Robert Seitz: Work on sensible legislation this next session — with solutions, not bandaids

By ROBERT SEITZ

My intent was to cover the things Alaska should focus on as the legislators prioritize the topics of interest for Alaska with the new federal administration. 

But some of the conversations that have been stated in the news from some of more vocal elected officials were too disturbing to ignore. 

I have heard that legislators will have a balanced budget no matter how much they need to steal from the Permanent Fund dividend due the citizens of Alaska, and that they are going to provide increased funding to Alaska schools.

Instead of only considering raiding the dividend, why not consider long-term finances for the State of Alaska?  I think a priority for this legislative session is to work on encouraging, incentivizing and enabling legislation to ensure active interest in any lease sales which might be arranged in the near future.   

One of the most important objects for Alaska to work on at this time is to get increased oil flow in the Trans Alaska Pipeline, with a goal of a million barrels a day or more so that we can have assured revenue sufficient to fund the necessary items of the annual budget well into the future. The way to ensure a balanced budget with the least hassle is to ensure future revenues.   Oil and gas are the best revenue sources we have.

The other very important task is to ensure increased production of Cook Inlet gas. We need to have this fuel source reinforced before any other alternative fuel is considered. We need this to happen immediately. This is the one fuel source we know is in place, can be accessed and which has infrastructure already developed for it. While we are working on getting Cook Inlet gas production enhanced I think compressed gas from the North Slope to Fairbanks would be an excellent addition to help Fairbanks winter air quality issues and provide natural gas powered electrical generation from the Fairbanks end of the intertie.

All efforts to increase mining or oil production are going to be met with strong resistance from environmental groups.  In my opinion the greenhouse gas warming hysteria is unfounded and needs to be halted. Yes, we have some climate change, where the weather in many places is different than what has been experienced in recent memory.  We had a couple of winters in which the Arctic Sea Ice did not reach its full historical extent, but now winter ice has returned to the Bering Sea and the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The temperatures in these seas have decreased back to normal values.  

To combat the strong environmental interference that will be brought against our efforts to increase production of our resources, Alaska scientists need to explain why the waters in northwest Alaska are turning red; show that cold is returning to Alaska; show that the changes we see are not attributable to an increasing level of CO2.  We will have to combat this misleading greenhouse gas warming plot in court.

Another issue that has been a major focus during every legislative session and during this recent campaign is funding of Alaska schools.  It is insane to consider increasing funding without some criteria set for the various school districts to meet before increased funding is permitted.  The school districts need to drop the social engineering programs they have instituted.   Parental involvement and responsibility must be the norm.  The programs in school need to focus on teaching basic skills.  When reading and math scores show significant improvement an increase can be considered. Graduation rate must also be one of the metrics that are evaluated.  

It is anticipated that there will be another push to legislate an RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard) and I continue to advocate against such action.  I do not believe that mandated goals for addition of renewables to the Railbelt System will result in less costly electricity, resilience or reliability.  

In previous articles I have indicated that there are many technical issues that will interfere with proper operation if inverter based resources are added in utility scale sizes without sufficient engineering and study.  I strongly advocate for free market to drive the expansion of renewable resource on the Railbelt.  The continued addition of “rooftop” residential and commercial installation is still a good move.  Addition of renewable resources at industrial facilities would be a reasonable move providing the addition benefits the facility and is economically viable.  

If we can’t get the increased gas production I will be advocating that everyone get wood stoves to ensure heat for their homes.  Rolling brown outs that California has to resort to does not seem a good solution for Alaska. Whatever we can do to encourage renewable energy development in remote communities remains a high recommendation.

With the new Trump Administration coming into leadership of the nation we have opportunity to get our revenue flow better established.  With cooperation of within the Alaska government and between the Alaska government and the Federal government, we should have a good outcome; more solutions and fewer battles.

Robert Seitz is a professional electrical engineer and lifelong concerned Alaskan.