YOUR ELECTRIC BILL
IS TOO HIGH!

ISSUES ON THE MOVE!  www
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Chugach Electric Historical Summary Chart PRO-CONSUMER vs IBEW UNION INFLUENCED BOARD MEMBERS & CEOs

ISSUES ON THE MOVE!
WATCH if concerned about your electric bill:

3/16/18 - Alaska Policy Forum - Prop. 10 - ML&P sale to Chugach Electric is a poison pill that will block REAL customer savings for years

12/19/07:  Unprecedented Blue Ribbon Panel of top executives tasked by reform board to investigate Chugach Electric problems

July 23, 2009 - Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan's 2009 Transition Team Report [Utilities Section] Candid treatment of ML&P and other Southern Railbelt electric utilities.  Not new generation but all parts of the customer value chain, especially distribution covered.  The poor economic value received by electric customers is specifically identified.

FIRE ISLAND WIND background information

CHUGACH ELECTRIC 
SALARY LIST (2010)

Provided by Chugach Electric under member information bylaw

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DIRECTOR VOTING SCORE  Who are the Consumer Champions and who are the Sellouts?

"By their votes you shall 
know them!"

Vote for
Todd LINDLEY
Dan ROGERS

• Reduce the number of board meetings directors are compensated per year

• Grammar, pronoun use, and other
  non-substantive edits

5/12/24 - ADN - The other election: Chugach Electric’s board race - Nathan Andrews - Consider...the consequences of re-electing two candidates who:
• Voted for a nearly 6% rate increase to CEA members.
• Voted to raise board member pay from $300 per day (2023) to $600 per day (2025), peaking at an astounding $750 per day in 2026.
• Voted for a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that “broadens the focus of the financial bottom line to include social and environmental responsibility” and dictates that the cost of compliance be recoverable in rates.
Elected and appointed officials will likely not be around to be held responsible for the consequences of their actions...The two new challengers in this election, Todd Lindley and Dan Rodgers, both professional engineers, offer a refreshing perspective and the opportunity for change.  

5/10/24 - Must Read Alaska - All options should be on the table for Southcentral and Interior energy crisis - Mary Ann Pease -  LNG today from Fortis BC is about 1/3rd the cost of Cook Inlet gas. Granted there are the transportation and storage components that will significantly increase the delivered cost of LNG for the Railbelt, but options for supply from Canada and elsewhere are available at fixed, long-term contracts... Imported LNG is the perfect bridge to a clean, secure, energy future and is the only near-term solution for Southcentral.

5/1/24 - Must Read Alaska - Vote for common sense in the Chugach Electric Association board elections - Alex Gimarc - The choice in this election is clear... Rogers and Lindley will keep the lights on while Cason and Wiggin will introduce us to the Brave New World of rolling blackouts and skyrocketing electricity prices... The rest of the world is learning the painful lesson of over-reliance on renewable energy. We don’t have to make the identical mistakes up here to learn those lessons. If we want clean energy, there are a lot of ways to get that done including multiple hydro projects (not including Watana), GenIV nukes, and natural gas). All of these are affordable and reliable, something Cason and Wiggins’ “Big Wind and Big Solar” aren’t.

1/31/24 - Master Resource - Alaska ‘Green New Deal’ Lurks (RPS danger) - Kassie Andrews - VERY IMPORTANT EXCELLENT ACCOUNT OF UTILITY MOVES BY GREEN POWER EXTREMISTS.  So extreme that the Regulatory Commission of Alaska unanimously voted, 5-0 to oppose the RPS Bill endorsed by the reckless Chugach Electric board 6-1.  

At the RCA: COMMISSIONER PICKETT: I would like to make a motion that the Commission not support Senate Bill 101 and House Bill 121 in its current form.  [p.17]   RCA Commissioner Robert Pickett stated,

We’ve heard about the German miracle for, I would say, at this Commission, for six or seven years at least, that it’s a shining example, points in time where the penetration of renewables has been 70 percent, 80 percent, but if you look at what’s happened in the last couple of years, it is clear it is not an economic miracle. In fact, it has devastated German industry and the German government itself is forced to pour in massive amounts of subsidy and Germany has some of the – if not the highest rates per kilowatt in Europe, it’s right at the very top and it’s getting worse, and reliability issues are associated with that.

1/11/24 - Ak J of Commerce - Chugach Electric files plan with regulators for community solar farm - Alex DeMarban - ...program would allow the utility’s members without their own rooftop solar array, such as renters, to benefit from renewable energy by subscribing to buy power from the solar farm...  Antony Scott, a former commissioner with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, said ... the costs for electricity would be about three times higher than the utility’s current residential rates... 

