HCR 21-ALASKA ENERGY POLICY TASK FORCE  CHAIR BUNDE announced HCR 21 to be up for consideration. MR. TOM WRIGHT, staff to Representative John Harris, said the Representative introduced this resolution because he saw the need for the state to come up with a comprehensive long-term energy plan. A long-term plan would help the state promote more economic development, technological advancement and create an energy plan so the legislature has some guidelines. CHAIR BUNDE asked how the task force would be established. MR. WRIGHT replied it would have a member from the Board of Directors of the Alaska Energy Authority, the commissioner of the Department of Revenue, two members chosen by the governor, two members chosen by the Speaker of House, three members by the Senate President, one who would be selected by the minority members from the House and Senate from a list of three names in consultation with the speaker. The task force would elect its own chair from the membership. CHAIR BUNDE noted the fiscal note of $78,000. MR. WRIGHT responded they want to staff the task force because it will get technical assistance from AIDEA and the Alaska Energy Authority. They feel the task force will be undertaking two comprehensive plans - one being the Railbelt portion (to be submitted to the legislature by December 31) and the other being the non-Railbelt portion (to be submitted by March 31), so fiscal note needs to cover staff time. SENATOR STEVENS said in the case of the Salmon Task Force, it was nice to have a legislator on it that could shepherd the bill through the legislature. He wanted to know why a legislator would not be involved in this. MR. WRIGHT replied that the reason Representative Harris wanted to keep this within the industry is because there would be a lot of discussions around the technical aspects and he didn't want to see a lot of politics involved. He added there is nothing to preclude anyone from the legislature from participating in the task force. CHAIR BUNDE asked since the task force will focus mostly on electrical energy, it would be more appropriate to rename the task force the "Electrical Energy Task Force." MR. WRIGHT agreed that it is focused on electrical needs and said, "It could go one way or the other, Mr. Chairman..." CHAIR BUNDE stated, for the record, that this will be an electrical task force that will not be involved in petrochemicals. SENATOR FRENCH asked for an example of a state-owned Railbelt energy asset. MR. WRIGHT replied Healy and possibly Bradley Lake, because the state financed half of that project. He didn't know if the state was an owner in it, though. SENATOR SEEKINS asked if this obligates any legislature to adopt any plan that is presented. MR. WRIGHT replied, "No, it does not." MR. ERIC YOULD, Executive Director, ARECA, said his members generate about 90% of the electricity around the state and feel this resolution has merit. Some large projects on Alaska's horizon are beyond the abilities of the individual utilities to pursue - for instance, a transmission line from Nenana to Dominion Creek and the Intertie from Anchorage to Fairbanks and Kenai. There is a transmission line that could go from Delta to Tok, through Glennallen and back into the Anchorage area that would be very important considering that there might be a gas line terminal facility in the Valdez area in the future. In order to liquefy that gas, put it in barges and ship it to market, tremendous amounts of waste heat would be generated and that heat alone could generate up to 300 megawatts of capacity that could be fed back into the Railbelt area. TAPE 03-32, SIDE B    MR. YOULD thought a task force would be much more effective than an interdepartmental study by a state agency, which would take a long time. SENATOR SEEKINS moved to pass CSHCR 21(FIN), version H, from committee with individual recommendations and the attached fiscal note. SENATORS FRENCH, SEEKINS, STEVENS, DAVIS and BUNDE voted yea and HCR 21 passed from committee.