entry
Commission (CFEC).
JOHN NORMAN, Commissioner
Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC)
POSITION STATEMENT: Nominee for the Alaska Oil and Gas
Conservation Commission (AOGCC).
DIRK NICKISCH
Coldfoot, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Nominee for the Big Game Commercial Services
Board.
BETTY JO "BJ" SCHMITZ, Member
Big Game Commercial Services Board
POSITION STATEMENT: Nominee for the Big Game Commercial Services
Board.
PAUL E. JOHNSON, Member
Big Game Commercial Services Board
POSITION STATEMENT: Nominee for the Big Game Commercial Services
Board.
SENATOR MCGUIRE
State Capital Bldg.
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Sponsor of SB 150.
TREVOR FULTON
Staff to Senator McGuire
State Capital Bldg.
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on the CS to SB 150 for the
sponsor.
LARRY PERSILY
Staff to Representative Hawker
State Capital Bldg.
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 150.
JASON MEYER
Alaska Denali Commission
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 150.
PAUL KENDALL, representing himself
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on energy and personnel issues.
KATHERINE KEITH
Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP)
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 150.
D. DOUGLAS JOHNSON, Director
Alaska Projects
Ocean Renewable Power
POSITION STATEMENT: Strongly supported SB 150.
KATE TROLL, Executive Director
Alaska Conservation Alliance (ACA)
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 150.
ACTION NARRATIVE
3:35:24 PM
CO-CHAIR BILL WIELECHOWSKI called the Senate Resources Standing
Committee meeting to order at 3:35 p.m. Present at the call to
order were Senators Huggins, Wagoner, French, and Wielechowski.
3:35:40 PM
^Governor's Appointments
Governor's Appointments
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI announced that the committee would first
take up the Governor's appointees.
JUDGE PETER FROEHLICH, nominee for the Commercial Fisheries
Entry Commission (CFEC), reviewed his history and
qualifications. He said this is a reappointed to the CFEC for
him and he began there in August of 2005. He came to Alaska from
the Upper Midwest in 1970; he worked construction in Anchorage,
and crab fished and tendered salmon out of Kodiak.{ Having
little to do in the winter in those days, he came to Juneau to
work for the session in 1973 and made it his home. Since then he
has worked in this building for 16 more sessions moving from
downstairs in the legislative mail room to upstairs in the
Attorney General's Office, stopping at the House Judiciary
Committee and House Research where he did some work for the
CFEC. During the 80s he fished as a commercial troller for three
years. The longest position he held was 16 years as district
court judge here in Juneau covering all of Northern Southeast
Alaska.
Since starting at the Commission he has taken a couple of
administrative law courses at the Judicial College, the second
one as part of the faculty. He serves on a couple boards in the
community; he is on one statewide board for Partners for
Progress, a non-profit organization promoting and operating
therapeutic courts. Judge Froehlich said he is uniquely
qualified to serve on the Commission because of his combined
work experiences in several regions of the state.
3:39:25 PM
JUDGE FROEHLICH said one of the Commission's biggest priorities
has been to reduce its adjudication case load, and he used a
graph that indicated cases were down from 250 down to 88. Those
efforts are ongoing.
He said they also have been able to eliminate general fund
appropriations completely for their operations as of FY '08,
because of '05 legislation that allowed them to restructure
their fees by raising the maximum and creating more different
categories. As a result they generate about $6 million a year in
fees; $4 million of that funds the Commission's operations. Of
the balance, $400,000 goes to the Fishermen's Fund to cover
injuries to fishermen and about $1.6 million goes to the
Division of Commercial Fisheries to partially fund fisheries
management.
3:39:50 PM
SENATOR STEDMAN joined the committee.
JUDGE FROEHLICH said they have been successful in holding down
their costs and have had no increase in their operating budget
since FY'07 and no new positions since FY'04. Finally, he said,
they are working hard to get into the computer age so they and
fishermen can do their data work faster and better. An example
of this is the E-landings program on which they are working with
the Division of Commercial Fisheries and NMFS to convert fish
tickets to a computerized system for instance data capture. They
do have a capital budget request for $138,000 for the machine
that would barcode permit cards to enable that to work.
