By RICK WHITBECK
Don’t look now, but everyone’s favorite group of left-wing (nut) warriors is trying to shove radical candidates onto the Chugach Electric Board of Directors. Let’s disappoint them.
The Alaska Center (for the Environment and every other woke issue) has endorsed the following three candidates for Chugach’s board: Shaina Kilcoyne, Susanne Fleek-Green, and Jim Nordlund.
Kilcoyne is the most dangerous of the candidates, as she is a true believer in #ClimateCult mentality that we need to stop traditional energy use and development today.
The combination of her background fighting against Alaska’s resource-based economy, her climate-warrior activities, her involvement with the Alaska Venture Fund (anyone heard of the ‘big brother’ New Venture Fund, and its leading funder, George Soros?) and her proud co-authoring of the Municipality of Anchorage’s Climate Action Plan – a boondoggle for ‘green’ energy advocates but bad for Anchorage taxpayers – mean Kilcoyne would be an unmitigated disaster for Chugach’s members and ratepayers.
Fleek-Green, a current superintendent with the National Park Service and a Cal Berkeley graduate (not exactly a pro-development background), would team with Kilcoyne to push Chugach away from reliable and low-cost Cook Inlet natural gas toward less-reliable, higher-cost renewables as a primary source of our electricity.
Nordlund, a former state legislator and previous Chugach board member, is seeking to continue the board’s lurch leftward. His candidate statement confirms he believes in a move toward renewables and away from gas. Nordlund, although the most rational of the three endorsed candidates, still gave the Alaska Center enough supportive information endorsing the ‘go-green’ agenda to get their support.
Chugach ratepayers need only look westward toward Fire Island to see that wind isn’t a consistent source of power (this morning, as I write this, only two of the eleven are turning in our continued snowfall), or at our monthly bills to see the “FIW renewable energy adj” line-item, which is an additional cost associated with integrating Fire Island into the grid.
Rational, everyday Alaskans know solar is unreliable approximately half the year, and we know that integrating all those so-called solutions into the grid is expensive. Why would we vote for people who want to take Chugach down a path that lowers reliability, increases cost, hurts ratepayers, and only increases reliance on Communist China, who controls the supply chain for ‘green’ energy technology?
Voting for the Chugach board begins this week and ends with the Annual Meeting on May 19th. Even if you haven’t voted in the election before, it is time to start this year!
We’ve seen the activation of the Left in municipal elections throughout Southcentral Alaska. Don’t let the same extremists take control of our energy grid – when you get your packet, turn it in, and remember (and reject!) the three candidates who want to move Chugach away from reliability and toward radicalism.
Rick Whitbeck is the Alaska State Director for Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs and opportunities. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @PTFAlaska.
