Category: Alaska News

Using Haines School for a privately funded “Easter” celebration wherein thousands of pieces of candy are distributed to children, is unhealthy, wasteful and inappropriate — but exemplifies our health crisis. 

Instead of maladaptive festivals of refinement and glucose-spiking junk, schools, churches and donors (and community organizations generally) might consider serving and offering heartfelt gratitude and whole, real, and traditional disease-fighting foods.

Human health is way more complex than food alone; reducing daily stressors, getting sufficient sleep and exercise, and healthy relationships are also key to productivity, thriving, creativity, and disease avoidance. 

We now know tons about how to lower risks for vascular disease, type-2 diabetes, kidney problems, cancer, Alzheimer’s, depression, and so forth. What’s the missing super sauce? Simply informed people taking collective care and action, which come free of charge.

A few sobering numbers illustrate the scale of America’s problem. Chronic disease is expected to cost the U.S. an insane $47 trillion over the next 15 years, probably more. Over half U.S. adults live with two or more chronic disease diagnoses. The frequency of type-2 diabetes has tripled the rate of vision-loss due to diabetic retinopathy since 1990, and this year alone about 155,000 U.S. amputations will be performed because of complications of type-2 diabetes. By 2050, the U.S. rate of overweight and obese (now about 40-percent) will hit 60 percent — which will likely include children currently enrolled at Haines School. 

Exactly what are we doing here and why?

Burl Sheldon

The post Candy-fueled Easter is an unhealthy, inappropriate and wasted opportunity appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Severance tax fails 

A flurry of final votes on major legislation, all coinciding at Tuesday’s meeting, came at somewhat of an inconvenient time. As has become familiar in recent weeks, the assembly requires four votes — a majority of the full body — to pass legislation. That remains the case even with assembly members missing, which was the case Tuesday. 

Absences from assembly members Cheryl Stickler and Kevin Forster left only four assembly members present, meaning a unanimous vote was the only way to pass any legislation. Functionally, that meant each assembly member had a veto, with any no vote able to derail any motion to pass, amend, or even postpone legislation. 

A severance tax was the first to fall, losing out in a 2-2 vote. 

The proposal has been to tax the value of raw materials extracted in the borough but exported and sold outside — specifically mineral ore, timber, gravel, sand and coal. Exports up to $5,000 in value would have been exempted from the tax. 

The idea has long been on the table, failing in front of multiple recent assemblies. Former assembly member Debra Schnabel spoke in favor of the tax during public comment, saying that she saw “no embarrassment in charging for a commodity we have that people need.” 

“I’m disturbed by the idea that this tax is something that is going to hurt business,” she added. “The consumer is the one that pays the severance tax we’re talking about right now. We have a commodity people want, and it’s important to take advantage of that, especially in our time of need.” 

Prior to the meeting, assembly member Mark Smith had submitted a list of objections to the proposal, namely that rates were set too high, the tax would not be legally defensible, and the borough would be better served with alternatives like a negotiated payment-in-lieu-of-tax, or PILT. 

The legislation had been “vetted” by the borough’s attorney, borough staff said. 

During the meeting, Smith proposed sending the severance tax proposal back to committee, but assembly member Eben Sargent objected, citing the months it had already spent in committee. 

Smith then moved to take a final vote, which failed with him and assembly member Gabe Thomas voting no. 

Bulk-ore containerization postponed

The severance tax was the lone-member of the most significant ordinances to make it to a final vote. The rest were put off, including a vote on new ore-handling regulations in the borough. 

Those regulations, put forward by Thomas and Forster, would require mineral-ore containers to remain sealed within borough boundaries, even as they are loaded onto ships. In theory, that would assuage concerns about environmental contamination, in the event of an active Chilkat Valley mine, similar to that of Skagway’s ore terminal.

But rather than make a final decision, assembly members Tuesday decided to send the proposal to committee. 

Sargent, who said he supported the intent of the proposal, argued committee review would ensure the intent was reflected in the actual language of the legislation. 

“We’re dealing with big industry and big money and we need to be careful we don’t create loopholes or redundancies that will cost us money later,” he said. 

ADU future still controversial, still uncertain

The accessory dwelling unit proposal has changed from last year, but the conversation around it remains just about the same. 

The overall idea is to allow individual homeowners to build a small rental unit on a single-family lot, which some say could help cut into Haines’ housing shortage. 

Sargent, who has led the charge on the measure, described it as a way to “unlock a quiet source of development capital and land.”

In other words, individuals who wouldn’t finance large new housing-development projects might be willing to spend a smaller amount to repurpose an existing structure or build on their own property to have an extra stream of income.  

Allowing accessory dwelling units, often referred to as ADUs, wouldn’t be a significant change to existing regulations, at least on its face. Residents in single-family zones are already allowed to rent out garage apartments or units attached to their homes. The new rules would allow them to rent out slightly larger units and units on the property but not attached to the primary residence. 

