Council decided during their Tuesday night meeting to fund a study of alternative energy sources. It’s been ten years since the last study and in the interim fuel costs have risen and technology has changed. Currently the city runs on diesel generators but the study will look at tidal, wave, wind, geothermal and liquid natural gas. Council awarded the $47,000 contract to the Maine-based Financial Engineering Company. FEC will do a cost-benefit analysis of the various potential energy sources and present the results to council later this year.
Major recognition for an Alaskan scientist could mean the survival of at-risk research projects in the Aleutian Islands.
Last week, Jeff Williams, a biologist for the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge won the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service’s top award for science leadership. Williams has been working in Aleutians for over two decades, and he’s best known for his work on Kasatochi. Using the data he had previously collected on the volcano, he was able to examine how life returned to the area after a devastating eruption.
The State of Alaska and industry groups are challenging recent rulings upholding fisheries closures in the western Aleutians. The appeal notice filed in district court Monday is the latest in a yearlong legal battle over the restrictions put in place to protect an endangered stock of Steller sea lions.
In January, U.S. District Court judge Timothy Burgess ruled that the Atka mackerel and Pacific cod closures would continue while the National Marine Fisheries Service evaluates their impact. In early March, Judge Burgess set a deadline of March 2014 for NFMS to deliver its final assessment. That effectively ensures the fisheries can’t reopen until at least 2015. The state and industry groups had asked for a much shorter timeline. The closures are estimated to cost the industry $80 million a year.
Effective July 1 PenAir will no longer be flying to Atka or Nikolski - or at least they hope not. For years the airline has received the federal government’s Essential Air Service subsidy in exchange for serving the two Aleutian communities, but the company announced recently that it would not be bidding on the subsidy this year.
PenAir President Scott Bloomquist says it’s been difficult to serve the communities.
Governor Sean Parnell has announced his picks for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.
Two seats will open on the Council in August and Parnell is casting his vote with the Anchorage residents who currently fill them. Ed Dersham and Dan Hull are both finishing their first full terms as councilors.
Dersham is a charter boat operator and lodge owner in Cook Inlet. He took his seat on the Council in 2007 after another councilor resigned. He’s also served on the state’s Board of Fisheries.
While the Republican party is preparing to unveil a slimmed-down budget plan next week, Rep. Don Young is back in Alaska assuring state legislators that he’s working to bring as many federal dollars to the state as possible.
At a closed-door meeting with legislators on Thursday, Young fielded questions on Environmental Protection Agency regulations and the shrinking of Eielson Air Force Base. But at a press conference later that day, he said state legislators are especially concerned about getting funding for local projects, since Congress and the president have adopted a policy of keeping earmarks out of bills. Young said that restriction has put federal lawmakers in a tough place when it comes to getting money for their districts.
The state legislature is making progress toward establishing an Arctic policy commission.
At a hearing of the House Finance Committee on Wednesday, Rep. Reggie Joule explained that even though Alaska is the country’s only Arctic state, it’s often left out of conversations about federal policy concerning the region. He thinks that having a body responsible for developing an Arctic strategy would give the state more credibility with regulators in Washington.
The Alaska Supreme Court has ordered the state Redistricting Board to redraw its proposed map of legislative boundaries.
A day after hearing oral arguments in the case, the Supreme Court issued its order late Wednesday afternoon.
The Justices point to an earlier case, Hickel v. Southeast Conference, in which the Court ruled that while the federal Voting Rights Act takes precedence over the Alaska Constitution, it should not be given so much weight that the constitution is “unnecessarily compromised.”