3:41:56 PM
More immediately, in January of this year the Commission started
an on-line licensing program called "Limited Entry on Line
(LEON)." Over 1,300 people have used it so far. (There are about
20,000 permit renewals and 10,000 vessel licenses.) Interim
permits and new vessel licenses can use this program as well.
Kiosks for that purpose are now in Juneau, Anchorage, Kodiak,
Sitka, Cordova, and Homer. More are being installed in Ketchikan
and Craig this month.
3:42:46 PM
In closing, he mentioned that their website is a "much-praised
research tool" for fishermen and agencies alike. It gets 3-4
million hits a year. The Commission's annual report comes out on
line now, too.
3:43:13 PM
CO-CHAIR MCGUIRE joined the committee.
3:43:42 PM
SENATOR WAGONER asked how long it would take to get a vessel
license to Kenai.
MR. FROEHLICH replied that it's in the mail the same day it is
keyed in.
SENATOR FRENCH thanked him for putting his name forward to serve
again.
3:44:24 PM
SENATOR STEVENS joined the committee.
SENATOR HUGGINS asked his number one challenge in this position.
JUDGE FROEHLICH replied getting rid of the adjudicated cases;
some of them had been pending in various levels of the process
for decades. It's not easy. "The doggy files are the ones that
you look at the last."
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI said his credentials are very impressive.
3:46:16 PM
SENATOR WAGONER asked how much of the caseload is dealing with
interim use permits.
MR. FROEHLICH answered that everyone who has a pending appeal
can get an interim use permit and keep fishing even if they have
been denied a permit.
3:47:12 PM
SENATOR FRENCH moved to forward Judge Froehlich's name to the
full body. There were no objections and it was so ordered.
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI announced the AOGCC nominee, John Norman,
to be before the committee.
3:47:30 PM
JOHN NORMAN, Commissioner, Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation
Commission (AOGCC), said he is a 40-plus year resident of the
State of Alaska, and he originally came up with an oil company.
He was recruited into the Department of Law at that time and was
legal counsel to this Commission and to the Alaska Department of
Natural Resources for a couple of years. Following that he
practiced privately for a number of years and worked throughout
the state from Ketchikan to Barrow with Native Corporations, oil
industry, timber, public land law, and a good deal of oil and
gas law. Five years ago he was appointed to the Commission to
fill out a vacancy. During that time he has worked hard to make
positive contributions to the Commission. It is respected not
just by industry here, but across the United States for having a
good regulatory structure - fair, but tough, regulations. The
Commission's responsibility is prevention of the waste of
Alaska's valuable hydrocarbon resources and the protection of
correlative rights - the right of each owner to produce their
fair share of that resource. They also work to ensure greater
ultimate recovery.
The Commission is also charged with promoting good oil field
practices. This translates into safety, environmental
protection, and generally good practices in the oil fields. It
administers the federal Underground Injection Control Program in
the State of Alaska in so far as it pertains to the production
of oil and gas. They are currently working on interacting with
the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) with regard
to carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and the evolving new
set of regulations that will require CO to be re-injected into
2
the ground.
3:52:30 PM
The Commission has 26 staff including five petroleum field
inspectors, two of which who are on call on the North Slope at
all times; they also have a presence in the Cook Inlet (two on
call in Nikiski). They have implemented steps to tighten up
their own statute in Title 31. With the tools the Legislature
has given them, they are working on regulations in the areas of
safety, well control, and things like that to make sure they
don't have a "blow out" in any of Alaska's oil fields. They are
constantly alert to the need to be responsive to the industry
and to the public. There is no learning curve here; the
Commission is prepared to take quick action.
The average turnaround for a drilling permit is 7-8 days. They
try not to push it below that because they don't want to have a
performance measure be the cause of losing quality review of any
permit.
MR. NORMAN said he enjoys the work; his background is in geology
and law. He believes this is a very important agency and it
makes a big difference to have an agency that can intelligently
regulate the industry that provides most of the revenue for the
State of Alaska. To his knowledge things are generally going
fairly smoothly here.
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI remarked that he had been an attorney for
40 years; so he qualified as a long-term Alaskan.