But the impact of that, some residents say, would be large. As has been the case at all public hearings on ADUs, many spoke out Tuesday arguing the change would increase crowding in single-family neighborhoods. Many objections came from Lutak and Mud Bay residents who had been exempted from last year’s version of the ordinance.

Compared to that previous proposal, the current version adds new restrictions in an effort to address density concerns. For instance, the proposal now requires lots must be of a certain size to have an accessory dwelling unit by right, otherwise the ADU permit must go through a stringent conditional use permit process, which includes the input of neighbors. It also requires lots to have a state-approved septic-system or borough sewer connection in order to host an ADU.

But still, Thomas described it as a “sweeping zone change” that “will not work,” citing the high cost of building an extra unit. 

“If this doesn’t work, no ADUs get built and no one’s losing anything,” responded mayor Tom Morphet.

In the end, the four-member assembly voted unanimously to send the current version of the proposal to the planning commission for review. The assembly will then hold a third public hearing and possibly take a final vote at their next meeting on April 28. 

Smith to write check

In perhaps the quickest resolution to a non-profit funding discussion in recent assembly history, Smith said Tuesday he’ll be signing over $10,000 of his own money to the Chilkat Valley Preschool. 

Chilkat Valley Preschool had come to the assembly as a whole for funding Tuesday, asking for up to $10,000 to fund a new program for toddlers, including new equipment and licensing. That youngest age group currently has the biggest shortage of childcare providers in the valley, many, including childcare providers, have said. 

After some initial discussion amongst the assembly, Smith interjected. His offer to the preschool: withdraw the request to the assembly and he’d write out a check after the meeting. Staff at the preschool quickly accepted. 

High costs to get town hall meeting

Amid skyrocketing global fuel costs, over 500 Haines residents have signed a petition asking the assembly to cut the summer sales tax rate by 2.5%. 

According to Delta Western spokesperson Di Do, the fuel-provider hasn’t raised Haines prices yet — last raising them March 13. But the global increases have already been seen in other areas, including a major increase to rates from freight company Alaska Marine Lines.

Across the board, assembly members on Tuesday seemed receptive to residents’ struggles with rising prices. The tougher question is what they’ll decide to do about it. 

Borough finance director Jila Stuart has raised concerns with significantly slashing the sales tax rate. 

“I think people are asking for a kind of relief valve from the rising prices,” Stuart said Tuesday. “I think taking (sales tax) from 7% to 4.5% is way more than a relief valve. It’s totally unraveling our sales-tax structure.” 

According to her projections, the summer sales-tax cut could result in a loss of over $1 million in revenue for the borough, roughly 2% of the annual operating budget.

There’s also a question of legality: the seasonal sales-tax rates were passed by voters at the ballot in October, and the assembly is not allowed to immediately overturn a vote from residents. The more clear solution would be to hold a special election, allowing voters to pass the temporary rate change, Morphet said. 

But there are other options for temporary price relief, including some suggested by Stuart. Stuart’s ideas included temporarily eliminating tax on electricity bills or exempting groceries. Those proposals would have a smaller impact in terms of total dollars, exempting roughly $100,000 and $400,000 of tax, respectively, over four months, Stuart said. 

They may also favor residents over tourists more than the overall sales-tax rate cut by targeting services more heavily used by residents.

Smith also brought to the meeting an idea to temporarily eliminate sales tax on “all fossil fuels.” 

No decisions were made, and the assembly has scheduled a town hall on April 22 to hear residents’ concerns and ideas for price relief. 

“I’m living on tuna fish now,” Morphet said. “I think it’s incumbent on us to hear how badly people are hurting. It’s important information.” 

Plastic bag ban get canned 

Plastic bags at Olderud’s have been a persistent topic in the assembly, coming up against a plastic-bag ban that is theoretically on the books in borough code. 

The ban had been originally championed by a sixth-grade class. Two members of that class, now graduated, spoke at a January assembly meeting encouraging the assembly to enforce the ban. 

One of those Haines High graduates, Willa Stuart, spoke about the class’s plastic-bag efforts in her valedictorian speech last year. 

“This is about whether we honor our own laws and honor our young people who say, ‘you said you were going to do something and you don’t do it,’” Morphet said at that January meeting.

On Tuesday, new legislation was up for introduction that would have clarified the existing ban by adding a specific plastic thickness threshold, something Sargent said was common around the state. 

Smith, however, said he wouldn’t vote for it, saying he was “against any law that can’t be enforced.”

Smith’s lack of support, plus Thomas’ later when it came to a vote, meant the legislation failed to be introduced.

“Not taking action on this ordinance doesn’t make (plastic bags) legal,” Sargent said. “This was a good faith effort to make it super clear. This was created by school children. Although it’s probably the most realistic lesson that if you put something into code it’ll probably be cheated, that’s not the lesson I’d like to teach in this room.” 

