APRN Alaska News Nightly 1/2/03

INCREDIBLE ADMISSION FROM CHUGACH GENERAL MANAGER JOE GRIFFITH:

"An Intertie is like a pipeline or a port or an airport or a highway and there's not a one of them that has a positive cost benefit analysis.  So they are all... [Fades out.  Does not complete sentence]."

IS HE SAYING THERE IS NO NEED TO FURTHER SCRUTINIZE THE 3/98 DFI OR CHUGACH 11/02 INTERNAL STUDY CLAIMS THE PROJECT IS A WINNER?  HE ADMITS IT IS A LOSER!!!   WHY THEN DID THEY GO TO THE EFFORT AND TAKE THE RISK OF PUTTING OUT THE PUMPED UP NUMBERS?

APRN Alaska News Nightly January 02, 2003

Jessica Cochran: "....One internal study done by Chugach pegged the benefits at about $57 million, far below the $100 million estimated cost to build the line. But the study cited in the project Environmental Impact Statement put the benefits close to $143 million. [Alan] Mitchell doesn't think that study is reliable."

Alan Mitchell: ... "When I was the utility consumer advocate in 1990, I reviewed the one and only study that ever showed the project to have any benefits and that study was severely flawed and grossly overstated the benefits. I think all reasonable studies that have been done on the project indicate that it's benefits are not sufficient to cover it's cost."

Jessica Cochran: .... Chugach General Manager Joe Griffith disagrees. He says the two different studies have different results because they started with different parameters. Either way, he says it's appropriate for the state to spend some money on the project. The current Intertie can carry only a fraction of the power generated from the Kenai to markets in Anchorage, the Mat-Su and other areas where it is needed for economic development.

Joe Griffith: "An Intertie is like a pipeline or a port or an airport or a highway and there's not a one of them that has a positive cost benefit analysis. So they are all...[Fades out.  Does not complete sentence.]   And that's the kind of thing the government does, builds infrastructure. This is basic infrastructure. This is the grease that makes our economy work."