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.