“I get the whole kid thing,” Smith responded. “That’s not serious in my world. There’s a reason they’re not in Congress.” 

AMG tour permit

The assembly approved a tour permit for Alaska Mountain Guides to operate a boat to Eldred Rock Lighthouse. An AMG application to run boat tours in Lutak Inlet remains undecided. 

The Lutak Inlet tour faced some opposition from area residents due to concerns over boat noise, crowding, and disturbance to wildlife. 

AMG owner Sean Gaffney said the tours would have a beneficial effect on the area, easing concerns of congestion following new state-regulations this year banning large tour buses. The large-bus ban may increase the total number of vehicles in the state recreation area — something that would be helped by putting tourists onto the water, Gaffney said. He did not specifically say 

Gaffney also said the tour would be limited, spending only 30 minutes in Lutak Inlet twice a day when cruise ships were docked in town. 

By only approving the uncontroversial Eldred Rock route, the assembly is asking Gaffney to resubmit the Lutak Dock tour as a separate permit for consideration. 

The post Assembly Briefs: Smith writes big check, assembly considers major changes appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

For the third year, Holly Davis has organized a butterfly migration at the Haines library. She said kids build a “butterfly tree” using  children’s book illustrator  Eric Carle’s style of painting vibrant textures using brushes and sponges. Then, they cut the butterflies for the tree. She was helped by Ava Stanford, Lolly Minor, and Maren Billings. Davis says in the fall the butterflies on the tree will be replaced with leaves that children will also make.  

Patty Brown recently spent time in west Texas on what she called a  “solo pro-democracy tour.” Her kickoff was participation in a rally in  Austin on March 28. She also visited the memorial honoring 21 children and teachers killed in Uvalde. Brown spent three days outside of the Dilley Family Detention Center protesting the conditions and prolonged stays by children and families. Brown went on to camp at Big Bend National Park. While there she joined locals at a rally protesting a border barrier in a sensitive riparian zone impeding access to the Rio Grande River for hundreds of miles. 

American Bald Eagle Foundation director, Kathy Benner loaded up two bald eagles, Arden and Vega for a ferry ride to Juneau this week. Benner received permission from state and federal permittees to transport the eagles to get imaging and bloodwork.. This will set a baseline for their future medical needs. Benner has been taking eagles for X-rays for 20 years. She put her skills to work loading Arden and Vega into the dog kennels incident free and the two remained well-behaved for the journey. She was in the unique position to note that two adult eagles in a vehicle for a long time offered a distinct smell. 

The Haines swim team competed in Juneau last weekend. Sydney Wray said everyone swam well. Sally Andersen  was the sole Masters swimmer participating from Haines, and she “crushed it.” The ten and under boys Elias Mason, Dames Gregg, Stanley Johnson, Azeo Walsh and Aurora Mason achieved personal best times in all events they completed. McConnell Robinson scratched from day one and two only to continue on to a personal record in his 100m fly. Hazel Wray swam the 400 individual medley for the first time and managed four personal best times. Grady Robinson highlighted the meet – becoming a new Alaska State Swimming Championship qualifier in the 50 meter free with a time of 26.96. Robinson, Wray and McConnell Robinson will represent the Haines Dolphins at the end of the month in Anchorage. 

The 51st annual Juneau Folk Fest once again inspired plenty of people to flock to Juneau from Haines. Some former Haines residents were spotted enjoying the festivities. Dr. Len Feldman played the accordion. John Hunt performed on the main stage playing auto harp and also ukulele. Katya Kirsch played banjo with 16 women on Saturday night. Tony Tengs was spotted by Tom Morphet enjoying the music as well as former CVN reporter Steve Williams and his wife Michele Drucker. 

A few Haines folk-festers found themselves learning to cut a rug together at a popular clogging workshop taught by Annie Bartholomew and held at Centennial Hall. Nene Wolfe was part of the three piece band providing the music, she was on accordion. Leslie Evenden,, Mardell Gunn, Patty Brown, Lizzy Jurgeleit, Anna Jurgeleit and former Haines resident Andrew Cardella made up a few of the nearly 40 cloggers – yours truly included– who followed the step by step instruction on the clogging. They also practiced fundamentals of Appalachian flatfooting – some with more success than others. 

Hannah Trujillo attended her very first Juneau Folk Fest. Trujillo says that her mom was a fiddle player. She loves fiddle music and she “had a hankering to dance.” This likely will not be her last trip to folk fest. Anna Jurgeleit has attended 10 folk fests so far. Her favorite band to perform over the years was “Texas Maniacs.” Tom Morphet has also attended 10. Nancy Berland says she has been to the event at least 25 times, but was out done by Berl Sheldon. He has attended at least 30. Both Berland and Sheldon agree that “Hot Club of Cowtown” was their favorite band to see during their history attending the festival. Mardell Gunn has only missed two folk festivals since 1995, and says that any year Rhiannon Giddens plays is the best year to attend. 

