MEA needs to become more of a Railbelt partner

For those of you who do not want to claw your way through some of the convoluted modern history concerning MEA, let me cut to the chase right here. However, I ask that you please read on and make an informed vote in our upcoming election for two MEA board directors. Here’s the chase. I plan to support Lois Lester and Kit Jones in the MEA board election. Here’s why. They are both independent thinkers and they are dedicated to listening to the wants and needs of the owners of our co-operatively owned electric utility. By owners, I mean all of us who find ourselves connected to the electric grid from Eagle River to Healy and North on the Glenn Highway for some miles. They are willing to cooperate and communicate with the other utilities around us in the Railbelt. They are willing to confront an out of control MEA management.

The recent board change at MEA has allowed for a long awaited change in fundamental philosophy regarding how our utility fits into the big picture in the Railbelt and what kind of future our co-operative will have. These are the big pieces of why I support Lois Lester and Kit Jones. I must add that I am very respectful of their support of the bylaw changes that you will find on your ballot this year. Minus, of course, the bylaw change brought to you by the old regime of Bill Folsom, Tammy Miller, Aaron Downing and Lee Jordan better known as Friends of MEA. I am sorry to report that this small piece of this year’s effort to clean up our bylaws is exactly what we need to avoid in writing our bylaws. This Friends bylaw change is designed to go after one of the current MEA board directors. Board Director Janet Kincaid does not deserve this and these kinds of efforts are an example of some of the nasty business perpetrated by these Friends of the past decade at MEA. I should know. When I was elected in 2001 MEA management and its lapdog board came after me with their expensive law firms, and when the courts wouldn’t buy that, they went to work on the bylaws; bad business to say the least, and a lousy way to waste millions of our dollars in lawyers’ offices and in court. You don’t have to take my word for this — just do a search of the Alaska State Court records and see just how many legal scraps MEA has been in since the Friends hired Wayne Carmony. His calling card was “I get rid of unions.” I hope you understand that this led to millions of dollars in legal expenses and a lot of very unhappy folks in our community. You have to understand here that these Friends are also responsible for contracting Mr. Carmony to the tune of about a $250,000 yearly salary and a five-year golden parachute that equates to something on the order of a $2 million bonus (including benefits) when the board fires him without cause.

Wayne Carmony and his hired guns are responsible for all of that waste in legal fees, and more importantly, the isolation of our electric utility. We have become an island without much hope for rescue. None of the other Utilities in the Railbelt have any interest in doing any business with MEA for any reason. You’re welcome to call any of the other utilities and speak with their board president to sense their interest in interaction with MEA.

The final straw that broke the elephants back is this: Wayne Carmony and his lapdog board decided to shove down our collective throats a coal-fired power generation scheme. Whose or what kind of big bonus existed in all of this would be fascinating to understand. First off we were not even asked if we thought we should spend $500 million of our money that certainly would have to be paid for by future generations. I don’t get it. We were not even asked if we should generate our own power. Much less the fact that we were not even given a choice of what kind of fuel we should use for this generation source that could feasibly last 50 years. We were only asked where we would like to place this archaic generator. Don’t get me wrong here, we live in the sub-arctic and it gets cold here. But with all of the choices we have for generating energy in the Railbelt, coal would be my last choice. No other choices: We’d be burning coal or leave. I’m not planning to ever leave.

It should be considered criminal to not share in the use of the existing power generators in the Railbelt. Why would we need to produce our own energy when there is plenty to go around in the current infrastructure? We do have an investment in the operation and purchase of said power generators. We should all be as efficient as we can and use that infrastructure to its fullest. To back out of sharing the load on the Beluga gas-fired generators hurts all of the users in the Railbelt. What really bothers me is that we would not stay as part of the whole Railbelt energy system. It doesn’t take a CPA to understand the power of scale in an issue like energy use. Simply put, the more participants the cheaper the fuel. Independence stacked up against power of scale? No contest. Go for power of scale.

Certainly we should expect growth in our infrastructure here, but isolation is not a quality aspect of that growth. It only makes sense that energy generators should be placed nearest the load. Placing a generator on the Matanuska River flood plain that drops its toxic waste all along the rail from Healy to Palmer and the Knik and Matanuska winds would determine whether Palmer, Wasilla or Anchorage would get the resulting toxic waste.

And, of course, you and I will have to foot the bill for carbon taxes when they come. We could be well down the path of understanding Lake Chakachamna hydro, Mount Spur geothermal, tidal flow generation, and wind if we had saved just some of the money wasted by Carmony and his regime on frivolous lawsuits. Of course this paragraph should include the notion of what’s wrong with doing what we are currently doing? Buying energy from Chugach Electric and taking care of our grid. One of the current board candidates stated that she thought the MEA board was micromanaging. Thankfully that is the case. The mess created by management requires even a little more than some micromanaging. Those siding with Wayne Carmony and his management team need to take another look at our isolation, poor relationships with the state government, bad relationships with labor, and huge waste in legal fees in all of this. The impending debt for a boondoggle engineering plan for local generation is without merit and not in sync with the rest of the Railbelt.

Thankfully Lois Lester and Kit Jones understand all of this. And I understand that Gov. Palin understands this as well. Her suggestion that we consolidate our Railbelt utilities is well-founded and right on the mark. Despite the fact that the Friends might be nice enough people that do have a genuine interest in our utility, they are out of step with a philosophy that will work together with our neighbors and look for ways to slim down the overhead and save some money for you the owners. Lois Lester and Kit Jones have already proven to be our real friends.

Michael Janecek lives in Meadow Lakes and is former MEA board director.