Community Perspective
Cheaper energy requires choices
Published Wednesday, October 8, 2008
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Stumble It!Fairbanks can’t wait five years for an energy solution, we need one now.
While we supply the rest of America with billions of barrels of oil each year, much of Alaska is on the verge of economic collapse because of the price of oil and gasoline. It is inconceivable to me that we are in this situation. I see no reason why, with a $9 billion state surplus, families and individuals are leaving and businesses are closing.
We can and should implement real energy relief.
Our legislators had the opportunity to do so during this last special session. The bill passed by the Senate and rejected by the House majority should have been adopted. Passing out checks may be politically expedient, but it is unsustainable and just doesn’t provide the targeted relief that is needed.
This relief must benefit businesses as well as Alaskan households. If we exclude businesses, the rising costs of energy prices will be passed on to the consumer. However, relief at the distributor level as proposed by Joe Paskvan is easily implemented and can be used to help business and households. It should be structured to ratchet up and down with energy prices. This will ensure that, if oil prices come back down, we can adjust or eliminate the relief accordingly.
We need to have the choices that will make energy affordable again. The oldest lesson on Wall Street goes something like this: If three people are selling oranges on the same street, all three will charge less than if there was just one person selling oranges. If there’s anything to be learned from our experience over the last 50 years, it’s that it is unwise to put all of our eggs into one basket.
We must have choices. While having a natural gas supply to Fairbanks is a must, we cannot fall into the same trap of becoming entirely dependent on one form of energy.
We are already experiencing the consequences of becoming reliant on oil. Alaska must take control of its own destiny by building the infrastructure to provide choices.
Coal-to-liquids can replace motor fuel and home heating oil. Hydroelectric can provide cheap renewable electricity. Natural gas can provide cheap home heating and electricity. Wind is another proven source of reliable renewable energy.
We have all these resources and more in abundance, but we have lacked the foresight and the will to develop them. Only with choices can we have affordable energy.
Now is the time. Not tomorrow, today! Our future depends on it. Our children and grandchildren are counting on us to act. No excuses. No party politics. Roll up our sleeves and get to work!
John Brown is the Democratic nominee for House District 10, covering eastern Fairbanks and Fort Wainwright. He is a 34-year resident of Alaska and 33-year member of Operating Engineers Local 302. A column from incumbent Rep. Jay Ramras, the district’s Republican nominee, was published in the News-Miner Opinion section on Sept. 28.
Community Discussion
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Mr. Brown I hope you wrote this before the economic crisis hit this country. Exactly where do you propose the money to do all these projects come from. Check the oil prices, this States wealth from oil is eroding away and how long before we will be at the break even point to cover state funding. Your pie in the sky ideas do not match up with the reality of the financial situation. Try writing a letter based on a depression.
Mr. Brown can only wish that "we supply the rest of America with billions of barrels of oil each year." Where are are we now with daily pumpage? About 500,000bbls/day? So, maybe 150M to 200M bbls/yr?
It is wonderful to see the discussion of our energy needs. My take is anything going forward is going to be costly to build and purchase. Hydro - Massive upfront capital costs. Coal gassification - massive capital costs and using one fuel source to make a second will always be costly. Natural gas - likely lower cost but still signficant capital costs. If we utilize methods to reduce the cost to the consumer/business then we create more dependance by giving a false price signal. Each has to take responsability for the oversize of our private and public investments. Hard work and painful adjustment will be needed.
If you work out the numbers, most of us would be better off simply increasing the resource rebate to roughly $1500 rather than capping fuel prices like Paskvan proposes (particularly renters and owners of small homes).
I agree that the energy in the borough must be diversified. I disagree with Representative Ramras so much that I am looking for a replacement...
http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209...
Now is the time. Not tomorrow, today! Our future depends on it. Our children and grandchildren are counting on us to act. No excuses. No party politics. Roll up our sleeves and get to work!
Getting started passing propane from Prudhoe doesn't cost billions..
..it doesn't cost millions either.
You can do it for yourself and your neighbors if you invest $25k in a good used LPG-bobtail truck.
This is the entry level deal.
If Fairbanksans decided to start a LPG-cooperative then we could generate a $2mil pool. [without the help of a cash/crash panicked Juneau]
Building a 4" LPG-HDPE-gasline from Prudhoe to Atigun will cost much less than you think, and much faster too.
[30,000' per day -- 820,000' total]
....or have all you rough-n-ready Alaskans turned into overweight couch potato handicappers since I've been gone ???
Well heck, I guess you'll have to loan me your goofy kids...
I make a pretty good camp instructor for Plastic Pipeline Camp.
Don't worry, they'll be just as goofy when I give them back to ya...
but they'll have some new hobbies you'll like.
Politics as usual. I'm tired of nothing getting accomplished. Talk is cheap and energy is not. Winter is coming fast.
The refinery is next door to the district,take steps to lower prices that is being refine,and your district is right next door to the district and it will benefit all alaskans.
Prospector is right. Alaska has never supplied the rest of America with billions of barrels of oil each year. The best we did was 2 Million a day in 1988 which is only about three-quarters of a billion a year. Today it's only about one quarter billion per year.
Mr. Brown: Did you ever read the senate version of the energy relief bill? It was horribly convoluted. Yes, it offered subsidies to the fuel oil. It also subsidized the Cook Inlet natural gas consumers who already pay the lowest prices in the country. It also offered sibsidies to operators of certain sized power plants, but only it they were operating for a periods during the 1960's. This kinda for stuff makes little sense. By-the-way, you critcized the passing out of checks. Well, the senate bill was to send them out too.
What Fairbanks, and Alaska needs is low cost, clean renewable energy. Alaska has several of these incredibly large renewable resources. We have developed only a few of the smaller ones. The largest of them is the Bradley Lake hyro-electric dam. They have proven that they are cost effective, clean and produce inexpensive energy.
In the 1980's the State spent $150 million on the Susitina Dam project. Obviously it was never built. Had it been we would be heating our homes cheaply, and cleanly with power from the dams. It was to take nearly 20 years to complete but power production was to begin much sooner. Imagine the large number of people (many of them would be operating engineers) the construction would employ.
We also need to get the Healy Clean Coal Plant running. We have invested $295 million in it and have nothing but a "haunted house" to show for it.
You are right, Fairbanks can’t wait five years for an energy solution, we need one now. In the last few weeks oil prices have dropped to less than $80 per barrel. We already have a solution !
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