The post Duly Noted: Traveling musicians, a butterfly tree, transporting eagles and more appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Gerald “Jerry” Blood

Aug. 22, 1944 – March 22, 2026

Gerald “Jerry” Everett Blood, beloved husband of Barbara Blood and devoted father and grandfather, passed into the Lord’s presence surrounded by his family Sunday, March 22, 2026, in Fairbanks after a 10-year battle with chronic lymphoma and heart disease.

He was born on August 22, 1944, in Douglas, Ariz., while his father served in the U.S. Army. He and his parents moved to Seattle when he was 2 years old.  In 1955, the family moved to Fairbanks, where his father worked as a meat cutter at a local grocery store. 

Jerry graduated from Lathrop High School in 1963 and attended University of Alaska for one year.  He was drafted into the Army in 1965 and served one year in Vietnam from 1966 to 1967.  

After discharge, he joined his family in Anchorage and followed in his father’s footsteps as a meat cutter, working at Anchorage Cold Storage.  In 1978, he began work at Park’s Place grocery in Glennallen.  He met Barb while she was serving as a missionary nurse at Faith Hospital.   

They went on their first date in July 1980, got engaged in September and married in December of that same year. Barb described it as a “whirlwind romance,” but one that would last 45 years.  

They were blessed with two children, Janie in 1983 and Matthew in 1985. The family moved to Haines in 1990 for Jerry to begin work as a meat cutter at Food Center.  After serving 13 years as a volunteer firefighter/EMT, he was hired by the Haines Volunteer Fire Department as a paid employee for the remaining years of his working life, retiring at 66.

Jerry turned his life over to his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, through the ministry of Victory Bible Camp in 1972.  For five years, he would leave his job in Anchorage for the summer and volunteer as the horse wrangler at the camp.  He went on to become an elder and deacon, Sunday School teacher, and kids’ club leader, both at Glennallen Community Chapel, and later at Port Chilkoot Bible Church in Haines. 

Throughout his years in Glennallen and Haines, he was known as a good and kindhearted man, hard worker and committed volunteer.  He was well known for his woodcutting skills. Even after he didn’t need wood to heat his own home, he continued cutting, splitting and stacking wood as a gift for others.  He was famous for his neat stacks of firewood, having three years’ worth of wood stacked, ready and dried for the cold winters. 

He was a loving husband, father and grandfather. He adored his five grandchildren, both in Sitka and in Fairbanks.  In 2020, he and Barb bought a condo to be “snow birds” in Sitka, but because of his failing health, they made Sitka their permanent residence in 2025.  He loved living near his two Sitka granddaughters, but made frequent trips to Fairbanks to see the grandkids there as well. His Fairbanks family loved traveling to Sitka to spend time with him. 

Survivors include his wife, Barbara; two children, Janie Hall (Tim) and Matthew Blood (Holly); five grandchildren, Natalie and Grace Hall and Taylor, Makenna and Charlie Blood; one brother, Derryl Blood (Jenett); and two brothers- in-law, Bob (Carol) and Paul (Wendy).  He was preceded in death by his parents and two brothers. 

His ashes will be laid to rest at Sitka National Cemetery at a later date. 

Donations in his memory may be to Echo Ranch Bible Camp Haines, PO Box 210608, Auke Bay, AK 99801. 

The post Longtime Haines Firefighter, church leader dies in Fairbanks appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Earlier this month, Golden Valley Electric Association held a community meeting in response to growing frustration among its members. The standing-room-only crowd at the Noel Wien Library included many familiar faces involved in Fairbanks energy issues. But what stood out were the people I didn’t recognize: residents who don’t typically show up to these kinds of meetings, clearly searching for answers to their high energy bills. A military mom with a toddler. A retired, disabled veteran trying to make ends meet. 

GVEA CEO Travis Million laid out some of the key challenges facing the Interior — not only around cost, but supply as well. One issue that received particular attention was the absence of inexpensive “economy power” from Southcentral via the Alaska intertie. 

Historically, GVEA has had two primary ways to access lower-cost power from Southcentral, much of it associated with Cook Inlet gas. One is to purchase gas directly from producers and contract with Southcentral utilities to generate electricity using that gas and send it north over the intertie. The other is to purchase excess generation from those same utilities — regardless of the fuel source — which can often be produced at relatively low marginal cost.

But with tightening gas supply in Cook Inlet, neither option is available — there simply isn’t surplus to go around. As a result, deliveries of lower-cost gas-fired power to the Interior have been declining for some time, but last year was the first time they effectively dropped to zero.

The result is that Fairbanks is replacing that lower-cost supply with much more expensive diesel-based generation — this winter, that has averaged around 250,000 gallons per day. And much of that fuel is being burned in older, less efficient units. GVEA has been trying to move away from fuel oil for years, so investing in new oil-based generation hasn’t made much sense.

