A Martin Luther King Day editorial - Southeast Alaska energy development needs support

Martin Luther King day marks an important, but sad third anniversary of the BC Provincial Government's effort to garner the state of Alaska's interest in interconnecting a proposed Province of British Columbia transmission extension project near Southeast Alaska. Southeast Alaska's hydroelectric capacity, if it all were developable would be near BC's present installed capacity of 11,000 megawatts.  Developing roughly a third the Alaska Panhandle's energy capacity would bring a significant amount of renewable energy production (some 3000 megawatts) benefits to the region and North America.

Interestingly, three years ago, had then Governor Palin and her administration replied affirmatively to a visiting BC provincial government's  representative regarding an Alaska - Canada electrical interconnection - when she later ran for vice-president, she would have indeed been able to legitimately claim some foreign policy experience. Instead she chose Russian-Alaska geography  as her foreign policy experience and it only begat ridicule.

Today as in three years ago, the Southeast minority communities of Angoon, Hoonah, Klukwan and Kake continue to pay outrageous and discriminatory electrical energy pricing.  This is a sad fact of reality that racial minorities throughout Alaska are not receiving efforts to at least achieve parity in electrical energy costs.  Most rural Alaskan communities aren't lacking sufficient energy resources, they are missing  economies of scale for the resources which are present.  This is precisely what an Alaska - Canada Intertie would help bring to Alaska.

Alaskans whom travel to and through Canada mostly are quite fond of their fellow Northerners because there is an implicit understanding of the grit it takes to live in the North.  We Northerners know that we have different national governments, but we are all so distant from Washington, D.C and Ottawa that somehow our differences are more to the background than in the forefront.  Canada, both nationally and provincially has reached out to Southeast Alaska acknowledging its significant promise to bring more green energy production to North America.

The City and Borough of Wrangell has sponsored the formation of the Alaska Canada Energy Coalition. It is a membership organization which is comprised of Alaskans and Canadians of Alaska municipalities, native corporations and tribal organizations in both countries.  Other southeast communities are moving towards support for this organization's efforts.  This effort hold more promise for the region's economic success than anything that has come before.

Today Governor Sean Parnell and Alaska legislators have a similar choice to make.  Except it is one which can make a huge economic difference to the Southeast region which is predicted lose to two state legislators in the upcoming reapportionment.  For a number of years about this time, representatives of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region's "PNWER" board travel to Alaska to gather information regarding mutually beneficial opportunities. Should they meet with the Alaska's governor and legislators on this - let's hope our leaders will make a decision for developing Southeast's economy by supporting an Alaska Canada Electrical Interconnection.