Two of four candidates for governor outline approaches to rural Alaska energy costs

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU/KTVF) - Two of the four candidates for governor — Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Republican Dave Bronson, a former Anchorage mayor — answered questions Thursday about the state’s role in addressing rural energy costs and infrastructure on the final panel of the Alaska Rural Energy Conference.

The other two candidates, Republicans Treg Taylor and Bernadette Wilson, were unable to attend. The conference wrapped up Thursday.

State’s role in rural energy

Kreiss-Tomkins said the state’s responsibility is to make sure energy in rural Alaska is reliable and affordable.

“That is the north star for what the state should be aiming to provide for our rural communities,” he said.

He said protecting the Power Cost Equalization program (PCE) is the most important step and that he would veto any legislative attempt to raid the PCE endowment.

He also said the state should support a statewide energy bond to help communities “get off diesel.”

Bronson said the problem in rural Alaska is mostly diesel. He said the state has nearly $300 million in deferred maintenance on older diesel generating equipment and about $1 billion in deferred maintenance on fuel storage.

Bronson said the state can work with rural diesel users to buy fuel in bulk. He proposed a 400-mile ice road on the Yukon River so fuel could be delivered by truck during winter. He said he believes that would be safer and more cost effective than barging fuel from the Lower 48.

Fuel prices and PCE

Both candidates said they would protect PCE, the state program that lowers electricity costs for rural communities.

Bronson said the state should forward fund PCE and bring in federal money. He said he does not want PCE to be an excuse for not building new generation and fuel storage.

“We have to do it because we simply can’t abandon the rural towns,” he said.

Kreiss-Tomkins said he wants to explore a way to equalize heating fuel costs “especially in communities that are at the extreme end of cost — $15 a gallon, $20 a gallon — because it’s basically economically existential for those communities and those families.”

He said he prefers the term “equalizing” to “subsidizing.” Kreiss-Tomkins said he has not settled on an answer.

“I haven’t answered it, but it’s a question I want to ask,” he said.

Kreiss-Tomkins said he does not think recent $25,000 cash payments to a few villages were part of a coherent policy response to high energy costs. He said selectively sending checks to villages is not a good approach.

Bronson said diesel was too expensive even before the war in Iran.

“We can’t just blame the war and say — the war has made it extreme,” he said. He said some places pay $26 a gallon.

Infrastructure priorities

Asked how they would prioritize infrastructure needs, Kreiss-Tomkins said the state needs institutions with technical expertise to assess where the need is greatest. He said money should be “driven by merit and analysis and objective need rather than a more political process.”

He said the Renewable Energy Fund’s prioritization process has worked reasonably well and that AEA has done a reasonably good job of assessing needs.

Bronson said the state should first address villages facing the most immediate threat of failure. He said some older diesel generating facilities are older than the people who operate them. He also said many fuel tanks are leaking.

“It’s time to saddle up and get this problem fixed,” he said.

Asked whether state institutions can meet the challenges, Kreiss-Tomkins said the “honest answer is I don’t know.”

He said he would look to people at the conference for direction if there are gaps.

Bronson said he would rather spend money on a fuel storage facility or a generator than create a new department.

“The [Alaska Energy Authority] is a good vehicle, and until something better comes along, I’ll stick with it,” he said.

Bronson said a general obligation bond for energy development should not be the state’s first stop, but that government can help with financing in rural Alaska.

Energy sources and weatherization

Kreiss-Tomkins said he has an “all of the above” energy mindset and that natural gas in the Interior and coal remain important sources of energy. He said it is “very clear that diesel is not the long-term future for our villages if we can do anything about it.”

Bronson said he does not believe carbon dioxide is a pollutant or a major driver of climate change, despite scientific evidence to the contrary. He said that belief should not drive energy decisions.

Kreiss-Tomkins said he and Bronson have a “respectful difference of perspective” on the drivers of climate change.

A moderator said the state spent more than $500 million on household weatherization after the 2008 oil price spike and that households saw almost a 25% drop in costs. The moderator asked whether the candidates would prioritize weatherization now.

Bronson said he would. He said efficiency measures are the most immediate way to save energy costs.

Kreiss-Tomkins called weatherization “a real slam dunk.”

Small modular reactors

Kreiss-Tomkins said he is pro-nuclear but does not think small modular reactor technology is proven.

He said no small modular reactor has been deployed in Alaska and that the Eielson Air Force Base pilot authorized by Congress has been delayed by multiple years. Kreiss-Tomkins said he has been in touch with Oklo, the company that will install it. He said the state should also pursue “concrete and demonstrated solutions” in the near and medium term.

Bronson disputed that, saying most large U.S. Navy capital ships run on small modular reactors. He said deployment in rural Alaska has not been proven.

“The future of electrical generation in rural Alaska is nuclear. It just is,” he said.

Closing question

The candidates were asked for their “moonshot” idea to make energy more affordable and reliable as a closing question.

Kreiss-Tomkins said progress on policy problems rarely comes from a moonshot or a silver bullet. He described a “silver buckshot” approach with many changes.

“It’s promoting investment in renewables in rural Alaska. It’s protecting PCE. It’s looking at protecting the communities that are at most economic risk from just some of the unworldly sort of extremes of price that they are paying,” Kreiss-Tomkins said.

He also listed embracing new technologies such as plug-in solar and small modular reactors.

“It’s do what we’re doing now, just do it better in the near term,” Bronson said in his answer. “And that is certainly getting new gen sets placed where the oldest ones are, bringing in new diesel storage facilities where they are now and preferably bigger storage areas.”

Bronson said he would count his first years as a success if villages facing generator failure have new generators and larger fuel storage.

Bronson said his experience as mayor of Anchorage included running large capital projects, including the $2 billion Port of Alaska project. He said he brought in the engineering firm Jacobs to run it.

“The team building and experience in team building is probably the most important thing,” he said.

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