The cost implications are significant. As GVEA noted during the meeting, changes in global diesel prices due to the war in Iran are now translating more directly into local electricity costs, not to mention the cost of heating oil. 

To put this in perspective, each $1 increase in diesel prices corresponds to roughly $250,000 per day in additional expenses for GVEA — about $7.5 million more per month in generation costs.

The implications are being felt directly in residents’ pocketbooks. Right now, residential customers in GVEA’s service territory pay an effective rate of about 32.9 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). That’s roughly 7–10 cents per kWh higher than what residents in Anchorage and the Mat-Su pay. Nearly all of that difference comes from the Cost of Power Adjustment — the COPA. This is the line item on your bill that reflects how current fuel costs compare to a set base rate. At around 12.8 cents per kWh, GVEA’s COPA is two to three times higher than that of Anchorage residents. That’s the story: we are spending far more on fuel. And that takes us right back to the 250,000 gallons of diesel per day.

To close out the presentation, GVEA outlined several steps it is taking to address the high cost of fuel, including plans for new local generation such as a second LM6000 in North Pole — essentially a jet engine adapted for power generation. It would join an existing unit running on naphtha refined at the Petro Star facility from oil pulled directly off the pipeline. The project is expected to go before the board next month, but even if approved, it would likely take three years to come online. A 30-megawatt wind project in Delta is also in the works, but it has recently encountered permitting delays at the federal level.

When the floor opened for questions, hands shot up immediately. What about solar? Nuclear? How much power do the military bases consume? How much is your salary—can’t we cut costs somewhere? And don’t we have cheap local coal? 

The bottom line is that none of these options fully address the immediate challenge of high energy costs — at least not in the short term. Fundamentally, Fairbanks is not particularly well positioned geographically when it comes to energy resources. We lack significant hydro potential, and we are not located near a major natural gas resource like Cook Inlet or the North Slope.

We do have coal, and it is already an important resource. The two mine-mouth plants in Healy make up a significant share of GVEA’s baseload and are, arguably, among the lowest-cost sources of reliable generation available to the system. But they’re not without challenges. I’ve heard anecdotally that Healy Unit 2 has been giving operators and dispatchers fits this winter. It’s definitely not performing like the steady, dependable baseload resource that coal is often assumed to be.

Then there’s the UAF coal plant. I work on campus, and around mid-winter I started to notice that emissions from the smokestack were less consistent than I expected. So I began paying closer attention. By my count, the plant has operated roughly 28 days since January 1st — about a quarter of the time. 

When it’s offline, UAF shifts to burning heating oil to heat the campus, which is a higher cost fuel than coal. It then purchases electricity from GVEA, which in turn places even more demand on a system that is already relying heavily on diesel generation. This layering effect increases overall liquid fuel use locally, putting additional strain on supply to the point where fuel is now being trucked up from the refinery in Valdez to meet demand. I suspect we’re in for a sobering financial realization when UAF’s energy bills are finally tallied. 

Is Fairbanks Rural Alaska?

In rural Alaska, energy costs are a major burden — one that families and communities deal with every day. Fuel must be imported over long distances, and power systems remain largely diesel-dependent, driving electricity prices to very high levels. To address this issue, the State of Alaska developed Power Cost Equalization, or the PCE program, around 40 years ago. The idea was that when investments were made by the state, such as in hydroelectric projects that benefited one community or region, other money would be put aside to help subsidize costs in diesel dependent communities. 

In statute, the PCE program is designed to equalize the cost of electricity for residential customers to something close to the average of Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau. These locations were selected as the major population centers at the time the program was created. It was assumed that each one of these communities would have access to relatively low-cost power that was at least in part state-subsidized: Juneau through the Snettisham hydroelectric project, and Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula and Fairbanks through interconnected infrastructure supported by state investment in both generation and the transmission backbone now known as the Alaska Intertie.

Under this framework, rural communities would receive a subsidy to bring residential rates closer to that urban benchmark. The intent was that, at least in theory, all residential customers across the state would have access to reasonably comparable electricity rates — something akin to a shared, or “postage stamp,” average.

In practice, however, things work differently. The relatively high rates in Fairbanks are effectively canceled out by the very low-cost hydropower in Juneau. And because Chugach Electric Association in Anchorage sells the largest share of electricity, Anchorage ends up disproportionately influencing the so-called “PCE base rate” — the “floor” price that rural residents pay after the subsidy is applied. 

For example, the PCE base rate last year was 19.92 cents per kWh, which in turn was largely derived from Chugach’s 2024 average rate of around 21 cents per kWh. If a rural utility is well run and doesn’t have a lot of non-allowable costs inflating its rates, rural residential customers should pay something close to that level — at least for the first 750 kWh per month which is covered by the program, which is a reasonable amount for most households.