SENATOR FRENCH thanked him for his service. He has a stellar
resume', and the State of Alaska is lucky to have a public
servant like him working for her.
CO-CHAIR MCGUIRE thanked him for his work through the years and
his guidance in getting her arms around oil and gas policy.
3:59:12 PM
CO-CHAIR MCGUIRE moved to forward Mr. Norman's name to the full
body. There were no objections and it was so ordered.
3:59:41 PM
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI announced the confirmation hearing of Dirk
Nickisch for the Big Game Commercial Services Board.
DIRK NICKISCH, nominee, Big Game Commercial Services Board, said
he wants to preserve the industry so his kids could work in it
if they want to. He and his wife own a small air taxi in
Coldfoot and a have a cabin in Fairbanks. His is interested in
this position because he is seeing increasing conflicts with
both transporters and guides and other hunters and users. His
business is in Coldfoot and they have a cabin in Fairbanks.
SENATOR FRENCH asked if this is his first time serving on this
board and if he has the time available.
MR. NICKISCH replied yes and yes.
SENATOR FRENCH asked if his air taxi service is mostly for
hunters and hikers in the Coldfoot area.
MR. NICKISCH answered yes.
SENATOR FRENCH asked where the meetings for this board are held.
MR. NICKISCH replied that they alternate; the spring meeting was
in Fairbanks, the winter meeting last year was in Anchorage.
SENATOR FRENCH asked for more information on what this board
does.
MR. NICKISCH replied that the board reviews questionable
applications and does some adjudication. It also consults with
the DNR about guide use areas on DNR property and additional
regulations to control user conflicts with transporters.
SENATOR HUGGINS asked if he is in the seat for one of the
transporters and who is in the other.
MR. NICKISCH replied that is correct; there are two transporter
seats and Leaf Wilson from Tok has the other one.
SENATOR HUGGINS asked what kinds of issues he has bumped into.
MR. NICKISCH replied he has flown in a large number of areas
throughout the state over the years, and the current issues in
his area are pretty similar to issues in other parts of the
state in that they are seeing huge numbers of guides operating
in one area resulting in a fair amount of conflicts between both
guides, resident hunters and other guides. The other issue out
to the west is the number of hunters transporters are dropping
off and conflicts with both residents and particularly with
subsistence users.
SENATOR HUGGINS asked the difference between an outfitter and a
transporter.
MR. NICKISCK answered the line is really drawn between a guide
and a transporter. The transporter does not actually place
somebody in the field with a client; they strictly provide
transportation services to people into the field. There is also
a differentiation between an air taxi and a transporter. A
transporter is a person that on top of moving the person like an
air taxi, he advertises for hunting clientele and charges a
different fee schedule for hauling that person as well as
providing additional information to him about where to hunt.
4:05:25 PM
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI finding no further questions, closed
public testimony.
4:05:39 PM
CO-CHAIR MCGUIRE moved to forward Mr. Nickisch's name to the
full body. There were no objections and it was so ordered.
4:06:16 PM
BETTY JO "BJ" SCHMITZ, said she lives on a farm between North
Pole and Salcha. She has served on the board for the past four
years, has learned a lot, and would like to continue on. She is
a hunter and has worked with the ADF&G in the Outdoors Woman
Program. She is not a guide or an outfitter, but is interested
in maintaining good quality hunting experiences in Alaska while
maintaining the guiding business, too.
SENATOR FRENCH asked what she has enjoyed and not enjoyed about
serving on the Board.
MS. SCHMITZ said knowing the guides is fascinating; the hard
part is trying to understand how the regulations work and
finding out how they affect people. Something that seems so cut
and dried on one side affects people in ways you wouldn't know.
SENATOR HUGGINS asked how exclusive guide areas affect her
board.
MS. SCHMITZ answered that they have been working on this issue
on state lands for the past couple of years. The federal
properties, except for BLM, already have the guide use areas
allocated. That pushed a lot of people onto state land and that
is what has caused a lot of conflict in the prime areas. So, DNR
has been trying figure out a way to allocate guide areas without
being exclusive. They are looking at dividing the state's guide
use areas already on the map into smaller concession areas, and
then having a way of competing for those areas.
