Energy Crisis (Anchorage, Juneau and, Fairbanks: sales, homes, cabinet)

[warptman]

A friend emailed this to me the other day...

" Juneau got a shock and they are feeling

what all of our villages have been experiencing for seven years. Their crisis will

end in a few months but ours will continue. Any help you can give us would be

appreciated. All of our leaders in Rural and Urban Alaska: We need action from all of our

relatives and friends throughout Alaska and getting your email Rolodexes humming and

bombarding the governor's office and urban and rural legislators offices with email

messages demanding that our villages be declared energy disaster areas. We have

heard a lot of talk and have seen some action. However, we need to relief as

weatherization, conservation measures, and other programs kick in. We need help

now.We need messages going to the governor's office, urban legislators offices from

our relatives that live in urban Alaska. We know we have thousands of our relatives

living in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Mat-Su, and Kenai. We need our people living

there to help us out. Many of our relatives are going to want their traditional

foods for next winter but it is going to be very hard for us living out here to

harvest what we need for ourselves, not to mention our relatives in urban

Alaska. Fuel costs are very high and it will costs hundreds of dollars more for us to

go Subsistence fishing, hunting, and gathering this year. If our urban relatives

come out for a visit they need to bring cash for gas, and a few cases of food stuff

from Costco, fishing tackle, nets, and ammo for hunting to help out in getting our

food for everybody. Many of our villages have been living under more extreme energy

conditions than Juneau and all urban communities and no gathering of 17 officials,

including commissioners ever met to consider all of the villages of Alaska that are

suffering more than Juneau at this time.Commissioner Notti knows about the costs of

electricity in our villages and that many of our villages pay much more than what

Juneau is facing. The problem is this: Juneau's "disaster" will disappear in three

of four months but ours will continue into the foreseeable future because no one is

taking our VILLAGE ENERGY DISASTER seriously.Our DISASTER consists of high

electricity costs after PCE. In addition, we have excessively high fuel costs. We

will be paying much more for our gasoline, heating oil, diesel, and aviation fuel,

and propane after the first spring barge arrives. Our prices go up in our villages

and never go down. Most communities in the Railbelt ride the rise and fall of crude

oil prices but our villages don't.IF our state is going to take action for Juneau

then it must do the same for all of our villages across Alaska that have been in an

energy disaster condition for over 7 years.We need to demand that the governor do

the following for us:



Declare an energy disaster for all of our villages across the state of Alaska and

include that issue in the upcoming special session.

Give Mr. Haagenson, Energy Coordinator, cabinet level status and convert the AEA to

the Dept. of Energy

Develop legislation that will create an Alaska Fuel Subsidy that will take our

Alaska Royalty Oil and have it refined at Flint Hills or Nikiski and have heating

fuel, gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, and propane delivered to all of communities

in Alaska at no more than $3.00 a gallon.

Craft legislation that will reimburse all communities that waive all sales taxes on

electricity and fuel.

Push our Congressional delegation to adopt a moratorium on all fuel taxes. I am

hoping that our Rural elected leaders, regional organizations, state-wide

organizations will insist that village energy needs be considered along with Juneau.

Juneau does have a serious problem but all of our villages do as well. The 17-member group of commissioners and

other state agency representatives met for two hours Wednesday to consider how to

soften the blow of what’s expected to be about a 450-percent increase in utility

bills next month."

[Élan vital]

granted I JUST moved here so have no knowledge of political goings on in Alaska however I doubt that anyone has yet to pay power bills like we are about to be hit with. We have no way of knowing how long we will be charged for the failure of the power company to be prepared for such. I lived on the gulf coast all my life and sat through the aftermath of every hurricane that hit there since 1955 and I'm here to tell you the power companies were prepared and took care of the problems associated with the disaster ASAP! If any cost associated with the repairs were passed on to the customers, we didn't know it and certainly our power bill was never 5 times nor 500 times higher.

[Barkingowl]

There was a mention of Juneau on SurvivalBlog.com too.

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by DreamWeavin

granted I JUST moved here so have no knowledge of political goings on in Alaska however I doubt that anyone has yet to pay power bills like we are about to be hit with. We have no way of knowing how long we will be charged for the failure of the power company to be prepared for such. I lived on the gulf coast all my life and sat through the aftermath of every hurricane that hit there since 1955 and I'm here to tell you the power companies were prepared and took care of the problems associated with the disaster ASAP! If any cost associated with the repairs were passed on to the customers, we didn't know it and certainly our power bill was never 5 times nor 500 times higher.

