‘Outraged’ at dam project

To the editor:

I attended the June 3 Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) open house at the Upper Susitna Senior Center near Talkeetna, and I am outraged. AEA has been quietly spending nearly $200 million of state dollars to aggressively pursue construction of the Susitna dam, despite serious concerns from residents, and then has the gall to promote the project as if it’s already a done deal.

This is a slap in the face to me and my community. Whether AEA likes it or not, the public has a say in this, and we are speaking loud and clear: we don’t support wasteful spending and we don’t support mega-dam projects that threaten our way of life and our wild salmon.

The proposed Susitna dam has already cost us way too much and will ultimately cost more than $5 billion for construction alone — not to mention billions more for infrastructure and transmission line upgrades and who knows how much to decommission the dam.

No amount of slick propaganda materials or fancy videos will gloss over the fact that AEA is using our money for a project that is bad for Alaskans, bad for salmon, and bad for our pocketbooks. We won’t stand for this kind of reckless and wasteful spending on an outdated energy project that will put wild salmon — and our communities — at risk.

Doug Smith

Talkeetna