This has worked out well for rural residents, and is a cornerstone program for making living costs slightly more affordable in rural Alaska. But Fairbanks is struggling. 

In 2025, Fairbanks residents paid about 11.5 cents per kWh more than residents in places like Akiak, Akutan, Anaktuvuk Pass, Atmautluak, and Atqasuk. Those are just the communities starting with the letter “A” in the annual PCE report published by the Alaska Energy Authority, that have managed to hit that PCE floor of about 20 cents per kWh.

Looking across all 188 communities that received PCE last year, Fairbanks residents paid more than about 140 of them. That’s sobering. And if the goal of the program is to offset diesel costs, consider this: GVEA burned more diesel fuel last year than all of rural Alaska combined. This year, it won’t even be close. Our 250,000 gallons per day dwarfs the roughly 70,000 gallons rural Alaska consumes on average for power generation. 

So what does this mean? It raises questions about how Fairbanks fits within the broader structure of Alaska’s energy system. Should it be viewed more like rural Alaska in certain respects? Should we consider expanding the PCE program to cover Fairbanks residents? For many, that idea is heretical — and not without reason. PCE currently serves about 80,000 residential customers; extending it to GVEA would effectively double the program.

Some of my colleagues have suggested this is a temporary disparity, driven by the loss of gas-fired economy power, and that rates could moderate over time. But looking at historical data, Fairbanks has always been above the PCE base rate benchmark — roughly 10 cents per kWh higher for virtually all of the past decade. 

So why are we noticing it so much more now? It may be that rates are reaching a breaking point for local residents. Crossing the 30 cents per kWh threshold stands out as a kind of high-water mark — likely because, historically, it is. But the floodwaters are still rising. I would not be surprised to open my bill in July and see rates approaching 35 cents per kWh.

So what about the Alaska intertie?

When Alaska lawmakers began shaping their vision for an equitable energy system, the solution for Fairbanks was, in part, the Alaska Intertie. The idea was that physical interconnection would allow lower-cost power to move across regions, benefiting everyone connected to the grid. So why hasn’t it worked as intended? 

Part of the challenge is that while the system is connected physically, it’s not integrated operationally. This means the system is not dispatched as a single, coordinated grid where the lowest-cost generation is brought online first for the benefit of all customers. Instead, it continues to function more like three loosely connected regions — the Kenai, Southcentral, and the Interior — each making decisions within its own boundaries.

The result is that some of the most efficient generation is not fully utilized, while higher-cost resources continue to run elsewhere on the system. This dynamic is a classic prisoner’s dilemma: the best overall outcome comes from cooperation, but each utility is incentivized to act in its own interest because that is what it can directly control. 

If this were happening in the Lower 48, utilities would likely be required to operate under a more coordinated system due to regulatory frameworks established decades ago to support regional power markets. Alaska, however, falls largely outside of those Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requirements, which are tied to interstate transmission and wholesale power markets. Because Alaska’s grid does not cross state lines, it is exempt from many of these rules.

One result is that the governance structure of the Railbelt has evolved differently — and in some ways, more slowly. Without the same regulatory drivers, the system has remained more fragmented, with each utility continuing to operate largely within its own footprint.

This has implications across the grid, but the effects are not evenly distributed. Communities at the edges of the system tend to feel these dynamics most acutely. While this commentary has focused on Fairbanks, similar pricing pressures can be seen in other peripheral areas, including Homer Electric Association and the City of Seward, albeit for somewhat different reasons.

The fix is ultimately a governance fix when it comes to the Railbelt. We can’t build our way out of high energy prices — at least not in the near term. And the reality is that high prices are going to be with us for a while. That doesn’t mean we are without options. But it does mean that the most meaningful progress will come not from the next project, but from how we choose to operate the system we already have.

Today, we are not consistently dispatching the lowest-cost resources across the grid, nor are we planning and operating the system as a single, coordinated network. That gap has real consequences. It means we carry unnecessary costs, underutilize our best assets and expose some regions — particularly those at the edges of the system — to higher and more volatile prices.

We have done hard things before. We built legacy hydropower projects around the state that continue to benefit residents with access. We also created mechanisms to share resources across communities through the PCE program. And we have taken meaningful steps toward greater coordination on the Railbelt as well. In Southcentral, utilities now operate more closely together through coordinated dispatch arrangements, and regionally we have established organizations like the Railbelt Reliability Council and the Railbelt Transmission Organization to support more integrated planning and operations.

These are important steps in the right direction — but they are still incomplete. The next step is less about infrastructure and more about alignment: establishing the structures and incentives needed to operate the Railbelt as a single system. Until we do that, we will continue to fall short of what this grid was designed to deliver.

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Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has been appointed to the U.S. Arctic Research Commission at a time when the federal agency is pivoting from its longtime focus on environmental science to more emphasis on military defense and economic development.

