July 10, 2007

By Russell Stigall / Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Calling Matanuska Electric Association's advisory ballot about power generation plants “propaganda,” local residents gave the cooperative's board of directors an earful Monday. Many attending the MEA board meeting were there to react to the group's ballot that was mailed this past week to gauge the pulse of member-owners. The ballot asks them to choose between their co-op building new electric generation in the Mat-Su Valley, which is MEA's current plan, or to have it maintain its role as a wholesale power purchaser and continue to buy electricity from Chugach Electric Association. The advisory ballot also includes a line for write-ins.

The informational ballot says that MEA is holding the election based on two factors, a recent schism that's developed among the MEA board of directors and an electric generation ordinance drafted by Mat-Su Borough Manager John Duffy. The advisory ballot was commissioned by MEA general manager Wayne Carmony and members of the MEA board were advised of the ballot shortly before it was mailed.

In addition to the ballot question, the mailing to co-op members also includes promotional material explaining how the proposed borough ordinance could affect MEA's $350 million plan to build a pair of electric generation plants.

MEA member-owner John Cross said that when looking at the new advisory ballot, “I see nothing but propaganda. There is no balance nor is there any transparency in this process.”

That the advisory ballot lacks dissenting opinions was a common complaint at Monday's meeting.

“It showed one side and one side only,” Darin Markwart said.

MEA spokesperson Lorali Carter said the information accompanying the ballot is not propaganda; rather, it is information the co-op has used to develop its current plan. The information came from MEA's 2007 Integrated Resource Plan.

“It is no secret where we are getting our information,” Carter said, adding now is a good time to send out a ballot of this nature. “Before we spend hundreds of millions, isn't this the question we should ask?”

In February, MEA announced its plans to build new electric generation within the Mat-Su Valley and to sever its contract to buy power from Chugach Electric Association. MEA plans to build a 100 megawatt coal-fired generator and a 100 megawatt natural gas-fired generator. Since this decision, MEA's plan has come under attack by local activist groups MEA Ratepayers Alliance and Utility Watch, among others.

Member-owners and Mat-Su Borough residents have voiced concern over the health and environmental effects of coal combustion, the financial validity of MEA's power generation plan and whether MEA's decision to cut ties with CEA and build its own generation was reached with sufficient transparency and with enough public input.

The advisory ballot says the borough's proposed electric generation ordinance is “red tape” and would delay the project, potentially forcing MEA to remain a power purchaser. If the co-op stays with Chugach Electric, the ballot says the costs associated could total $191 million over 30 years.

Duffy said the ordinance isn't designed to stop MEA's plans to build.

“What we'd like to see is that information be provided to borough residents and borough planners,” Duffy said, adding the ordinance will bring more information into the discussion on top of financial issues.

“What we have not talked about is the health of future generations and air and water quality,” Duffy said.

Utility Watch founder Jim Sykes said he supports the borough's ordinance.

“If we need government to get enough information then that is what it needs to be,” Sykes said.

The information MEA uses to reach the $191 million number comes from page eight of MEA's 2007 IRP. Utility Consultant Mark A. Foster has produced an independent analysis of findings of MEA's consultant CH2M Hill and questions the co-op's assumption that coal and gas generators built in the Valley would be more cost effective or reliable than the current practice of buying power from CEA.

Ballots are due July 31.