On Monday, Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s staff will hear from all sides about whether the Eklutna Hydroelectric Project and associated dam should be reauthorized. His decision is due no later than Oct. 2.
The Anchorage Assembly last week passed a resolution demanding that Dunleavy delay the decision for two years. On Monday, he’ll hear legal points for why a delay of his decision might be legal or not legal, according to agreements made in the 1990s.
The Assembly wants the delay because it doesn’t want the reauthorization of the dam. The Assembly majority wants to wait until there’s a different governor in office — preferably one that will cave to the demands of the Assembly to take down the dam that holds nearly all of Anchorage’s drinking water and a significant portion of its electric capacity for homes and businesses. The Assembly has gone on record wanting full restoration of the Eklutna River, something that was never envisioned under the terms of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife agreement.
The project was sold in 1997 to the Municipality of Anchorage, Chugach Electric Association, and Matanuska Electric Association. As part of the sale of the project, the three utilities entered into a Fish & Wildlife Agreement in 1991. The agreement requires the project owners to develop and propose to the governor a program to protect, mitigate damages to, and enhance fish and wildlife impacted by the development of the hydroelectric project.
But now in 2024, after selling off Municipal Light & Power to Chugach Electric under Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, the Assembly has no voting role in the matter. The municipality is not an ownership member without ML&P.
The Assembly has been, however, holding government-to-government meetings with the Eklutna Village, which has about 70 people enrolled, and the Assembly has been threatening to sue the governor if he reauthorizes the dam, which was first built in the 1920s and rebuilt in the decades that followed.
The governor has the authority to reauthorize the dam as it is or with a plan developed over a five-year process by the voting members of its ownership group, which is now Chugach Electric Association and Matanuska Electric Association.
“They would threaten the water supply and cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer and ratepayer dollars,” said Power the Future in July. “They believe that other energy solutions (i.e., wind and solar) can more than make up the power produced by the Eklutna system. Ask Anchorage residents what that might have looked like this past January, when the current wind solution would have powered less than 700 homes on the coldest day of the year, while the Eklutna supply powered over 28,000 between Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley.”
According to the description by Eklutna Hydro, the 1991 Agreement says the governor will review the proposal and issue a final Fish and Wildlife Program giving equal consideration to:
- the purposes of efficient and economical power production
- energy conservation
- the protection, mitigation of damage to, and enhancement of fish and wildlife
- the protection of recreation opportunities,
- municipal water supplies
- the preservation of other aspects of environmental quality
- other beneficial public uses
- requirements of State law
Throughout the process, the owners are required to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, state resource agencies, including the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, and any other interested parties.
Read more about Eklutna Hydro at this link.
The assembly is using threats to force the outcome they want not the people.
This is why the non voting anchorage people need to get involved and they need to be taxed to the hilt to wake them up.
“the Assembly has no voting role in the matter and the Assembly has been threatening to sue the governor if he reauthorizes the dam.
With whom’s money do they intend to sue over matters they have no voice in? Best be their own.
This dam has existed for over 100 years, now the powers to be, the far left anchorage assembly an a small fringe group of Alaskan natives believe it should be tore down to restore fishing on a river/stream that already has some fishing, and this fishing could be enhanced without destroying the dam. The benefit to the environment that this clean energy dam provides in electricity and not to mention the absolutely wonderful glacier water that we all enjoy coming out of our faucets in Anchorage is just nuts. This clean drinking water that we are so lucky to have is a humongous health benefit to all of us in Anchorage. Please Governor use common sense in making your decision that benefits over 200,000 people in Anchorage.
This idiocy is woke ideology on full display. Of course the elected representatives of the Municipality of Anchorage know more about how to provided clean water and energy than anyone else, they were elected by a small percentage of voters! These elected representatives are even trying to force others outside their jurisdiction to obey their demands because they know so much more.
Anchorage voters should be ashamed.
Anyone taking a dam / power plant out of operation should be charged with criminal neglect lest they replace it with another source other than their idiotic fairy dust green energy. The rest of the state should not be punished for the stupidity of the few leftist.
I give it 50-50, best. The Cowardly Lion has a bad track record of folding under pressure.
If the Politburo really wants a particular decision out of him, they should send in Giessel. He folds for her every time.
So, Anchorage wonders why people are leaving and yet, the Assembly would make sure residents don’t have electricity? This is insanity at its finest.
The Assembly has no vote, their opinion is idiotic and contrary to the well being and safety of the public. There is no reason for Dunleavy to waste time in re authorizing this. With the constant earthquake threat, Anchorage should have 2 or 3 of these systems for reliable service redundancy. At least that what competent urban authorities would do.
Eklutna Village, which has about 70 people enrolled.
Eklutna supply powered over 28,000 between Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley.”
This sounds like a no brainer to me but for the sake of 70 people who want their fish back.
Just offer them more money, that’s what its really all about isnt it? Money……
Let them do it. After thousands of people are deprived of water and electric, they should file personal civil suits against each of the individual assembly members who are pushing this. Fight lawfare with lawfare.
We are already experiencing load shedding blackouts as the power producing infrastructure struggles to just barely keep up.
There is exactly zero reason to shut down and remove this dam.
To remove it would be catastrophically stupid, which explains why the idea comes from the Left…..
So if I sell my house but then years later my wife and I decide we wish to exercise control over the sold property preventing the current owners from using what is now their property, do I have legal rights? Using the current assembly logic, I do.
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This is a special kind of stupid. I guess if you look at the world through blue colored glasses you are bestowed with this special kind of stupid.
Under the principles of subsidiarity, the governor ought to let the people of Anchorage do what they want. If we want to destroy our only stable baseload power (other than gas), why should he stop us?
Ya, solar is great in the summer obviously. But ours clicks off in mid-November until mid-February. It must be supplemented, so with what now, according to ass-embly??
Anchorage Alaska, rest in peace.
This kind of utter stupidity on the part of the assembly and the natives of Eklutna Village is exactly the reason I am leaving this land run by fools. At a certain point, I become the fool for sticking around and tolerating this insanity. The people that want to somehow turn back the clock and make Alaska what it was in the “good old days” don’t remember it taking weeks or months to get supplies, don’t remember loved ones dying from treatable diseases or injuries, don’t remember being informationally, economically and physically isolated to third world status. Don’t remember the squalor of not having indoor plumbing or modern tools or conveniences. I challenge most “true Alaskans” to go back to living that way. Few could. This is about money and control, pure and simple.
Democrats hate humans. That is obvious now.
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