Legislature(2009 - 2010)BUTROVICH 205
01/28/2009 03:30 PM Senate RESOURCES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Overview: Fire Island Wind Farm Update | |
| Overview: State Energy Plan | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE RESOURCES STANDING COMMITTEE
January 28, 2009
3:36 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
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Gary Stevens
Senator Thomas Wagoner
OTHER LEGISLATORS PRESENT
Senator Joe Thomas
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
Overview: State Energy Plan by Steve Haagenson, Executive
Director, Alaska Energy Authority (AEA)
Overview: Fire Island Wind Farm Update by Barbara Donatelli,
Ethan Schutt, Steve Gilbert, Cook Inlet Regional Corporation
(CIRI)
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to consider
WITNESS REGISTER
BARBARA DONATELLI, Sr. Vice President
Administration and Government Relations
Cook Inlet Regional, Inc. (CIRI)
POSITION STATEMENT: Introduced CIRI presenters.
ETHAN SCHUTT, Vice President
Land and Legal Affairs
Cook Inlet Regional, Inc.
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave CIRI's perspective as a landowner.
STEVE GILBERT, Manager
Alaskan Projects
enXco Development
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on Fire Island Project.
STEVE HAAGENSON, Executive Director
Alaska Energy Authority
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented "Alaska Energy First Step for
Energy Independence."
ACTION NARRATIVE
3:36:09 PM
CO-CHAIR LESIL MCGUIRE called the Senate Resources Standing
Committee meeting to order at 3:36 p.m. Present at the call to
order were Senators Huggins, Stedman, Wielechowski, French and
McGuire. Senator Wagoner and Senator Stevens were excused.
3:36:42 PM
^Overview: Fire Island Wind Farm Update
CHAIR MCGUIRE announced that the overview of the Fire Island
Wind Farm project would be the first order of business.
BARBARA DONATELLI, Sr. Vice President, Administration and
Government Relations, Cook Inlet Regional, Inc. (CIRI),
introduced Ethan Schutt, Sr. Vice President, Land and Legal
Affairs, CIRI, and Steve Gilbert, Manager, Alaskan Projects,
enXco Development. She explained that enXco is the developer who
is partners with CIRI in the wind farm project.
3:38:17 PM
ETHAN SCHUTT, Sr. Vice President, Land and Legal Affairs, CIRI,
said he would give the committee some perspective of CIRI as a
landowner. They intend to begin construction on the Island this
summer on a two-year construction cycle - absent some regulatory
or permitting snag.
3:39:35 PM
STEVE GILBERT, Manager, Alaskan Projects, enXco Development,
said he has been an Alaskan for 25 years and that he had "cut my
teeth" in the electric power business as a start up engineer
bringing large coal and nuclear facilities on line. He worked at
Chugach Electric for 17 years and served as plant manager for
three of the four power plants and of the advanced energy
technologies. They did a one-megawatt fuel cell project, the
first of its kind in the world and a micro turbine project that
was put on the grid next to customers as part of a national
program with 80 other electric utilities to test out the
technology. He also became involved in renewables. Today they
would talk about nearly a decade of work.
3:41:20 PM
MR. GILBERT explained that he is responsible for the CIRI side
of things for the Fire Island Wind Farm. CIRI and enXco, a
renewable energy project developer in the US, are partners. In
2008 enXco did $1 billion in wind projects alone. Their focus is
wind projects in Alaska and for the most part, they are
concentrating on the Railbelt.
He reviewed that six electric utilities exist from Fairbanks
down through to the Kenai Peninsula; three generate and three
don't and are currently purchasing their power from Chugach
Electric. If they can get a large scale wind energy project in
the Railbelt, it would serve as a catalyst for more wind and
other types of renewables opportunity within the state. The
whole idea is diversification of energy resources, because the
Railbelt, like rural Alaska, is heavily dependant on fossil
energies.
3:43:10 PM
MR. GILBERT explained that renewable energies are a family of
technologies: biomass (fuels that are grown and in the process
absorbs the CO2 that is emitted during the combustion process),
solar (photovoltaic and direct heat), wave and tidal,
geothermal, hydro and wind. Wave and tidal are two very
different fledgling technologies and are about where wind was 20
years ago. It's not quite ready for prime time, but
technologists want to keep an eye on it because the energy
available in the flow of water is substantial. Water is 842
times denser than air.
