February Energy Updates
GVEA takes a public stance on the RPS
GVEA started out the new year with a major vote during their January 23rd Board meeting. After months of discussion, most of which happened in executive sessions or private committee meetings, GVEA’s Board of Directors voted publicly last week on how to approach the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) legislation that has been introduced in Senate Bill 101 and House Bill 121. An RPS would set renewable energy goals, and ensure accountability to those goals, for the major electric utility cooperatives from Fairbanks through Homer. The RPS goals start with 25% renewable energy by 2027 and ramp up to the ultimate goal of 80% renewable energy generation by 2040.
Ultimately, all 7 of GVEA’s Board Directors voted in favor of a statement which broadly supports some of the ideas of a renewable portfolio standard, but takes issue with some of the exact language included in the proposed bills. GVEA board member concerns include the penalties in the RPS, the placement of net metering within the RPS bill as opposed to another bill, utility-specific mandates as opposed to railbelt-wide, and what they believe to be overly ambitious renewable targets. Based on numerous NREL studies and other reports, we believe some of these concerns to be negligible and we’d hoped to see GVEA take a stronger stance in support of the RPS such as the stance Chugach Electric Association’s Board of Directors voted upon on January 24th.
Although we’d hoped for a stronger statement, we appreciate GVEA taking the time to thoroughly discuss the RPS and issue a statement including their support to move towards more renewable energy along the railbelt. We're excited to see GVEA act as energy leaders by expressing support for the RPS as a concept, and we will now need to urge GVEA to follow through on tangible actions to increase their energy generation from renewable sources as well as urge them to let legislators know about their support for an RPS.
We believe an RPS is a critical tool for moving renewable energy forward in the state. It takes many methods to achieve the energy goals we need, and we can't leave it entirely to the utilities to keep themselves accountable. To learn more about how we can help support the passage of the RPS bill currently in the legislature, join us for our info session on Feb. 7th! More info below.
Spillcorp Strikes Again! - Potentially thousands of gallons of natural gas spilled in the Arctic
On Jan. 13, a natural gas spill was reported in the Arctic that could be up to 11,550 gallons in total. The spill comes from a pipeline near Prudhoe Bay operated by Harvest Alaska, which is a sister corporation of Hilcorp.
As a refresher - Hilcorp is a Texas-based private oil company with an extensive history of environmental noncompliance and safety violations, and this past fall, FCAC helped in organizing around a court case which will decide whether Hilcorp can keep its financial information secret from Alaskans. We are still awaiting a decision on that case.
There are still a lot of unknowns about this spill, including the actual quantity of natural gas spilled, the area affected, and the cause of the spill. Many other agencies have been included in clean-up efforts, indicating that Harvest may not have the resources needed to address a spill of this size.
The spill has the potential to negatively impact wildlife, with caribou and birds observed as close as ½ mile away, and a number of water bodies in close proximity.
This incident is a clear example of the dangers of allowing oil companies to keep their financial information a secret - we don’t know if they have the resources to clean up a spill of this size or bigger. It’s also a reminder of the importance of passing legislation this session to hold oil companies accountable, and to stop giving them government handouts while they make a mess of our lands and waters in the process of extracting our resources.
To learn more about the spill, check out our blog post on it at the link below.
Energy Legislation Info Session
As we work through issues like encouraging GVEA to take a stronger stance on renewables, and working to stop giving oil companies free rein to contaminate our lands and waters, we see how important statewide energy policy can be for these issues. This session in the AK legislature, we have some major opportunities to address issues like these.
From bills that would cut subsidies to fossil fuel companies, to bills that would set standards for renewable energy generation for local utilities, we have a few really exciting ways to get some big wins for climate.
Want to know more about these bills but don’t have the time to scour through them all line by line? Join us on Wednesday, February 7th from 5:50-7pm on Zoom for an Energy Legislation Info Session to get a breakdown of bills we are tracking in this legislative session and how you can take action to get the energy legislation we need for our state.
Please register in advance to receive the zoom link to attend and invite your friends to join here on the Facebook event.