1/12/24 - Must Read Alaska - ‘Green’ rate case puts Chugach Electric vs. ratepayers and taxpayers - by Kassie Andrews - So how does the state’s electricity get polluted by “green” politics? ...

First, proclaim a local natural-gas supply crisis. Second, hike gas rates in the name of “conservation” to reduce usage and make cost-prohibitive green energy solutions less uncompetitive.

In the middle of all this is ... Chugach Electric Association, which has agreed to “decarbonize” by at least a 35 percent carbon reduction by 2030, and 50 percent by 2040...

[A] proposed rate increase, or “rate case,” was filed with the RCA on June 30, 2023 [by Chugach Electric]...an interim increase of 3.6 percent, effective September of 2023, and a permanent increase to base rates ... approximately a 5.8 percent increase on an total bill basis, with final implementation complete in September of 2024.

A total of 12 parties have joined onto the rate case, all representing their own special interests either being in opposition to the increase and others seeing this as an opportunity to introduce ulterior motives. These include ... Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP)... “REAP’s effort will be supported by lawyers at Earthjustice.”  Earthjustice’s stated goal is to: “End the Extraction and Burning of Fossil Fuels. Earthjustice works alongside communities impacted by coal, oil, and gas and uses the power of the law to loosen the fossil fuel industry’s destructive grip on our world. Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit public interest environmental law organization.

The million-dollar question is – why certain organizations were allowed standing on this rate case, specifically REAP, and what is their overall motive? The decision is interesting when you consider they don’t own anything, and the needs of the members are to be represented through the [Chugach] Board and Board elections.

REAP’s involvement in the rate case should have been vehemently rejected by all commissioners. Only one RCA member dissented in the decision...

The likes of REAP have no cost or risk to answer for. They are as much a stakeholder in the Railbelt’s generation as a tick to a dog.

CALL TO ACTION

How can good folks follow and affect the outcome?

With needs of members of the rate payers ultimately represented by your local utility board, a great opportunity for Chugach rate payers exists this spring. Two board seats for the Chugach Board of Directors are up for election in 2024. Candidate applications and resumés are due to the Nominating Committee by 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024.  Forms available here. 

If successful in our endeavors to elect free-market board members, it will take another two years (spring 2026) to complete a majority board changeout. Voter apathy is a big problem in local utility elections. Please vote.

12/30/23 - ADN - OPINION: Have no fear of imported LNG. It’s Alaska’s future - Charles Wohlforth - There is nothing shameful about importing liquefied natural gas.  Imported LNG makes total sense for Alaska’s Railbelt. It won’t cost much more than new gas exploration and development in Cook Inlet, with less investment and less risk. It will keep the lights on and the furnaces warm near-term, when it is needed. And it will flexibly ease the transition to renewable energy.

But Alaska’s political leadership will have to overcome the embarrassment of their big gas line dream going flat. You don’t have to be ashamed, guys. It can happen to anyone.

There’s a role for the media, too. The public needs the truth. Alaska being a major LNG exporter is a cargo-cult myth with no authentic hope of becoming reality....

In Alaska, we perform our cargo cult ceremonies by giving bales of dollars to consultants applying for permits to build a gas line — like setting money on fire to make smoke signals — while ignoring that the line is too big, too expensive and too late to ever be built...

After five decades of promises and close to $1 billion up in smoke, politicians are still boosting the gas line project and still spending public money on it...

Globally, LNG has been a lifesaver. When the war in Ukraine cut off Europe’s gas supplies from Russia, LNG shipments from the global market prevented a disaster. Now European countries have planned LNG into their energy mix, providing a cushion as they transition to renewable energy...

Alaska’s leaders need a reality-based decision-making process.

Step 1 is to accept that North Slope natural gas will never cross Alaska in a giant pipeline. After many years, that project has failed not only to find customers, it has even failed to find an owner willing to invest in it. It is nothing but a pile of consultant studies.

Step 2, which needs to happen quickly: Work must be done to prepare the Nikiski plant and the utilities for LNG imports.

Step 3 is to imagine Alaska positively, as it could be, without impossible pipe dreams.