Geothermal energy takes advantage of heat under the surface of
the earth - like the potential at Mt. Spur. Hydro is a great
renewable resource and Wind Energy Alaska formed a partnership
with Homer Electric called Kenai-Hydro, LLC. and obtained FERC
preliminary permits giving them the opportunity to study
particular resources in a defined geographic area.
The lowest cost renewable energy available today is wind energy.
Often the capital costs of these technologies are measured on
the kW basis and a hydro project is $5000 per kW; by comparison
Fire Island is expected to be about $3000 per kW. Hydros,
especially those with a dam, include storage. Wind doesn't
necessarily include storage, but wind and hydro can be combined
where as the wind picks up, the hydros would be throttled back
and as the wind trails off, they would be throttled up again.
This is not a new concept and is being proven out in the
northwestern states.
MR. GILBERT explained that windmills have flat blades where a
wind turbine has blades shaped like a wing. A windmill will
capture and convert about 5 percent of the energy in the wind
because the wind is pushing the blade out of the way; whereas
the new wind mill (turbine), taking advantages of lift and drag,
captures and converts about 40 percent of the energy in the
wind.
3:47:29 PM
Turbines in the Railbelt, relative to turbines in rural Alaska,
operate on the same principals and do the same thing; they help
diversify generation resources. Kotzebue turbines would be a
quarter of the height of the turbines that would be needed for
Fire Island and the Railbelt applications, because of economies
of scale. The modern turbines turn about 20 revolutions per
minute (rpms); so slow that you can watch them move.
3:48:12 PM
Fire Island is just offshore Anchorage, Mr. Gilbert explained.
In 2000, Chugach started collecting wind data on the Island;
wind towers were added and CIRI became involved. It looked good
so they began studies in 2004 to get a transmission line to the
Island. This is when they filed their paper work with the FAA.
3:49:19 PM
Initially the FAA didn't have a concern, but 14 months later it
found problems with the radar and VOR, a navigation aide on the
Island. That put things on hold while they addressed the FAA's
concerns by removing nine of the 33 turbines and now they have
24 approved sites. Typically you want 80 meters from hub to
ground, but 65 meters was approved for most of the sites and
four were actually too low to use. So that brought them down to
a total of 20 sites.
The transmission line would come from the southern part to the
northern tip of the Island where submarine cable will run to the
mainland and connect to the Chugach grid. Working with Chugach
he developed all the different interconnect scenarios looking at
a high voltage interconnect of 138 kilovolts (kV) and a lower
range voltage of 34,500 kV. In a June meeting all the utilities
expressed interest in the 34,500 kV interconnect and so that's
what they are currently working on permitting.
3:52:26 PM
He explained that the turbines need to be accessed and a
technician can climb down inside and conduct inspections as
necessary. Maintaining the wings will provide permanent jobs
since they require gears, coolants and lubricants just like any
other power plant.
3:54:25 PM
Recent activities include staking the road and power line
alignments and identifying any potential problem areas so they
could steer around them. They applied for a Corps of Engineers
404 permit, a large umbrella permit, and have been conducting
interagency meetings working towards that. The Corps has begun
the public notice period and CIRI has been meeting with
prospective contractors. All have assured them of their intent
is to use virtually 100 percent Alaskan labor for construction;
and Chugach, ML&P, Golden Valley Electric and Homer Electric all
signed an MOU seeking to purchase power from Fire Island if it
works.
MR. GILBERT said he regularly lectures UAA and UAF engineers
regarding the inclusion of non-fuel generation to encourage
young engineers to look for opportunities to use non-fuel
generation and then fill that in with a fossil fuel. Reduced
emissions clearly are a benefit and diversification of resources
is another benefit.
He explained that non-fuel generation is a relatively level-
priced source because the price of wind, rain and geothermal are
zero and that never changes. While any new power plant might
cost more upfront, especially renewable, over time it gets less
expensive.
3:57:35 PM
The Railbelt is fueled by natural gas over 90 percent. While
natural gas is good because you don't have to have a fuel pile
or have to deal with ash, 90 percent is a risky place to be. So
the message is one of diversification. A chart from
Chugach clearly showed how the jump in fuel costs rippled
through the economy.
