A letter from Rep. Mary Peltola to the boards of Matanuska Electric Association and Chugach Electric Association makes demands on behalf of the Village of Eklutna.
The demands are for an unstated amount of money and demands that the Eklutna dam be torn down and/or that the Village of Eklutna be paid for the water that she claims belongs to the village.
Peltola is demanding “favored status,” or “equal party status” for the village. The letter references a 1991 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agreement, which can be seen here.
The letter was referenced in open session in the first board meeting after the board election for Chugach Electric Association, which ended May 19. Peltola’s letter was not included in the board meeting packet, however, but all members had a copy of the letter.
The board took the matter into executive session because it plans to have a joint response with Matanuska Electric Association that it wanted to discuss. (The letter is embedded below, but may not be visible on a smart phone.)
The letter, received May 18, was sent to CEA just as the board election was ending. The electric association board majority was taken over by the environmental industry, led by the Alaska Center for the Environment, and this week immediately elected a new board chair, Sam Cason. Former chairwoman Bettina Chastain was rolled as chair by the new environmental group that has seized control of the association, which is now the only power company in Anchorage, after buying Municipal Light and Power from the city of Anchorage of $972.8 million in 2019, after voters approved the sale in 2018. It is now a monopoly.
The Anchorage Assembly has established government-to-government relations with the Village of Eklutka which sits on the outskirts of Anchorage. The village estimates its population as 70.
