At the end of March, most of our staff and some of our members flew to Juneau for the Just Transition Summit in Á’akw Kwáan territory. Since the summit, we’ve continued to talk to each other about our learnings and inspirations from that week together, so we wanted to share a few of the themes that have come up repeatedly in our continuing conversations.

Learn more about GVEA’s rate hikes, the GVEA board’s new decision on the Healy 2 coal plant, and what we can do about it all (hint: it’s renewables) in this piece, which was originally published by FCAC member Knicely as a community perspective in the Fairbanks Daily Newsminer.

In this issue, we discuss some of our highest priority bills to watch in the AK legislature this session, both the good and the bad, and give you some updates on where they're headed and how to get involved. We also discuss GVEA's recent rate hike and decision to amend their Strategic Generation Plan. Finally, get the lowdown on the upcoming GVEA elections, and how you can get involved!

It’s Black Climate Week!

This is a week to celebrate the work of Black advocates, organizers, and agitators within the climate space, and how Black people have been at the forefront of coming together to find creative and innovative solutions to protect our lands, waters, and homes from climate impacts.

This session in the AK state legislature, we have some great opportunities to get climate wins for our state. We know it’s hard to follow these bills as they move through the legislative process, and to stay up to date on when it’s important to reach out to your legislators. We’ve made the process easy by forming FCAC’s AKLEG Rapid Response Team. Learn about how you can join!

On Friday January 26th, the Biden administration announced that they were temporarily halting approvals of LNG exports (after approving AK LNG exports nearly a year ago). This is a major, and long overdue win for grassroots activists across the country who have been putting pressure on the Biden administration and previous administrations to recognize the dangerous impacts of LNG production and consumption.

Learn more about GVEA's recent decision on supporting a statewide Renewable Portfolio Standard, the natural gas spill in the Arctic and what it has to do with the Hilcorp court case we've been following, and how you can take action to get the energy legislation we need for our state.

While we wait for an AK Supreme Court decision in the City of Valdez case on whether Hilcorp can keep its financial information secret from Alaskans, the state announced yet another Hilcorp related spill last week–this time involving a pipeline that was part of the BP-Hilcorp deal.

We’re starting a new cohort called Community Stewards, and we’re looking for people who want to help us grow this movement! If you’re passionate about meeting people and want to contribute to a space that promotes reflection, learning, and connections, we invite you to get involved.

We as the FCAC community are appalled at the atrocities we have witnessed over the past two months and we grieve the loss of life and dignity of Israeli and Palestinian people. Recognizing our shared humanity and the rights of all people to freedom, safety and self-determination, we call for peace. As a movement founded on diverse legacies of nonviolent action, we reject the narrative that freedom and safety for some must come at the cost of freedom and safety for others. We are committed to building a world across race, culture, and religion where we can all live in freedom and peace.

In this last energy update of the year, we give a rundown of the recommendations made under Dunleavy’s Alaska Energy Security Task Force, and look ahead to some of the exciting climate legislation that will come up in the next state legislature session. We also take a look at Alaska’s role in the Fifth National Climate Assessment, and ways to learn more and get involved in upcoming legislative issues in the new year.

This week, many people in Fairbanks and across the country will be celebrating Thanksgiving. This can be a challenging holiday for many reasons, so we wanted to provide some resources to help folks navigate this time.

As we grieve the lives that have been lost in Israel and Palestine and take action to stop further violence, we are committed to holding each other's hands while we walk through this dark time, and rejecting narratives and disinformation that aim to divide us. We stand in solidarity with people everywhere, regardless of race or religion, who yearn for freedom, dignity, and safety.

If you want to be part of a movement of people centered in decolonization, deeply connected to the land who are working to put forward bold solutions to the climate crisis and dismantle oppressive systems, then become an FCAC member! By getting involved, you’re joining a movement to make lasting change to build the world we want.

GVEA has been awarded a large grant to further develop energy storage, and has applied to many other federal funding opportunities, all of which will support a transition to more renewable energy. Read on for the details.

In this month’s energy newsletter, we’ll be talking about the action that we need at all levels of leadership for a just transition, and how those levels affect each other. Our work locally is part of a massive web of action stretching across the state, the country, and the world. That net is so powerful, and so necessary, to enact the kind of change we need. Each level of change is inextricably linked to the next - when we create change at the local level, that has untold effects rippling out across the rest of the web, and vice versa.

Local elections are currently underway, and they are so important! Most notably for us this year, the local Borough Assembly has the opportunity to reinstate the original Climate Action and Adaptation Plan from before it was gutted. Read on to get all the details about where, when, and how to vote!

On Labor Day, an intimate group of about 100 local climate activists, artists, and Indigenous leaders gathered at the UAF president’s house to witness the culminating presentation from this summer’s dynamic Gath & K’iyh: Listen to Heal workshop program in partnership with Yo-Yo Ma’s Our Common Nature, which explores how culture helps us connect to the natural world. This final event brought in some major players to draw attention to climate impacts to local ecosystems, including world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, drag queen and environmental advocate Pattie Gonia, and singer-songwriter Quinn Christopherson.

On Saturday, a group of about 50 community members gathered in Golden Heart Plaza to demand stronger climate action on all levels of government. The event, organized by FCAC’s Keep it in the Ground Working Group, was planned in concert with events happening worldwide ahead of the United Nations Secretary General’s Climate Ambition Summit.

As we work for the fossil fuel free future we need, it’s important to stay grounded in the reality of what this change really looks like on the ground. In this issue of our energy newsletter, we’ll look at our reality - including where our local energy utilities are currently at in their transparency and openness to member input, a study to assess different real-world scenarios for lowering carbon emissions in the state, and lastly, we’ll look at the LNG false promises being made by our government, and assessing them in the context of our actual global energy market.