3:59:18 PM
MR. GILBERT explained when Bradley Lake hydro came on line it
was more expensive at first, which caused a lot of anxiety. It
was supposed to take about 11 years before its cost to produce
power was on par with what it cost for a fueled source, but it
ended up taking only about six years. Hydros last for 100 years,
so that's 94 years of benefit for their people.
MR. GILBERT said if Fire Island had been developed in 2005 when
there was interest in it, the cost of fuel would be competitive
with natural gas today. So, he said, incremental goals are
needed that will allow them to graft non-fuel generation into
their portfolio of resources over time.
4:00:59 PM
CHAIR MCGUIRE asked where the state appropriation sits today and
what the threshold is for using those funds.
MR. SCHUTT reviewed that the state legislature appropriated $25
million to the AEA to construct the power transmission line for
this project last year. Significant protections were built in to
that appropriation, namely that it couldn't be accessed until a
binding power sales agreement was put in place, which means the
legislature isn't funding a boondoggle or building a
transmission line to an island that doesn't have a power
project. That sales agreement is in place now, and they will
want to seek reimbursement after the transmission lines have
been built with private funds.
SENATOR HUGGINS asked him to comment on integration challenges.
4:03:08 PM
MR. GILBERT replied that Chugach is kicking off an integration
study next week that has to do with how energy is absorbed from
an intermittent resource like wind. The question is how to
optimize the energy the wind creates for the benefit of the
whole system. Last year a little over 8300 megawatts (MW) of
wind, alone, was added to the US grid, and various operating
scenarios have been employed to make that happen.
4:03:52 PM
SENATOR HUGGINS asked if batteries were one of the variables
involved with wind integration.
MR. GILBERT replied that typically batteries aren't used in
integration and they have no intention of using them. Hydros use
batteries, but the idea is that as the wind picks up, the hydros
are throttled back and as the wind trails off, they get
throttled up again.
4:04:38 PM
SENATOR FRENCH asked if they get all 20 towers up and running
and get a nice 20 knot breeze down the Turnagain Arm, what kind
of output could be expected.
MR. GILBERT answered that the FAA has authorized the equivalent
of 30 MW annually or about what 9,000 average Anchorage homes
would use. There is enough space, so more turbines could be
built. Perhaps a new technology would replace the VOR and then
they could put up more turbines. On a 20 mph day you would
produce two-thirds of rated output, so probably about 20 MW.
SENATOR FRENCH asked if that would be enough to take 9,000
houses off the grid that day.
MR. GILBERT replied yes, in effect, but you don't tell the
utilities you're taking them off the grid. He usually tries to
express fuel savings on an annual basis.
4:06:59 PM
SENATOR FRENCH asked the estimated break-over date for producing
electricity with wind for less money than with fossil fuel.
MR. GILBERT replied if they had done Fire Island in 2005, it
would be less now. It depends on the price of fuel.
4:08:02 PM
SENATOR FRENCH asked if natural gas stays around $5 when could
rate-payers expect to see a return on their investment.
MR. GILBERT replied that in 2005 two different scenarios showed
that Fire Island would be on par with gas generation in 11 and
19 years for just fuel, but in reality he guessed it would be
closer to three years.
4:09:41 PM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI said this is a win-win for everyone;
Alaskans were involved at all levels. He asked if he had
analyzed how much gas this project would save.
MR. GILBERT said he couldn't do that calculation in his head.
Chugach is working toward deployment of a new gas turbine fuel
plant, which will be substantially more efficient than what is
currently running. Chugach hasn't had any new generation since
1978.
4:11:38 PM
CHAIR MCGUIRE asked Mr. Schutt to comment on the ability to
store wind and to explain to what extent it's factored into this
modeling.
MR. SCHUTT replied that this project doesn't have a storage
component designed into it. But exciting new technologies for
wind storage are being explored because its intermittent nature
creates integration issues for the engineers and economic issues
for the utility that's purchasing the power. Some companies are
looking at innovative storage technologies so that the
equivalent of base load power could be generated from a wind
project. One technology uses the turbine to compress air into
high pressure storage tanks and that is bled off at a constant
rate to match the output in the wind profile. Another technology
that has been brewing for 10-12 years is the use of fly wheel
batteries, but storage efficiency isn't up to where it would
make economic sense yet.
4:13:23 PM
CHAIR MCGUIRE asked if storage would be a future consideration.
