Energy Policy: The Appearance of Reasoned Substance
29 July 2008
Image via WikipediaIn the July 25, 2008 issue of Senator Elton’s off the record, he expresses his dissatisfaction with the Governor’s energy bills:
The gasline rhetoric unfortunately obscures the rest of this special session’s agenda–energy. The energy bills include: the governor’s $1,200 cash payout; and the governor’s proposed suspension of the state’s motor fuel tax. To spare anyone the pain of reading all the way to the bottom of this newsletter to get my reaction to the governor’s energy lynchpins, I’ll be upfront. In my considered, calm and nonjudgmental opinion, these two bills have all the nutrition of bon-bons.
He poses as alternatives this set of suggested policies, which do have, in my humble opinion, the appearance of reasoned substance. Would you agree?
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- Alaska needs a cabinet level energy coordinator. Right now, our energy coordinator is the equivalent of a deputy director in a state authority in the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. It’s tough to coordinate energy policy across the silos of the state bureaucracies when the energy policy deputy reports first to an authority executive director who reports to a commissioner of one department who then reports to the governor and cabinet.
- We need a much stronger university research component that focuses not just on training workers for energy jobs but also works on new and emerging technologies that get renewable solutions to communities and individuals. The university has a good foundation in the Cold Climate Housing Research Program and is now boosting an energy research program that needs to grow even more and needs to reach deep into the private sector to leaven the academic with the commercial.
- We need to acknowledge we can’t just drill our way out of the crisis and we must also focus on conservation. We must build upon the conservation start the legislature made in the last regular session with the $300 million home weatherization program and the $50 million renewable energy program. We know conservation works–Juneau proved it following the Snettisham avalanches.
- And, just as importantly, we must deliver immediate relief to Alaskans who don’t have a buffer squeezeto protect them from skyrocketing energy costs. Two bills before this special session are good starts–a logical expansion of the Power Cost Equalization (PCE) program that allows electricity stressed urban communities to participate, and expansion of state participation in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) so it relieves energy-induced stress on mid-income Alaskans also.
