Power play

Aug. 31, 2007

By Russell Stigall/Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Power plants built in the Mat-Su Borough will be regulated by the Borough.

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly voted 5-1 Tuesday in favor of a controversial power plant ordinance that requires anyone wanting to build 50 megawatts or more of power generation to meet Borough standards. It's a move Matanuska Electric Association says could snuff part of its plans to build a pair of 100-megawatt power plants.

The vote to approve the ordinance came following a four-hour work session.

MEA is not surprised the regulations passed, said Lorali Carter, manager of government and corporate communications for the electric cooperative.

Calling the process leading up to Tuesday a &#8220sham,” Carter said she was not impressed with the string of experts brought in to testify during the work session.

&#8220The workshop is absolutely laughable,” she said. &#8220I watched the representative from Friends of Mat-Su [Kathy Wells] give the planning commission their marching orders.”

Part of MEA's plan to build its own power generation includes a 100-megawatt coal-fired power plant. It is regulations related to the proposed coal plant and its emissions that threaten the project. Carter has said environmental groups like Friends of Mat-Su influenced the Borough to place unreasonable restrictions of power generation.

&#8220MEA understands that there are zealots in the Borough government that will do anything to stop a coal plant,” she said. &#8220We anticipate that the radical political environment in this Borough killed the opportunity for the lowest power option for residents of Eagle River and the Mat-Su Borough. You have given yourself all of the power even though you bear none of the responsibility.”

Assembly Member Cindy Bettine said that as one of MEA's largest customers, the Borough and Mat-Su Borough School District have a direct interest in the outcome of the cooperative's generation plans.

Bettine also disagreed that the ordinance kills MEA's plans to build a coal-fired power plant.

The ordinance also helps level the playing field for future power providers, said Assembly Member Tom Kluberton.

&#8220It's in the best interest of both the Borough and the industry to get this on the books in a proactive way and not in a reactive way,” he said.

Robert Wells was the lone dissenting voice on the assembly Tuesday, voting against regulating power plants. Well said he could support the ordinance, but that more time was needed for study.

While MEA says the ordinance is too restrictive, Larry Taylor representing the American Lung Association said the Borough's clamping down on emissions from power plants doesn't go far enough.

&#8220What we heard this afternoon was that we need this,” Assembly Member Michelle Church said of the testimony given at the work session. &#8220The agencies told us why we need this. The agencies said that there isn't adequate protection, that it is appropriate for local government to take on this type of regulation.”