SENATOR HUGGINS asked what enforcement measures are at her
disposal and which ones they actually exercise.
MS. SCHMITZ replied the Board can pull guide licenses for bad
enough situations; it can assess fines and put people on
probation, and it has done all of those things.
4:10:56 PM
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI found no further questions and closed
public testimony.
CO-CHAIR MCGUIRE moved to forward Ms. Schmitz' name to the full
body. There were no objections and it was so ordered.
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI announced Paul E. Johnson to be up for
confirmation to serve again on the Big Game Commercial Services
Board.
PAUL E. JOHNSON, nominee, Big Game Commercial Services Board,
said he had been a guide in Alaska for over 35 years. The state
has been good for him; he believes in the state, its resources
and its future, and he will do the best he can to help the
guiding and transporting industry move forward.
4:13:06 PM
SENATOR STEDMAN praised Mr. Johnson's resume' and said he had
done a great professional job during his life.
4:15:20 PM
SENATOR HUGGINS asked where he got his pilot's license because
there aren't enough good days in Juneau to get it there.
MR. JOHNSON replied that he got his license in Snohomish,
Washington.
4:16:28 PM
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI closed public testimony.
CO-CHAIR MCGUIRE moved to forward Mr. Johnson's name to the full
body for consideration. There were no objections and it was so
ordered.
SENATOR STEDMAN remarked that Mr. Johnson had been in the
Resources Committee a number of times over the years and the
members were taking this opportunity to poke some Southeast
humor at him.
SB 150-EMERGING ENERGY TECHNOLOGY FUND
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI announced SB 150 to be up for
consideration.
4:18:22 PM
CO-CHAIR MCGUIRE, sponsor of SB 150, said it basically creates a
fund for emerging energy technologies. It's not funded within
the bill, but it is merely a structure to receive funds or to be
funded should better times come. It is set up not as a dedicated
fund, but rather one that can receive funds should they be
available. It will be administered by the Alaska Center for
Energy and Power.
She said that emerging energy technology is an important part of
Alaska's future and funds like this have provided seed monies
end up being an attractive incentive for new renewable companies
to come in. They know it drives the attraction of grant dollars
and the ability to co-partner with the federal government in
matching grants.
CO-CHAIR MCGUIRE explained that in recent years the Department
of Energy has offered millions in federal grants that typically
require as low as a 20 percent cost share at the state level,
and this is the kind of fund that can offer those matching
dollars. The stimulus package has alternative energy
opportunities, and they are hoping this fund could serve as
another mechanism to leverage and partner with those funds, as
well.
One of the things missing in alternative energy development is
the research and development dollars - "the seed part of where
some of these ideas grow out of." When you look at the AEA
grants that the Senate Finance Committee put into place, they
are talking about proven technologies that are out in the field.
This fund is geared toward the research and development dollars
that really happen more at the base level.
CO-CHAIR MCGUIRE stated that at one point Alaska had an Alaska
Science and Technology Fund and there is some impetus in that
fund's existence for this bill although they are different. This
is targeted specifically at emerging energy technologies.
4:22:13 PM
The board members have to have a background in energy,
engineering, technology and science; it should be based on
science and not politics - a complaint when the Science and
Technology Fund was being considered. Some people thought the
projects that were approved out of it were political or regional
in nature and not necessarily provable. They also wanted to make
sure it was administered by an association that was separate
from the University in the event that the University or a
partner with the University chose to apply for any of these
monies. That is how she came up with Alaska Center for Energy
and Power (ACEP), but it could be administered out of a couple
of other places.
SENATOR HUGGINS moved to adopt CSSB 150(RES), version E.
TREVOR FULTON, staff to Senator McGuire, said it's really
version S.
SENATOR HUGGINS amended his motion to adopt CSSB 150(RES)
version S. There were no objections and it was so ordered.
4:25:25 PM
MR. FULTON explained the changes in the version S. He said it
incorporated Senator Wielechowski's request - a concern about
the possibility of funding projects that were a little too far
into the realm of science fiction. So, language was added that
limits project eligibility to those that might become
commercially viable within the next five years. The second
change added a five-member advisory committee - providing a
level of separation between the administering agency and the
recipients of the grants.