Dunleavy is an ally of President Donald Trump. Dunleavy’s presidential appointment, announced by the commission this week, comes five months after Liz Qaulluq Cravalho’s position on the commission was terminated. Cravalho is vice president of lands at NANA Regional Corporation, the Alaska Native corporation for the state’s northwest region. She was initially appointed by then-President Joe Biden in 2021 and reappointed in 2024.

The commission, created in 1984, advises the president and Congress on research policy. Its seven commissioners are appointed by the president.

Dunleavy is the first sitting governor to be appointed to the commission, which advises the president and Congress on Arctic research. Past Alaska lieutenant governors have served on the commission, but not during their time in state office. Mead Treadwell chaired the commission prior to being elected in 2010 as lieutenant governor in the Parnell administration, and Fran Ulmer chaired it after serving as lieutenant governor in the Knowles administration and after serving as chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage.

In 2019, his first year in office, Dunleavy used his veto powers to cut state funding of the University of Alaska system by 41%, an action that at the time was characterized as devastating to the university’s Arctic research, among other activities. Much of the funding was later restored through a compromise Dunleavy made with the university.

In a statement released by the commission, Dunleavy praised the role of Arctic research, saying it helps Alaskans.

“Alaska sits at the forefront of the Arctic, and our communities, resources, and strategic position make us essential to advancing responsible research, economic development, and national security in the region,” he said in a statement released by the commission. “I look forward to working with fellow commissioners to ensure that Arctic research reflects the needs of Alaskans while strengthening America’s leadership in the Arctic.”

The Trump-appointed chair of the commission, speaking Wednesday at the Arctic Encounter Summit in Anchorage, said the organization is “tremendously thrilled” to have Dunleavy as a member.

“We’re super excited about that,” said Thomas Emanuel Dans, appointed in December. “We’ve got the very experienced hand and voice at our commission, and we’re looking to do big things here.”

A pivot to security needs

Dans, who also served on the commission during the first Trump administration, expressed an expansive view of the Arctic that he likened to that of 19th century explorers.

“We want to create the conditions that really unleash human flourishing. We want more. We want human life. We want people to have big dreams,” he said.

Rather than focusing on pure science, the commission is focused on security, as Dans described it.

“Security is probably the overriding, overarching theme of things,” he said.

But security has several facets, he said. It includes military security, international security, energy security and community security, “which can be interpreted broadly in terms of health and well-being” for Arctic residents and others in the nation and the world, he said.

Dans, who lives in Texas and spent most of his career in finance, served on the U.S. Arctic Research Commission during the first Trump administration. But his comments on Wednesday indicated some gaps in his Arctic and Alaska knowledge.

He mentioned Russia’s Wrangel Island, off the northern coast of Siberia, as a security threat. Wrangel island “is close to Alaska here,” he said in his speech. “And for a long time it was incorporated as part of the United States. Today we face missiles pointing at us from Wrangel Island.”

Wrangel Island was never part of the United States. There is a place with a similar name – Wrangell Island – that is located in Southeast Alaska. Since 2004, Russia’s Wrangel Island, located 300 miles from the nearest point in Alaska, has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is famous for its Arctic biodiversity, including the world’s largest concentration of Pacific walruses.

A decade ago, Russia built a military base on the island with a focus on radar systems to monitor airspace. The military use of the island is part of Russia’s military buildup in the Arctic, which has worried U.S. officials, and it is also considered to pose a potential threat to the natural resources there.

In his Arctic Encounter Summit comments, Dans hailed the planned expansion of the U.S. Coast Guard’s icebreaker fleet, saying the fleet has “gone from zero to maybe 14.” However, the Coast Guard for decades has operated two polar-class icebreakers: the Healy, which performs annual missions in Alaska and the wider Arctic, and the Polar Star, which usually sails in the Antarctic. The Coast Guard recently acquired another icebreaker for Arctic operations. Originally an oil industrial vessel called the Aiviq, the ship was renamed Storis and commissioned in a Juneau ceremony in August. The fleet is poised to expand: there was funding for more than a dozen new icebreakers in the Trump administration spending bill known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Concerning Russia, which holds more Arctic coastline and land than any other nation, Dans urged more cooperation and communication. “I’d love to have the younger generation in Alaska learn Russian,” he said.

Within a few miles from the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center, where Dans spoke at the Arctic Encounter Summit, classes were being conducted in Russian language at elementary, middle and high schools through the Anchorage School District’s Russian immersion program. It was launched as a full-time program in 2024, according to the school district.

Editor’s Note: The story has been updated to correct the spelling of Thomas Emanuel’s middle name.

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The Alaska House of Representatives on Monday rejected a bill passed by the Senate that would have applied state corporate income taxes to privately owned oil and gas companies that currently do not pay them. Supporters said the bill would have generated up to $100 million in new revenue for Alaska.

