{"id":306046,"date":"2024-03-05T19:35:10","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T18:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=306046"},"modified":"2024-03-05T19:35:13","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T18:35:13","slug":"alaskas-green-plan-b-political-energy-is-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=306046","title":{"rendered":"Alaska\u2019s \u201cGreen\u201d Plan B: Political Energy is Back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From The Master Resource<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0<\/em>Kassie Andrews<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe prospect of Alaska becoming Germany<\/a> energy-wise is a troubling concept to imagine. At least Germany had industry and an economy to destroy\u2026. It\u2019s up to us to elect common-sense realists instead of ideologues.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy\u2019s plan<\/a> for a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to mandate unreliable and costly sources of energy has stalled out<\/a>, thanks to Jesse Bjorkman, Chair of the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee. But sinister private interests and ethically corrupt bureaucrats are out to force a Green New Deal on taxpayers and ratepayers under a new guise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governor Dunleavy has now teamed with the Alaskan House Energy Committee to push for an equally bad Clean Energy Standard (CES)<\/strong>. Introduced February 20, House Bill 368<\/a> is titled \u201cAn Act relating to clean energy standards and a clean energy transferable tax credit; and providing an effective date.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putting the Fix In<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A year ago, Governor Dunleavy tasked<\/a> the Alaska Energy Security Task Force to create an energy plan (government plan) to lower Alaskan electricity rates to 10\u00a2\/kWh (his \u201cmoonshot\u201d). Currently, Alaskans pay about 24\u00a2\/kWh<\/a>, one of the highest rates in the country. RPS was a key component of the original draft plan, but at the 11th<\/sup> hour, CES became the new Trojan Horse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fix was in. No stakeholders relevant to the development of our reliable sources of energy were on the task force assigned to create a comprehensive statewide energy plan. \u201cStakeholders\u201d who actually have invested in, know well, and are ready to extract and utilize readily available local coal and gas were excluded<\/em> from planning and considerations. The result? An energy plan<\/a> to \u201cAdopt a Clean Energy Standard with incentives to diversify generation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dueling Plans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska<\/a> (RCA) unanimously opposed the RPS legislation in December 2023. House Bill 368, a Clean Energy \u201cStandard,\u201d appears to be the first of many standards tied to what is to come from the Electric Reliability Organization<\/a> (ERO).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although this legislation comes ahead of the ERO Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), new standards and modifications are subject to the review by the RCA. The ERO concept was signed into law in 2020<\/a> and was heavily supported<\/a> by our friends at the Renewable Energy Alaska Projec<\/a>t (REAP). The duties of the ERO include developing reliability standards that provide for an adequate level of reliability of an interconnected electric energy transmission network and the development of integrated resource plans. In part, the ERO legislation states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An electric utility must participate in an electric reliability organization if the utility operates in an interconnected electric energy transmission network served by an electric reliability organization certificated by the commission.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The idea, according to REAP<\/a>, is for ERO to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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remove barriers to renewable energy development in a number of ways. It will mandate non-discriminatory access by independent companies that wish to sell renewables into the grid, take a first step toward eliminating redundant fees to transmit power along the grid and establish a transparent, public \u201cintegrated resource planning\u201d process to determine what new generation projects the region will build in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Many climate alarmist groups<\/a> that are demanding mandates<\/a> to Alaskan energy were involved in the creation of the ERO. The Alaska Institute for Climate and Energy (ALICE)<\/a> provided a study on a ~5 billion dollar Eklutna Pumped Energy Storage Solution<\/a>, per Governor Dunleavy\u2019s request. According to ALICE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The science<\/a> is clear: the world, including Alaska, must reduce Greenhouse Gas (GhG) emissions from burning fossil fuels to net zero by 2050 to keep our planet below 1.5-degree Celsius warming and avert dangerous run-away climate change.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The interest of consumers are not best served by relying on private companies with a profit motive as the only potential actors. IPPs, member-owned utilities, and the state should all be able to pursue beneficial renewable energy, storage, and transmission projects<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving the Railbelt utility system off fossil fuels (currently 85% of our generation) to a fully integrated and resilient wind-solar-storage powered system serves the highest public interest as we face the existential threat of climate change. We urge the RCA to do everything in its power to facilitate that immediate and rapid transition on the Railbelt and throughout Alaska.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