SENATOR FRENCH asked regarding ACEP being the administering
agency (page 1, line 12) that it is the interdisciplinary
research unit of the College of Engineering and Mines at the
University of Alaska, but the idea was to provide some
separation between the University and the administering unit to
keep from any allegations of self-dealing should the University
be eligible for one of these grants.
MR. FULTON said he is correct, and pointed out language on page
2, line 28, through page 3, line 1, which delineated the makeup
of the advisory committee that has no members from the
University - that took care of that issue.
4:27:49 PM
He said the third and final change in the CS was to expand the
definition of eligible applicants to include both private sector
and non-profit sector entities. When the bill was first drafted,
language was borrowed from the Renewable Energy Fund that
excluded some entities they wanted to include because that is
where these sorts of projects get a lot of their in-kind
partnerships. A good example would be Gwen Holdman's geothermal
energy project in Chena Hot Springs. Part of the equipment was
donated by UTC, a large corporation that developed the
technology, but they gave it to her as sort of an in-kind
partnership deal. They did not want to exclude those kinds of
deals.
SENATOR HUGGINS asked for an example of a quasi-government
entity.
MR. FULTON replied the University qualifies as a quasi-
governmental entity as well as the Alaska Railroad.
4:29:46 PM
LARRY PERSILY, staff to Representative Hawker, added that he has
been working on energy issues for the legislature, and
specifically the stimulus bill. He offered that whereas much of
the focus of the legislature in the last few weeks has been on
the energy provisions of the stimulus bill - the State Energy
Program, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block grants -
those are funding for off-the-shelf technology and home energy
improvements, not research and development money. However, the
stimulus bill also has funding sources that deal with R&D and
this would be one way for the state "to get into the game."
4:31:23 PM
SENATOR HUGGINS stated that the state is doing all these things
with energy, but it doesn't have an energy policy. Did he see
the need for an umbrella policy under which to operate before
they get too many things going?
MR. PERSILY said his instructions were to give information and
not opinions, but he opined that the state's energy policy is
somewhat diverse. It has the Alaska Energy Authority with its
role, the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, which is
technically designated by the Governor as the State Energy
Office with the U.S. Department of Energy, the University has
offices - and it would behoove the state to coordinate them with
in one form or another.
4:32:57 PM
JASON MEYER, Alaska Denali Commission, said he is working to
develop a renewable and alternative energy strategy for the
Commission and supported SB 150. He said the Denali Commission
is an independent federal agency designed to provide critical
utilities infrastructure and economic support throughout Alaska.
With the creation of the Alaska Denali Commission, Congress
acknowledged the need for increased inter-agency cooperation and
focus on Alaska's rural communities. The Commission's Energy
program focuses on bulk fuel power plants and renewable
alternative energy. Recently the Commission's energy advisory
committee discussed strategy for continued investment in
alternative and renewable energy and supportive testimony was
heard on their involvement in emerging alternative energy
developments at their quarterly meeting in Juneau last week. The
Commission has historically been involved in emerging technology
pilot projects, several of which are the Eagle River
Hydrokinetic project, the Chena Hot Springs geothermal project
and the high voltage direct current (HVDC), feasibility and
prototype design. "Without the investment of such emerging
technologies, new options for energy in Alaska would be
limited," he said.
MR. MEYER said the Commission is tracking efforts related to
emerging technologies that seem consistent with their renewable
and alternative energy strategy which currently includes a $10
million budget. It is currently developing an MOU with the
University of Alaska's Center for Energy and Power and the
National Renewable Energy Lab. Their goal is to leverage
resources and expertise to support emerging technologies in
Alaska in the hopes that successful new options can be developed
and put to use.
4:35:26 PM
PAUL KENDALL, representing himself, said he is very concerned
about Mr. Haagenson at AEA. In 1981 it dropped several
magnificent programs like the hydrogen conversion at Old Harbor.
He said the real truth is "that our real partnership lies in
waterways - the Cook Inlet, the Turnagain Arm, the Knik Arm and
various other bodies close in, and it can be immediate within
three to six years." Whenever he sees new divisions, he sees
people "who know how to work the system" to capture these funds
and then they go out with their elite group of people who think
they are special. These same people have energy forums where you
have to pay a lot of money to see them, but the state's money
put them where they are. "The whole thing has just become
perverse, at best."