The proposal would have required companies licensed as S corporations or as limited liability companies to pay state corporate income taxes for profits earned in the state, which they currently do not pay. The largest company affected would have been Hilcorp, a privately run Texas-based company that operates the Prudhoe Bay oil fields as well as most of the oil and gas operations in Cook Inlet.

The state does not levy a tax on income earned by S corporations and LLCs because their profits go to owners or shareholders. In many states, those people would pay personal income tax on the money, but Alaska does not have a personal income tax, so such companies avoid taxation on profits. Traditional corporations, or C corporations, are publicly traded and already subject to existing state tax law. 

Four members of the multipartisan House majority caucus objected to the proposal, and split to join the all-Republican minority members to reject the Senate’s version of House Bill 194 by a 23 to 17 vote.

House Majority Leader Rep. Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, was among those to oppose the bill.

“This policy creates uncertainty at the exact moment Alaska needs more energy development,” Kopp said on Monday on the House floor. “These are the people that are actually keeping our energy crisis at bay right now.”

Kopp argued the change would potentially hamper new oil and gas development. “It’s been a cold winter in Southcentral and along the Railbelt, and this is at the same time we’re asking these folks to drill more, to produce and store more gas, to explore more and to sign long term gas contracts. So it seems shortsighted to hamstring gas producers when we need them to invest a lot more right now, just to keep our schools warm, our homes heated and our businesses going,” he said.

Anchorage Independent Rep. Alyse Galvin, and Democratic Reps. Carolyn Hall of Anchorage and Robyn Frier of Utqiagvik also joined the minority caucus to oppose the bill on Monday.

Anchorage Democrat Sen. Forrest Dunbar sponsored the amendment to levy the corporate tax on privately owned oil and gas companies on a bill that would have been a routine renewal of a state oil royalty lease agreement, which passed the Senate last month. 

Dunbar criticized the House decision in a Wednesday interview, saying it was a missed opportunity to bring in revenues for Alaska.

“They took potentially $100 million or more and rather than put it towards schools or the state of Alaska, they hand it to a billionaire in Texas. I think that was a mistake,” Dunbar said. “This is some of the lowest of low hanging fruit.” 

“So I’m very disappointed in their actions,” he added. “And frankly, I’m surprised that some of the members of my party voted the way they did.”

On Monday, Big Lake Republican Rep. Kevin McCabe argued against the bill saying a tax focused on specific corporations that could result in lawsuits against the state. “I would suspect that this will lead directly to the courts,” he said. “This is just plain wrong. We shouldn’t be doing this.”

Galvin, a member of the multipartisan majority caucus, said she opposed that the measure was added to the underlying bill, but said she sees the need for more revenue. “I do think that it’s confusing when we add one bill to another, and haven’t properly vetted (it),” she said.

Galvin said she has proposed legislation, House Bill 152, which would include the corporate income tax provision, as well as a 4% state income tax on individuals earning more than $150,000 and an annual $150 tax per Alaskan to help pay for state services like education. It’s now being considered by the House Finance Committee.

“In a bill that I’m working on, I’m certainly careful to not call out one company,” she said. “But we do need to look at fairness also in all of our taxation. And I think that there is a place for us to address this.”

Galvin also requested to be excused from the vote citing a conflict of interest, but there was an objection on the House floor and she was required to vote. She told the Anchorage Daily News her husband works for Great Bear Pantheon, an Alaska subsidiary of Pantheon Resources, a Texas-based oil and gas exploration company. 

Several members argued in support of strengthening corporate income taxes to provide much-needed revenues for Alaska.

Rep. Ky Holland, I-Anchorage, supported the provision saying it was a defining moment for the Legislature to take action to address what he called the “Alaska disconnect” — being a resource rich state without capturing the economic value and benefits for residents.  

“I believe this is a defining question for many of us, who I think, recognize that our state has moved past looking for the fiscal cliff and is now out beyond it,” he said. “And it’s now time for us to decide, are we willing to take some difficult votes and take some difficult action?”

Holland said failing to change the tax code could create a scenario where other businesses incorporate as S corporations or LLCs to avoid corporate income taxes. “This bill offers a way to address a point of fairness in the taxation that we have,” he said.

The amended bill now returns to the Senate, which can remove or change the provision. Those acts could result in a conference committee made up of representatives from both chambers to reach agreement on the bill.

The original legislation was introduced by the governor and passed the Alaska House last year. It would renew a three-year oil royalty agreement between the state and Marathon Petroleum Corporation, for state owned oil to be processed at its refinery in Nikiski, on the Kenai Peninsula, valued at between $4 million and $18 million in state revenue. 

Several lawmakers in the House, including Kopp, said the company was no longer interested in the state contract, voiding the need for the legislation. A spokesperson for Marathon declined to comment on Wednesday, saying the company does not comment on its crude oil sourcing. 

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