More central planning where we can least afford it<\/em>.  Witness the devastation<\/a> that occurred in 2021 with Winter Storm Uri in Texas under the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)\u2019s central planning of electric utilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alaska\u2019s Electric Reliability Organization is Railbelt Reliability Council, RRC, whose mission<\/a> is<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Serve the public interest and provide the greatest long-term value to the Railbelt by working collaboratively and transparently to establish and uphold protocols that sustainably balance safety, reliability, cost, and environmental responsibility. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The RRC will insert themselves into the process and centrally plan for the utilities on the railbelt that provide power to 75% of Alaska\u2019s population. The utilities under their planning purview include Homer Electric Association (HEA), Chugach Electric Association (CEA), Matanuska Electric Association (MEA), and Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA) which currently have boards that represent the needs of the rate payers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council is made up of a 15-member board, many with questionable proclivities as it relates to the future reliability and affordability of our power, given their backgrounds and roles they currently occupy at their day jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This central planning \u201cservice\u201d comes to us with a surcharge. Although the surcharge has already made it onto the bills of rate payers\u2014(see ERO Surcharge on your electric utility bill)\u2014the RCA has\u00a0suspended the tariff<\/a>\u00a0and has approved the surcharge on an interim basis. The current interim surcharge for\u00a0Chugach Electric<\/a>\u00a0ratepayers is $0.00054 per kilowatt hour (kWh).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With reliability being the key word to the Railbelt Reliability Council, what does allowing renewables onto the grid have to do with reliability?  Nothing. All the central planning processes that are being rapidly established, along with the allowance by the RCA for independent power producers to enter onto the grid will come at great costs with no clarity or accountability as to who represents the rate payer. This is done on purpose to avoid liability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The development of the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) will be key to the transformation of our grid. The ERO must consider reliability and cost factors, however they will be able to weigh in on other interests that will have a negative impact on rate payers such as the narrative that the earth has reached global boiling and the installation of windmills and solar will have an effect on the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a white paper<\/a> by REAP on the need for an Independent System Operator, the word affordability appears zero times; reliability appears two times (and not in reference to reliability as a priority); renewable appears at least twenty times. and climate appears five times. It is abundantly clear how these competing priorities will be weighed when you have the likes of Chris Rose with REAP and IPPs with self-serving interests to sell their renewable energy representing this \u201creliability council.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independent Power Producers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ability for Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to enter onto the grid and amendments to regulations<\/a> to facilitate integration were adopted and approved by the RCA in late 2015<\/a>.  Utilities are rapidly being compelled to sell off their generating capacity to independent power producers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of this is due to unrealistic decarbonization goals that are being adopted by utilities. IPPs are allowed to steal money from ratepayers by supplying unreliable energy paid for with special funding and subsidies, while the host utilities bear the costs to make them reliable. In other words, IPPs are opportunistic ticks on the backsides of humanity, allowable only by coopted, feckless, corrupted politicians and bureaucrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Present an IPP whose intent is to serve the interests of the country and state, provide reliable and affordable energy that stands on its own without reliance on the utility and I will stop complaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClean Energy\u201d Standards<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a conversation with a member of the House Energy committee, it was stated that Governor Dunleavy wants an RPS because he needs assurances for investors from the lower 48. The narrative? This CES bill is a compromise from the mandates within the RPS bill. As RPS appears to have died in the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee, the governor is taking another run at compliance and preparation for his investors. But Governor Dunleavy\u2019s trumped letter<\/a> to Warren Buffet (please read it) is a subterfuge for the politically correct in place of the economically correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clean Energy Standards require that a minimum share of a utilities electricity to be generated from \u201cclean\u201d sources.  They require utilities to buy wind and solar power regardless of their cost. The idea has been sold by using half-truths that these clean sources are cheaper. They are \u201ccheaper\u201d on the backs of our children and grandchildren through taxpayer subsidies, only to later compromise the reliability of the grid, eventually resulting in costly increases to the ratepayer.  (Think of a \u201ccheaper\u201d car with a trick motor having a lot of problems down the line.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar to how electric vehicles are sold as being cheaper, the costs are hidden with everyone else paying for the infrastructure, the same concept applies here where our utilities foot the bill for making the grid 100% reliable. Wind and solar cannot compete with conventional energy such as natural gas and coal, so the greens need a law to force utilities to adopt the use of their whirligigs and whatnots. Clean Energy Standards are hidden energy taxes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CES is being sold as an acceptable stand-in for RPS because there are no mandates to reach a certain percentage of renewables as of a certain date. This too is a half-truth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legislation states the load-serving entity\u2019s portfolio shall include clean energy in the following percentages:  35 percent by December 31, 2036, and 60 percent by December 31, 2051. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clean energy is defined as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n