MR. SCHUTT replied not for this project. This is the first wind
project they have participated in and CIRI is collecting data
now. Their long-term vision is to use a renewable resource so
that the non-renewable resources can be exported to the world.
They hope Fire Island will be an anchor project.
4:15:45 PM
CHAIR MCGUIRE announced an at ease at 4:15.
4:19:02 PM
CHAIR MCGUIRE called the meeting back to order at 4:19 and
announced the overview of the State Energy Plan.
^Overview: State Energy Plan
4:19:54 PM
STEVE HAAGENSON, Executive Director, Alaska Energy Authority,
presented "Alaska Energy First Step for Energy Independence."
He went to page 6 and started with how much energy Alaska uses.
He found one rule of thumb said 1000 gallons per Alaskan per
year; another rule said three to four times the amount of power
cost equalization (PCE) fuel used in a village or the whole
community. Looking at electricity, space heating and
transportation got them to 39-53 million gallons of fuel. Since
that was a wide spread, they asked the Institute of Social and
Economic Research (ISER) to put a model together for the space
heating component. Electric usage was already documented well
with the utility sales in the PCE database that AEA tracks; and
they decided to try to "get close" to a good estimate.
So they went out to 28 communities and asked three questions:
what resources are in their backyard that they could make energy
out of, what didn't they want to use, and why not. A lot of
people didn't want to use coal because of CO2 and they didn't
want to use nuclear because of nuclear waste.
The reason they asked "why not" is because there may be ways to
solve those issues - if a way could be found to sequester CO2,
maybe coal could be used as a source and then it could be
sequestered and everyone could get where they want to go. They
learned a lot about things that weren't really in books.
4:22:06 PM
MR. HAAGENSON used Bethel as an example of local creativity
where people cut down willows and instead of turning them into
pellets that would require new stoves to burn, they compressed
willow "broomsticks" into logs that could be burned in their
existing stoves.
Next AEA put together a resource matrix for the whole state;
every city was listed. Then they added every possible resource
that was in the area. They took that list and augmented it with
information from the community meetings. Then AEA created
technology teams so that the public could have someone to talk
to about using their energy resources. The last step was
actually doing cost estimates.
4:25:31 PM
Page 14 indicated how different fuels compare in usage in each
area and page 15 showed the PCE data. Using local fuels will
help sustain the local economy, he stated, and it would add jobs
to the communities and retain some of the money there that would
otherwise go to some foreign oil company.
Pages 16-18 looked at possible solutions for all the different
areas in the state. They talked about power plant efficiency
increases, heat recovery, using renewable energy and economies
of scale.
MR. HAAGENSON said this study was meant to be a tool to
understand the value of resources in a particular neighborhood.
It could help Southeast make a planning grid, for instance.
4:32:01 PM
Page 23 talked about the total annual energy consumption per
state; Alaska is at the highest at 1 billion Btus per person per
year. Another graph on page 24 showed all the energy produced
and consumed in Alaska by sector. The bottom showed import
energy and the top showed export energy. It showed that most of
the petroleum that is produced is exported.
Page 49 showed what sectors are creating CO2, where it's coming
from and how much is coming from each source of energy in
Alaska.
4:33:53 PM
MR. HAAGENSON went to page 33 that talks about the history of
energy policy in Alaska. On page 36 it talked about specific
factors that impeded success of alternative energy initiatives
as stated by an analyst in 1985 in a review of a prior energy
study. It said the state agencies don't pick winners and losers
very well and they don't develop strong management capabilities
and lack methods for assessing the technical and financial
feasibility of projects. Coordination amongst state agencies is
often lacking. Features of alternative technology were poorly
mapped with useful rural application. Unrealistic expectations
existed about what an agency or technology could accomplish. Too
much responsibility was delegated to contractors while the state
often assumed the risk in performance of the project.
As he read this he thought on one hand there is this energy
document and on the other hand AEA is responsible for evaluation
of the Renewable Energy Fund. So, if the state doesn't pick
losers and winners very well, what are they doing? As a new
state employee, he said they need to make sure that doesn't
happen and he took a very aggressive review posture on all the
projects under the Renewable Energy Fund to make sure they
missed the "landmines" they should have learned from the past.
In his opinion in the past they didn't engage anybody real; they
didn't make anything happen.
