State Attorney General’s Office to decide validity of complaint against MEA

MAT-SU — The Alaska Attorney General’s office has found questions regarding Matanuska Electric Association’s administration practices and the cooperative’s future generation plans serious enough to investigate.

“Particularly with regard to MEA’s plans to build, operate and rely exclusively upon its own generation resources,” says Daniel O’Tierney, chief assistant attorney general for public advocacy, in a comment referring a complaint to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.

Matanuska Electric Association member-owner William Erickson requested an investigation by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska in June. The commission requested a response from MEA, which the cooperative supplied in July. After Erickson responded in August, the commission asked for the state Attorney General’s Office to give its opinion on the validity of Erickson’s complaint. O’Tierney wrote the response on behalf of Attorney General Talis Colberg.

O’Tierney notes his findings with reference to previous issues the commission has examined that pertain to generation planning and prudent practice of Railbelt electrical providers. He also notes that the December 2003 Alaska Energy Policy Task Force Report on the Railbelt “recommended some type of pooled generation/joint system operator to meet future Railbelt electrical energy needs.”

MEA purchases its power wholesale from Chugach Electric Association, but plans to build 200 megawatts of power generation by 2015, a 100-megawatt gas-fired plant and 100-megawatt coal-fired plant. The cooperative has said that it must build the generation plants in the Mat-Su Valley to ensure low-cost, reliable electricity.

In his complaint, Erickson alleges MEA management has acted inappropriately by continuing to pursue the cooperative's plan to build a coal-fired power plant. In his letter to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, Erickson says MEA is "forging ahead with a proposed coal-fired generation plant, and conveniently ignoring and holding back from Matanuska Electric Association member-owners all current and unfolding information that advises against coal-fired power generation.”

Erickson also alleges Matanuska Electric Association misuses the results of its advisory ballots, ignoring that a 10 percent return on ballots means 90 percent of member-owners failed to vote.

O’Tierney said it is not common practice for the RCA to seek his office’s opinion since it has attorney general resources of its own.

“It is a fairly refined kind of protocol,” O’Tierney said. “We don’t cross wire unless we are in the hearing room in our formal roles.”

In Matanuska Electric Association’s response to Erickson the cooperative questioned Erickson’s past behaviors — in particular an alleged scuffle between Erickson and Matanuska Electric Association General Manager Wayne Carmony at a public meeting in Eagle River in June.

O’Tierney said he did not take the alleged altercation into account in his response to the RCA.

“When we do an analysis we try to stick to the probative value of the information and not things that are sensationalized,” he said. “You don’t want information that is extraneous to the issue.”

When asked if his response to the RCA is intended to help the commission decide whether to investigate MEA, O’Tierney said that, “As a matter of intentionality, yes, we referred them to some of their own dockets.”

But only the RCA can make a final decision to proceed with an investigation, O’Tierney said. “Only the commission … can answer the question of whether grounds consisting good cause have been adequately presented by Erickson in this case.”

The Attorney General’s Office does not pre-judge the issue and is not telling the RCA how to proceed, O’Tierney said.

But “if the commission finds that there are facts, circumstances and allegations sufficient to justify a formal investigation or show cause proceeding under its regulations, the attorney general will carefully evaluate at that time whether the docket presents issues that would warrant the participation of the public advocate in any ensuing proceedings.”

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska will announce its decision whether to investigate Erickson’s allegations at a later date. Grace Salazar of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska said her arm of the agency cannot comment on a complaint until the Commission has made a decision.