11/29/23 - ADN - Multiple groups hope to sway regulators as Chugach Electric seeks 6% rate increase - By Alex DeMarban - Also intervening for the first time in a Chugach Electric rate case are the American Association of Retired Persons Alaska, as well as Ethan Schutt, chair of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. board of trustees who said he’s joining as an Anchorage residential ratepayer with experience in finance and energy development...JL Properties, which owns much of the city’s commercial office space as well as multi-family housing, is a large ratepayer that has intervened out of concern that the proposed rates will impact its array of properties.  “JL Properties states that it has an interest in determining if any of Chugach’s stated economic benefits from acquiring ML&P have been or will be realized,” the commission’s order said.

8/16/23 - Must Read Alaska - New Alaska group says ending oil and gas is the goal - Rick Whitbeck - ... a new organization that recently reared its (ugly) head into the Alaska energy scene. It’s clear they are an enemy to prosperity and our bright future, so we should get to know them. Spoiler alert: they are just another fanatical eco-group.

Calling themselves “We Are Alaskans” (we’ll call them WAA for short), the group’s website touts their organization as being “resilient, innovative and intelligent”, while demanding an end to traditional energy development being the economic driver for the state...WAA operates in complete anonymity. There is no “About” section on the website, no staff, board of directors or organizational structure disclosed, and no contact information is available for the group.

[They are] championing the Green New Deal [and] should immediately be viewed as extreme. After all, the Green New Deal was filled with energy, economic and social-justice goals so excessive, not a single U.S. senator would go on record as officially supporting it when it came up for a vote in 2019...

It should be the goal of every rational Alaskan – those of us who believe in a balanced approach between environmental stewardship of our amazing and beautiful state and safe, technically-proficient, and responsible development – to challenge those who look to dim our bright future.

6/28/23 - ALASKA UTILITIES WORKING GROUP - PHASE I ASSESSMENT: COOK INLET GAS SUPPLY PROJECT by Berkeley Research Group (“BRG”) - In order to meet the expected supply shortfall, one or more options need to be selected to progress to an active engineering effort by the end of 2023. In order to meet the expected gas shortfall in 2027-2028, there is a limited set of options that can deliver, namely LNG imports in various forms, and all of them are still at a stage where uncertainties and risks related to design and feasibility need to be resolved before choosing a specific design configuration. Other options, such as a gas pipeline from the North Slope, can meet long-term demand most economically, but are not expected to be online by 2027-2028 or even reach a construction decision in the timeframe where alternatives would need to be sanctioned.    

ADN - As Cook Inlet gas shortage looms, Alaska’s biggest utilities assess their options — and none are cheap - By Sean Maguire - Chugach Electric and Enstar account for three-quarters of the Railbelt’s natural gas. Arthur Miller, CEO of Chugach Electric, said in a prepared statement that the working group had found “that importing liquified natural gas is likely the least cost, earliest option available for the near term.”

5/25/23 - Peltola demands Chugach and Matanuska Electric Associations tear out the Eklutna hydroelectic dam and generators and pay reparations to Eklutna Village! The letter, received May 18, was sent to CEA just as the board election was ending. The electric association board majority was taken over by the environmental industry, led by the Alaska Center for the Environment... The village estimates its population as 70. [Must Read Alaska]

5/10/23 - Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor joins other states to block Blackrock from gaining control of utilities - The pushback from 16 state attorneys general comes at a time when Anchorage residents are facing a takeover of their power company, Chugach Electric Association, by the Alaska Center for the Environment in order to shut down the use of natural gas [Must Read Alaska].

2023 Election Results

 6,725 Susanne Fleek-Green (Greens, IBEW Union) – Elected 4 yr term
6,417 Jim Nordlund (Greens) – Elected 4 yr term
 6,258 Bettina Chastain (Chugach Stability*) - Elected 2 yr term
6,002 Shaina Kilcoyne (Greens, IBEW Union)
4,944 Harold Hollis (Chugach Stability*, IBEW Union)
4,056 Brad Authier (Chugach Stability*)
2,109  Steve Konkel
1, 871 Scott Von Gemmingen
1,341James Wileman

* also Chugach Consumers endorsed

14,156 voted (15.7% of the 90,210 ( members)

Establish a Round Up Program Bylaw
7,712 YES | 6,202 No 
13,914 voted on the bylaws

The new board majority rolled the previous chair, Bettina Chastain and installed Sam Cason as new chair.  Cason is a deceptive and cunning IBEW Union water carrier in long service to those benefiting from Railbelt Electric Utility inefficiency and waste. 

Vote for Bettina CHASTAIN, Harold HOLLIS and Brad AUTHIER

WHY VOTE FOR THEM?
I WANT TO KNOW MORE! 

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