4:36:20 PM
He urged them to engage Alaskans to take the first step
together. The state put $25 million into the capital budget for
this fund and that is leveraged about 7 to 1. The more the state
can have private people move these projects forward, and help
them succeed, they will all be better off. Page 38 talked more
about the Renewable Energy Fund and page 39 talked about steps
to success.
4:37:14 PM
Page 44 talked about policy energy implications and fuel
stabilization, a hedging-type application, power cost
equalization, carbon tax, cap and trade programs, net metering,
land use, transportation, low cost housing, low income home
energy assistance, weatherization programs, home energy rebates,
and the 2.5 particulate matter issues, renewable energy funds
and energy research funds. All of these need to be addressed in
policy, Mr. Haagenson said.
4:38:03 PM
Page 55 had a section on permitting. DNR has some concerns about
permitting and some applications have happened that were done
maybe a little naively. This is a statement that says you need
to talk to people who understand this and make sure you get the
right permits before proceeding on those jobs.
4:38:43 PM
Page 56 was the beginning of a technology section on diesel
efficiency and use, wind, biomass, geothermal, heat pumps,
solar, coal, natural gas, delivery systems and storage systems.
There are case studies, contact information, a primer on how the
technology is being applied and what is happening in Alaska
today. The study tried to get Alaskans engaged in the solution.
4:40:15 PM
Page 244 contained acknowledgements; most are from AEA, Alaska
Center for Energy and Power, ISER and DNR people. These people
have done a lot of work in pulling this document together. This
is about building our future with our kids and making sure we
making wise decisions. This document was intended to focus so
legislators can see what is available. He said an accompanying
CD contained the results for every community in Alaska that they
had data for.
4:41:57 PM
MR. HAAGENSON said AEA's next step is to go out and talk to
Alaskans to get them engaged and to develop financing options as
opposed to going to a bond market.
4:42:53 PM
He went to a snap shot of four hydro projects in the Bethel
area. It showed how the excess resources out there could be put
together with the needs of the community. As the communities are
tied together, wind can be in one and hydro in another depending
on what looks best for the region. You could switch to hydro
batteries, for instance, when the wind isn't blowing. This
study, since it is looking at local resources, does not look at
transmission lines since those are under the section on
delivering power from one place to the other.
He said there are five reasons for building a transmission line.
If you have unused capacity and it can be delivered to some
place that can use it is one reason - much like the Tyee line to
Ketchikan. If you can make it cheaper in one place and deliver
it cheaper than you can make it in another location is another
reason. The third reason is if you want to increase reliability
you could have a second line, but you would have to have a first
line already. If you want to reduce losses, you could have a
second line, but would also need a first line already; and the
last reason is strategic. If you're going along and there is a
resource you want to hook into, you could swing out and pick it
up on the way by.
MR. HAAGENSON said he wanted to look local first primarily
because he getting their own fuel would add jobs to the
communities; they could keep their money local, as well.
4:45:21 PM
MR. HAAGENSON went on to talk about the Renewable Energy Fund
(passed last year). AEA was instructed to put together a program
for evaluation of those projects and an application form. They
ended up with 234 projects for a total of $755 million. An
advisory committee worked with him, AEA staff and DNR to
complete the evaluation of the first round of projects. They
ended up with a list of 77 projects which totaled to be $100
million. They had applications from a wide range of technologies
- hydroelectric, biomass, bio-fuels, geothermal, wind, solar,
transmission lines, tidal and heat recovery systems.
The legislation also instructed them to give the most importance
to high cost of energy areas first and then significant
importance to spreading of funds and matching funds. In the very
first stage, a three-man team actually looked at each
application to make sure it was complete. AEA staff, independent
outside economists and other consultants helped them evaluate
the proposals. They used two types of evaluations: technical and
economic feasibility.
The final stage was a numeric guideline with preexisting
weighting factors. The project manager and the two program
leaders did this evaluation. Cost of energy had a 30 percent
weighting factor, matching funds had 25 percent, economic and
technical feasibility was rated at 20 percent, project readiness
was 5 percent, economic and other Alaskan benefits was 10
percent, sustainability was 5 percent and local support was 5
percent. The data was broken out by region.
MR. HAAGENSON said the advisory committee did the regional
spreading from the final list. A cap of $4 million per project
was put on the non-Railbelt component, which was below what six
projects requested. The Railbelt and Southeast Alaska projects
were capped at $2 million per project, but then they realized
that was not fair for Southeast that was still on diesel fuel;
so they were capped at $4 million.
