Russell Stigall

COMPASS: Other points of view
By CAITLIN HIGGINS (Ghost-written by Russell Stigall)
Published: November 24th, 2009 07:05 PM
Last Modified: November 24th, 2009 07:06 PM
Affordable energy and a healthy environment are the backbone of Alaska’s economy. However, with unpredictable fuel prices and the threat of winter gas shortages, it’s small wonder that Alaskans have consistently ranked energy issues second only to the economy in terms of the most important issue facing their local communities. Alaskans across the state are wondering not only if the energy they need will be available, but if they will be able to afford it.

We need a plan. The energy sources we have relied on for generations are not the energy sources of our future. It’s time to ask where we are going, how we want to get there and what Alaska’s energy future should be. We need a road map like those being written right now by members of the state House and Senate energy and resources committees.

There are many possible energy solutions being put forward in the policy and plan now being drafted. But the best solutions in terms of results are energy efficiency and renewable energy development. Quite simply, investments in these technologies will pay the greatest dividends in the form of reduced costs to consumers and clean, stably-priced energy and jobs for Alaskans.

The quickest and most effective of these clean energy solutions is improving the energy efficiency of our homes, offices and public buildings. Energy efficiency upgrades and weatherization stretch our dollars and our supply of natural gas and diesel fuels. Extending home weatherization programs and pay-as-you-save retrofitting for public buildings are just some of the money-saving options available to us. And energy saved (either by us or by the state) leaves more money to be spent on education, public safety, vacations and groceries.

The clean energy infrastructure we create today with our geothermal, solar, ocean, wind and advanced hydroelectric resources will give our youths well-paying, skilled jobs and a reason to work and live here in Alaska. However, the jobs and prosperity promised by clean technology are not just reserved for the future. From the hydroelectric of Southeast Alaska to Bradley Lake and the winds of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, many Alaskans are already enjoying the benefits of clean, renewable energy today.

Chena Hot Springs Resort, for example, currently powers much of its business through the lowest temperature geothermal project in the world, including a 16-ton absorption chiller that creates temperatures cold enough to maintain an ice museum year-round.

Kodiak Electrical Association installed three wind turbines at Pillar Mountain in 2009. When combined with a previously existing hydro project, it lets island businesses, homes, schools and public buildings on the utility’s grid now at times get 100 percent of their power from renewable energy.

If we as a state pursue this in a timely and vigorous manner, Alaska can be a leader in renewable energy technology as we are now in oil and gas development, and this technology and expertise can be exported to other countries and regions. Through research and development, construction and maintenance, clean energy will create high-tech, clean jobs for Alaskans and keep young minds in the state.

To assure our high quality of life in Alaska now and for our children’s  future, we must ask our legislators to work together now to embrace the cleanest and most stably priced of our Alaska-sized energy opportunities.

http://www.adn.com/2009/11/24/1027346/efficiency-renewable-energy-our.html

Written for Alaska’s 50th Anniversary celebration publication. An edited version of this story and others can be found in Alaska 50, at libraries in Anchorage and Seward.

Someday in the next few decades, the Trans-Alaska pipeline will deposit into the hold of a tanker ship in Valdez the final barrel of North Slope Crude.

The oil will complete its 800-mile journey in 9 days and its sale will deposit in Alaska’s coffers the last few of the billions of dollars the state has made from its oil during the pipeline’s decades of operation. Oil extracted from massive hydrocarbon deposits below the ice and permafrost of the North Slope and frozen Bearing and Arctic Seas have slipped down the long straw for 30 years.

Dozens of drill sites gulp hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil from North Slope reserves. The large reserves, Prudhoe Bay, Aurora, Midnight Sun, Orion, Polaris and Borealis provide the majority of North Slope crude. These are supplemented by other smaller sites. By far the largest reserve, Prudhoe Bay encompasses over 200,000 acres and produces on average half a million barrels of oil each day.

Alaska is a resource extraction state. Russia’s wooden ships filled with Sea Otter pelts left Alaska bound for women’s shoulders in Moscow and London.

Yukon gold swelled United States coffers in the late 1890s.

Today fishermen harvest the Bering Sea of three billion pounds of seafood each year. (more…)

Alaska could see as many as four new coal-fired electric generators. Agrium’s Blue Sky 350 megawatt coal to gas generator, Homer Electric Association is re-opening the 60 megawatt Healy “clean coal” plant, Nuvina’s 100 megawatt coal plant in Bethel and Matanuska Electric Association’s 100 megawatt circulating fluidized bed coal plant in the Mat-Su Valley.

The electric co-operative in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, MEA, has proposed construction of a 100 megawatt coal-fired generator. The co-op plans to use the generator in conjunction with a gas turbine generator to meet the energy demands of the Valley from 2015 to at least 2045.

Stories discussing the MEA coal plant and possible alternatives to coal combustion as an energy source are linked here: carbon dioxide and mercury emissions, poor planning, renewable alternatives, ocean tidal power and Here, citizen response and Here.

Out of state mineral companies also have their eye on Alaska’s vast coal resources. Across Cook Inlet from Anchorage, near Beluga are the proposed Chuitna coal fields. A Texas company plans to mine 30 square miles and uproot many wetlands and tributaries feeding the Chuitna River, home to a huge run of King Salmon. The mineral extractors also plan to dump 7 million gallons of industrial run-off into the river daily. More about Chuitna Coal Project and the Chuitna River Here Here Here.
Seward Alaska has been home to Usibelli Coal and Alaska Railroad coal loading facility since 1985. Since then Korean coal ships have ingested millions of tons of coal from the Blue Dipper and left tens of millions of dollars in Alaska. Since the project’s beginning a cloud has hovered over the jobs and profits brought to Alaska by resource extraction and export. Coal dust forms that cloud and it has, over the last 20 years, been fouling the boats, cars, water and lungs of Seward. Read more about Seward’s coal dust problem from Carol Griswold, Russell Stigall, AP’s Rachael D’Oro, responses from railroad Here and Here.