Native leaders, politicians exchange views on energy

VICTORIA BARBER

August 14, 2008 at 9:14AM AKST

“Energy crisis” was the term on everyone’s lips at the Partners for Affordable Energy roundtable hosted by the Alaska Federation of Natives on Aug. 5 in Anchorage.

“Our immediate concern is of this winter, and it is something we’re definitely afraid of in terms of systems collapsing,” said Julie Kitka, president of AFN. “That is why we are here today.”

The event featured prominent Alaska Natives and high profile politicians, including Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. Ted Stevens and Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye. The National Congress of American Indians and the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement were also represented.

While all the speakers agreed that the impact of high energy prices on rural communities was an urgent situation, their visions of a solution varied.

Opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other areas to oil and gas development and the ramping up for an Alaska gas pipeline were all raised as long- and short-term solutions, ideas that ring familiar in the energy debate.

Byron Mallott raised a less-commonly discussed possibility. The Sealaska board member and former executive director of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. suggested allocating $200 million from the permanent fund every year for five years to invest in projects that further energy independence in Alaska.

“If you created a process that allowed innovation and entrepreneurship ... to focus on the best way possible to in order to try to create ideas and solutions to achieve what we’re discussing – together, I think we could achieve breakthroughs,” said Mallott, who acknowledged that merely suggesting the idea of tapping into the permanent fund might lead some to think he was “insane.”

“It cannot be kept off the table,” Mallott said. “We are in a time of crisis. Alaska can limp along with Band-Aid solutions focusing on the short term, which is absolutely necessary. But we also need to focus on the long-term need to build a state that is energy independent.”

Mallot’s suggestion did not get a response from political heavyweights Palin and Stevens, who spoke on behalf of measures they have long been supporting.

Stevens, recently indicted on seven counts of filing false financial disclosures, began recalling his role in passing the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, a law that led to the formation of the very Native corporations represented by many of the audience members Aug. 5.

Stevens said that fuels prices are “the problem of the world, but it’s acute in our state.” He said that opening sites such as ANWR and off-shore locations to oil and gas extraction and developing coal-to-liquid plants is needed in order to fund future alternative energy projects.

“There is no way to go into a period of renewable energy without funds,” Stevens said.

Inouye, accompanied by his wife of 10 weeks, Irene Inouye, voiced his support for Stevens and his efforts to open ANWR.

“It’s no secret, he’s a Republican, I’m a Democrat, but we have been friends since the day he set foot in the Senate,” Inouye said. “We disagree more often than we agree, philosophically. We may disagree, but we are never disagreeable.”

“I’m for ANWR. If they can produce the oil, help themselves and help us, I’m for that,” Inouye said.

Palin, spoke mostly of her “resource rebate,” a $1,200 check that will be distributed to Alaskans out of the state’s multibillion-dollar oil revenue surplus. The rebate was later passed by the Legislature on Aug. 7.

She acknowledged that $1,200 would not go very far in rural villages where monthly heating bills run into thousands of dollars per month, but said “we must do something” in the short term.

Urban errors
Matthew Nicolai, president and CEO of Calista Corp., chided Anchorage legislators who “say that we should not address rural issues, that it’s not our problem, but rural Alaskans provide them money. ... Anchorage survives on Bush money.”

Nicolai also mentioned the impact that fuel transport is having on prices.

“Imagine if we had an incentive for the transport companies to lower that cost down, there must be a way to do that for Bush Alaska,” Nicolai said. “There’s got to be some system to reward the transporters of fuel into our rural communities. That way my relatives in Kwethluk will pay the same gasoline costs as we do in Anchorage.”

Clarence Jackson, a Tlingit elder, said that fuel costs in his village, Kake, were up to $6.50 per gallon, and heating his home cost about $2,100 during the cold months.

“That’s pretty high for an average family,” said Jackson, who admonished the assembled officials to take action.

“We can study something and look at it and some of us will disappear and this crisis will be 10 times greater and we won’t have done anything but look at the problem,” Jackson said. “How is history going to judge all of us? Is history going to say that gathering in Anchorage did something, or was it just another conference?”

Outside it was a beautiful sunny day, with just a chilly breeze to indicate that winter for Anchorage, and the rest of Alaska, is fast approaching.

Victoria Barber can be reached at 907-348-2424 or toll free at 800-770-9830, ext. 424.