They then looked at the rest of the projects and asked how fair
it was on a regional spread and found that Dillingham had very
low numbers. So they computed a pro-rated number based on the
cost of energy across the state and they allocated that to each
region. The minimum one could get would be half of that number.
So, Dillingham got more money for its project. The committee was
pretty happy, but Buckland, Deering and Kobuk put in a joint
application. So they decided to make it per community, not per
project, which allowed that project to move forward. At the end
of the day, the advisory committee is fully supportive of the
ranking and believes it represents a fair spread across the
spectrum.
4:52:13 PM
The list of funding and regional spread is on the AEA website.
4:53:31 PM
SENATOR STEDMAN said Mahoney Lake (by Ketchikan), Ruth Lake
(north of Petersburg) and Takatz Lake on the east side of
Baranof Island in Southeast need to be worked into the mix. He
explained that Southeast has been in the process of building an
Intertie grid for a decade and a half. He pointed out that
Takatz Lake didn't make the first cut. He asked if the people
who didn't make the first cut have time to redo their
application and proposal to make the second round.
4:54:55 PM
MR. HAAGENSON answered that the RFP for round one was due in
October and round two was due in November and that evaluation is
starting today. They have slipped by 30 days and they are asking
for an additional 30 days till March 3. Takatz Lake is on the
list for $2 million.
SENATOR STEDMAN said Takatz Lake didn't make the third round,
but that could be amended. The point is if you have a viable
project and it is a large 28 MW dam, and it's the corner stone
of the whole intertie, once it's in place, the rest of pieces
fall in place.
MR. HAAGENSON said he was working backwards from the schedule
that was given to them under the statute. Round one was "give it
to us as fast as you can;" round two had to be to the
legislature by 10 days after the start of session on January 30.
He shared Senator Stedman's concern, but on they other hand,
they were moving rapidly and have another 115 applications for
round two.
MR. HAAGENSON said that the Railbelt is looking at an integrated
resource plan and it might be wise to do another Southeast plan
as well. They may end up building transmission lines first, but
at the end of the day it has to hook together in a cohesive
plan. But he promised to look into how Takatz evolved.
4:58:28 PM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked what match is offered under the cost,
request and match offered columns.
MR. HAAGENSON replied that the legislation directed them to
evaluate the match; it could come from the feds or any state
entity.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI noted that not very much went to Anchorage
or Palmer because they have lower cost energy (page 4), but he
was bothered by the Mt. Redoubt/Mt. Spur geothermal construction
project, which requested $950,000 and had a $97 million match.
It seemed that they would want to consider evaluating that
differently in the future.
5:00:16 PM
MR. HAAGENSON agreed with him; it looked like a great option.
The problem is the Mt. Spur rights were sold at auction last
year for about $3 million to Ormat Technologies, Inc. and the
applicant had no right to be there.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI said that was just one example; others had
multi millions of dollars in matches.
5:00:57 PM
SENATOR HUGGINS asked what happens to the 45-day window clock of
the Renewable Energy Fund if a project is not approved.
MR. HAAGENSON replied that HB 152 says on the first round there
is a 45 day window in which LB&A can agree or disagree. If they
th
agree on the 46 day, they could start awarding the grant funds.
I they say no, the instructions in the statute are for them to
go back and review the process.
SENATOR HUGGINS asked him to give a 62-second overview of how
the "Alaska Energy First Step for Energy Independence" would fit
into the context of getting energy some place.
MR. HAAGENSON replied that all of these projects start in a
communities' backyard. If there are resources in their backyard
that they can use, if they use that local fuel, it doesn't
matter what diesel fuel costs any more. The first step is to get
this out to people so they can understand the issues. The next
step is for AEA to go out and meet with Alaskans to help them
deliver and draw up a regional plan that each community can fit
into.
He will look at the areas that don't have a resource, that do
have resources and the ones that have surplus resource, and then
figure out how to hook them all together to get the lowest cost
for all.
SENATOR HUGGINS said he is trying to get to the point of
delivering power.
MR. HAAGENSON said he would stop by and chat with him about
that.
5:03:29 PM
CHAIR MCGUIRE thanked him and adjourned the meeting at 5:03 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|