4:39:44 PM
KATHERINE KEITH, Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP), said
she works with coordinating wind diesel systems within the Wind
Diesel Application Center, which was developed with partnerships
between National Energy grants, the Alaska Energy Authority and
ACEP. She said energy is foremost in everybody's mind, yet
Alaska that has the highest energy costs and some of the most
th
complex and difficult issues to deal with in the U.S., ranks 46
in research and development for renewable energy. We need to
invest in energy projects, policy and research.
AEA has no has mandate or capability to engage in energy
research, she stated. The question needs to be asked what kind
of research exists in the state. Wind turbine verification could
be successfully deployed in Arctic environments, energy storage
systems are needed for high penetration wind diesel systems, and
waste heat recovery needs development. Utilities in rural Alaska
are really struggling to find proven technologies that are
beneficial to their communities without a high risk factor.
Kotzebue Electric over has become a leader in energy innovation
to supplement their diesel consumption over the last couple of
years using such ideas as land fill gasification, waste heat
recovery, waste heat power generation, and energy storage,
electric vehicles, and so on. Each of these technologies is
considered pre-commercial and not, therefore, eligible for state
funding. Yet each of these technologies offers great promise to
those communities.
Another example would be the Venadium readout slow battery
(VRB), which would help stabilize St. Paul Island's high
penetration wind systems. The VRB is sitting at UAS right now,
but there is no funding to analyze the data from that equipment.
MS. KEITH said with a 20-percent match the state could receive
funding from many sources. ACEP is already involved in programs
to test new battery systems, waste heat recovery devices and
hydro-kinetic turbines, the goal being to insure manufacturer
claims are accurate and to insure that these systems will
perform in Alaska. After the Chena Hot Spring Geothermal plant
was installed a lot of attention was paid to this type of
technology. This emerging technology fund will allow projects
like this to be proven in Alaska for Alaskan communities.
She said there is a sense of urgency in considering available
federal funds. She said SB 150 should be considered a sister
program to HB 152. Efforts in emerging technology will ensure
greater success with existing and future HB 152 projects.
Lastly, she said other research programs exist in the Lower 48,
but they are not appropriate for Alaska's unique conditions.
4:44:41 PM
D. DOUGLAS JOHNSON, Director, Alaska Projects, Ocean Renewable
Power, said they are currently working on two projects in
Alaska, one an ocean energy project and the other a river energy
project. He said his company wouldn't be where it is today had
it not received funds from similar agencies in the states of
Maine and Massachusetts. This fund is something Alaska needs
now. Alaska is one of the few places in the world that has a
full suite of renewables available. To be able to fully utilize
that suite of renewables, the technologies to do have to better
understood. This is an opportunity for Alaska to be a leader in
this area. The one-to-four ratio for every dollar the state puts
in makes the federal stimulus funding is a good deal for Alaska.
4:47:31 PM
KATE TROLL, Executive Director, Alaska Conservation Alliance
(ACA), supported SB 150 for many of the reason already stated.
She said that the clean energy business is looked at as a $55
billion/year industry - one of the few bright spots in today's
slumping economy. This figure is projected to quadruple by 2015.
She added that setting up this fund positions Alaska to leverage
a lot of not just federal funds, but a lot of private investment
in energy.
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI closed public testimony and held SB 150 in
committee.
4:51:06 PM
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI adjourned the meeting at 4:51.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| Dirk Nickisch - Confirmation.pdf |
SRES 4/1/2009 3:30:00 PM |
|
| Betty Jo Schmitz - Confirmation.pdf |
SRES 4/1/2009 3:30:00 PM |
|
| SB 150 - Bill Packet.pdf |
SRES 4/1/2009 3:30:00 PM |
SB 150 |
| Paul E. Johnson - Confirmation.pdf |
SRES 4/1/2009 3:30:00 PM |
|
| John K. Norman - Confirmation.pdf |
SRES 4/1/2009 3:30:00 PM |
|
| Peter B. Froehlich - Confirmation.pdf |
SRES 4/1/2009 3:30:00 PM |