In the presence of an audience of experts in the field of energy and business leaders in Anchorage this week, Governor. Mike Dunleavy outlined his vision for Alaska’s energy policy.
“When we discuss energy especially for Alaska it’s an all-in.” Dunleavy told the audience at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference, which his administration assisted in organizing.
Alaska has been a major oil and gas-producing state Dunleavy stated, however it’s not going to have an oil state. As the years progress, he added, “it is going to be oil, it’s bound to gas. Then it’s likely have wind power, and it’s gonna have solar power, and it’s likely have geothermal energy, and then it’s gonna be biomass, and it’s going to be nuclear.”
Alaska officials attending the conference made a frequent argument that Alaska should increase the production of fossil fuels and also increase renewable energy sources like solar and wind. However, critics say this plan is a way of avoiding the devastating consequences of climate change.
Alaska has always faced the energy dilemma. Alaska is an oil producer of major importance and tax on oil and royalties have been a major source of revenue that has helped fund state expenditures on everything from roads to schools. However, the majority of that oil is exported out of the state. Meanwhile, rural communities in Alaska face some of the highest energy costs in the nation, often relying on expensive imported diesel and heating oil.
As part of an interview on Alaska Public Media, Dunleavy explained his plan for the best way to tackle this issue. Dunleavy argued that Alaska should increase carbon-based fuels to generate revenue as well as constructing more renewable energy sources in the state to reduce the cost of electricity for residents at home.
As part of this plan, Dunleavy and other Alaska officials attended the conference to reiterate their support for this Alaska LNG initiative that would see an 800-mile pipeline of natural gas that would run from northwestern Alaska to North Slope to the Kenai Peninsula that could permit Alaska to export liquified natural gas consumers in Asia.
“We would like to be an international player on the stage with regard to gas and oil as well as coal, and biomass” Dunleavy said in the interview. However, he said “internally we must reduce the cost of energy and ensure it is stable. That’s where an abundance of renewable ideas come into play.”
Dunleavy declared that to him that investing in renewable energy isn’t about reducing carbon emissions or tackling climate change; it’s about getting affordable energy for Alaskans that isn’t dependent on the fluctuating price of oil. The cost of operating solar power plants has decreased drastically in recent years.
“From my point of view I would say that if the diesel generator was making electricity with a cheap cost over time and consistently, then we’d be interested in this,” Dunleavy said.
But some critics claim this vision is naive and does not include climate change in the equation.
Phillip Wight, an energy historian at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks Phillip Wight, an energy historian at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks Alaska has been following the same strategy for decades.
“Historically, Alaskans have not taken advantage of renewable energy due to the benefits of climate change. We’ve embraced renewable energy as it has cut down our dependence on diesel as well as other high costs fossil fuels” Wight said. “We’ve chosen to do it purely to save money, not for just for climate-related motives.”
However, Wight stated today that in the face of climate change’s rapid acceleration, Alaska needs to consider more than economic benefits.
Alaska faces increasing pressures caused by climate change, ranging due to loss of sea ice and melting permafrost to the loss of species. Scientists believe that the world needs to reduce carbon emissions that result from burning fossil fuels, almost to half at the end of the decade to prevent the most devastating effects from climate changes. Alaska’s contribution to the global market for oil and gas is comparatively small, however Wight said that for as the state Alaska continues to explore, it’s creating the environmental issues that it faces.
“We’re still exacerbating a global problem, and a global problem where Alaska is warming four more more quickly than the rest of the world,” Wight said. “We’re not immune to the issue. We’re at the front in the global climate catastrophe.”
Supporters of fossil fuels claim that there’s no state-wide revenue source that can replace the oil industry. But experts such as Wight forecast that, as the world moves to a more sustainable energy source in the future, eventually Alaska must stop drilling. According to the International Energy Agency warned in 2021 that any expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure will hinder the achievement of the goals of global climate change.
Some green energy advocates believe that the state isn’t doing enough to invest in renewable energy in the home. Rachel Christensen with The Alaska Center An Anchorage-based non-profit who said she’d like have the governor consider making renewable energy policy a greater priority.
“What are we seeing here is discussing the possibilities of solutions” Christiansen said. “We have to be able to see him getting them in the right place.”
Christiansen mentioned two ideas that the legislature was considering this year. One could have mandated utilities to get some of their energy from renewable sources. The other proposal would have created the concept of a “green banks” to help finance renewable energy projects in smaller communities.
Dunleavy was in favor of both however neither of them passed. In response to the criticisms of Christiansen in the media, a Dunleavy spokesperson reaffirmed his goal of providing Alaskans with reliable, low-cost resources for energy.
Christensen stated that she would also want to see the administration tackle climate change into account in their energy strategy.
“It ought to be more than an economic shift,” Christiansen said. “Our industries and our people have already felt the impact on the planet from climate catastrophe. And we shouldn’t push the massive scale extraction projects in order to export, simply because that’s our tradition.”
