MEA pushes to repeal regs

PALMER — The Mat-So Borough won’t have the final say on whether it can require Matanuska Electric Association or anyone else to meet certain guidelines before building a power generation plant.

MEA has gathered enough signatures on a petition to put a question on the October Borough ballot to repeal the power plant ordinance. The ordinance, based on one from California, applies to power generation facilities greater than 50 megawatts.

Matanuska Electric Association vigorously fought the ordinance as it moved through the Mat-Su Borough Assembly last summer. At the time, the utility had planned to build two electricity generation plants — a 100-megawatt plan fired by coal and 100-megawatt natural gas plant. After the Borough assembly passed its ordinance last August, MEA began collecting signatures to put a repeal on the ballot.

MEA Spokeswoman Lorali Carter said the Borough clerk certified its petition March 13. The utility had hired a Valley resident, who was paid $1 each to collect signatures. In the end, Carter said the utility had collected 3,200 signatures, significantly more than the 1,854 required.

Citing the costs and time associated with complying with the Borough’s ordinance and in consideration of rising construction and materials costs, MEA has since tabled for five years its plan to build a coal-fired power plant.

But the Borough ordinance applies to the gas plant as well, Carter said, adding that the utility would not have moved ahead with a ballot initiative had gas plants been exempted.

While the ordinance is unpopular with the utility, Tim Leach, who heads the utility watchdog group MEA Ratepayers Alliance, has said he supports the ordinance as written and disputes the utility’s claims it would impose onerous costs on the construction of a natural gas plant.

The utility has claimed the ordinance would delay construction of the natural gas plant and cost the cooperative up to $11 million as it works to comply with conditions set for getting a permit.

Leech has disputed that number, saying it’s inflated.

Now that voters will have an opportunity to either reaffirm the Borough’s power plant ordinance or repeal it, Carter said the utility will embark on a campaign to spread the word about the ballot initiative.

“We’ll work to increase voter turnout,” Carter said, adding a gas-fired plant is a project worth hundreds of millions of dollars and will be built in the Valley.

“We know that resonates with our membership,” she said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.