You are mistaken. Did you not read the first two sentences of Warptman's OP?

Juneau got a shock and they are feeling what all of our villages have been experiencing for seven years. Their crisis will end in a few months but ours will continue.

Alaskans in the bush are paying, and have been paying, and will continue to pay, far higher rates for electricity than anyone in Juneau. Just be thankful you have electricity, at any price.

[Xa'at]

Originally Posted by Glitch

Alaskans in the bush are paying, and have been paying, and will continue to pay, far higher rates for electricity than anyone in Juneau. Just be thankful you have electricity, at any price.

I told myself I wouldn't come to this thread because frankly it bugs the crap out of me how whiny the bush people are being about this whole situation.
What's happening to us isn't comparable to what is happening in the bush. It is just that simple. People who were paying 200 a month for their electricity bill are now being billed 1,000 and this happened overnight. We had no time to budget or otherwise prepare for it.
We're supposed to be united as a state, instead, while we are facing a crisis everyone turns their back on us. Very nice.

[Metlakatla]

Maybe Hugo Chavez will help out...

Energy assistance debated as Bush Alaska shivers: Top Stories | adn.com (http://www.adn.com/front/story/333049.html - broken link)

Plenty of people have and still are leaving their homes in the villages because they can't afford the fuel.

It's a problem that the entire state has and shouldn't be a Juneau vs. the bush issue.

granted I JUST moved here so have no knowledge of political goings on in Alaska however I doubt that anyone has yet to pay power bills like we are about to be hit with. We have no way of knowing how long we will be charged for the failure of the power company to be prepared for such. I lived on the gulf coast all my life and sat through the aftermath of every hurricane that hit there since 1955 and I'm here to tell you the power companies were prepared and took care of the problems associated with the disaster ASAP! If any cost associated with the repairs were passed on to the customers, we didn't know it and certainly our power bill was never 5 times nor 500 times higher.

Welcome to Alaska. How they did things back home is just that--how they did things back home.

I hope you guys get some sort of assistance for this, but at the same time, it's a good catalyst for seriously addressing the situation in the rural and bush areas as well.

[Metlakatla]

Many Alaskan Villages Welcome Free Fuel From Chavez | Alaska Free Press

[Bohemian Enigma]

Originally Posted by Xa'at

... People who were paying 200 a month for their electricity bill are now being billed 1,000 and this happened overnight. We had no time to budget or otherwise prepare for it ...

The solution is simple. In the short run, allocate surplus funds to the payment of the electricity bill. In the intermediate run, decrease the use of electricity. In most cases a large amount of electricity use is frivolous and can be eliminated with minimal consequences.

In the intermediate-to-long run, residential consumers of electricity can relocate to abodes which require less electricity, or, better yet, relocate to a different part of Alaska, which would bring with it additional psychic benefits.

So from a long term holistic perspective, it is evident that Juneau's so-called "crisis" can, indeed, be a blessing.

[Xa'at]

Originally Posted by Bohemian Enigma

The solution is simple. In the short run, allocate surplus funds to the payment of the electricity bill. In the intermediate run, decrease the use of electricity. In most cases a large amount of electricity use is frivolous and can be eliminated with minimal consequences.

In the intermediate-to-long run, residential consumers of electricity can relocate to abodes which require less electricity, or, better yet, relocate to a different part of Alaska, which would bring with it additional psychic benefits.

So from a long term holistic perspective, it is evident that Juneau's so-called "crisis" can, indeed, be a blessing.

Dude, I don't even know how to respond to this. Juneau as a whole has cut down on electricity use by 30% in the past half-month. We have replaced Xboxes with board games, dryers with clotheslines, and even light bulbs with candles. And we're still getting thousand dollar bills. Don't assume that we HAVE surplus funds.
Frankly, I wish you would cut out the snide comments about Juneau. If you don't like it here, don't live here.

[Élan vital]

Not to be nitpicking, but I don't recall using the phrase "back home" because Juneau is now my home. However, how they did things during the aftermath of natural disasters in the area I was "raised" was perhaps the correct way to handle emergency situations. Perhaps if the Governor of the great state of Alaska ever shows her face or issues a statement in regards to the critical issue, I might be surprised to learn that she too has a plan to resolve the issues going on in her state.
And since I'm sitting in the dark,no TV on, only using my computer rarely; perhaps I missed it if indeed the Gov. has issued a commitment to a resolution. If so-my apologies.

Welcome to Alaska. How they did things back home is just that--how they did things back home.