MEA empowered by vote

Aug. 3, 2007

By Russell Stigall/Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Mat-Su Valley residents want local power generation.

They also want to continue to buy their power from Chugach Electric Association.

This bit of electrical dissonance is revealed in the results of Matanuska Electric Association's advisory ballot and an opinion poll conducted by the Mat-Su Borough.

With 9,471 MEA ballots counted, about 75 percent, 7,115, voted in favor of the electric cooperative generating its own power. Overall, 1,445 voted to continue to purchase power from Chugach Electric.

In its opinion poll, the Borough gleaned more about what type of power generation local residents prefer. Of the 407 residents randomly polled by the Borough:

€ 88 percent want renewable energy.

€ 70 percent favor natural gas-generated electricity.

€ 49 percent are opposed to a coal-fired power generation plant.

€ 56 percent are not satisfied with MEA's public process.

Ivan Moore Research conducted the Borough's survey in July.

Lorali Carter, MEA manager of government and corporate communications, compared Matanuska Electric's return of nearly 10,000 responses from its member-owners to the Borough's cross-section of 407 borough residents.

“They polled 407 and we received ... 7,178 between Palmer and Wasilla,” Carter said. “This represents 73 percent of the returned ballots. I'm very confident with our numbers, and they sent a strong and clear message.”

That message, MEA says, is local residents don't support the Borough's effort to implement a power generation ordinance.

“MEA's member-owners have sent a very clear message that they want local power,” MEA General Manager Wayne Carmony says on the cooperative's Web site. “Hopefully, the Mat-Su Borough will recognize that a large portion of their constituents are opposed to the increased government red-tape that could stop our local generation projects.

“As the Mat-Su Borough spends the next few weeks considering their proposed power plant ordinance, I hope they will also consider that a large portion of their constituents believe that regulations brought in from California will not help us meet our energy needs.”

MEA's advisory ballot results don't send that message and skirt the real question member-owners should have been asked, said Jim Sykes, founder of UtilityWatch, a local group that has opposed MEA's plans to build a coal-fired power plant.

MEA proposes a $350 million project to build 200 megawatts of electric generation in the Mat-Su Valley by 2015. The plan includes a 100-megawatt gas-fired power plant and a 100-megawatt coal-fired plant.

Because MEA's member-owners support local generation does not mean they support the method of generation the power supplier proposes, Sykes said.

“I think [the result] would have had a far different result if it had said part of that generation would include coal,” Sykes said. Instead, the question was more “an exercise in PR. People like the idea of local generation, but they don't like the idea of a coal plant. ... But, that wasn't [MEA's] question.”

In comparison, Sykes said the Borough in its poll asked honest questions and sampled a good cross-section of the Valley.

“It is a pretty good indication of public opinion,” he said. “It has weight. It has scientific gravity.”

Of the 10,000 envelopes Matanuska Electric received, 9,471 were properly cast ballots, Carter said. She did not yet know what the cooperative would do with the advice from its member-owners.

“We're still discussing it internally,” she said.

As proposed, the Borough's ordinance would likely shut down MEA's project, Carter said.

“If people want local generation the Borough needs to know it shouldn't kill the project,” she said.

Duffy also disagrees with Carmony's assertion the MEA vote sends a message to the Borough.

“It is an invalid statement,” Duffy said. “He did not ask that question. If he wanted to make a statement like that he should have asked that question. There is no connection in my mind.”

The Borough's proposed ordinance, which would regulate power generation greater than 20 megawatts, is not designed to stop Matanuska Electric Association from building electric generation in the Valley.

“The project will be successful or fail on its own merits,” Duffy said, adding that “the overwhelming majority of respondents said they support the regulation of local power plants.”

Duffy said the Borough's poll would be added to the public comments and written comments and presented to the public.

“Have the public look at it in total and then move on with the ordinance process,” Duffy said.

Contact Russell Stigall at 352-2267 or russell.stigall@frontiersman.com.