Support CIRI's Fire Island Wind Project

You see, if we have an extended cold streak this winter we realistically face a natural gas deliverability crisis. A deliverability shortfall means the local natural gas supply system is systemically unable to keep up with local demand on an hourly and daily basis, whereupon the gas transmission and distribution system becomes under-pressurized and begins to shut down. In plain English it means that, at the coldest and darkest time of year, we will have to figure out how to dramatically cut local energy consumption. Otherwise an energy disaster will ensue.

Right behind the deliverability issue is the related crossover problem, when annual demand outstrips annual supply. Our local utilities believe that the crossover may come as soon as 2013. The only solutions to the crossover problem are to find more local or imported gas, or to obtain energy from other sources.

Our local utilities seem to be looking more and more toward finding their gas by importing foreign liquefied natural gas, probably from Indonesia or the Middle East.

Imported LNG would provide a supply solution, but at what cost? The Pacific Rim is a growing and energy hungry market. And the prices paid for imported LNG reflect this competitive market. Tokyo was paying more than $12 per thousand cubic feet for its gas last winter. That is 2.5 to 3 times what we paid for Cook Inlet natural gas last year. And for a variety of reasons, LNG imported to Cook Inlet could cost more than that.

Imported LNG also demands a hard look at from whom we would have to buy it. Unfortunately, many of the nations with surplus natural gas to export via LNG operations are controlled by regimes not friendly to U.S. interests, including those controlled by governments who actively fund and support programs that threaten our national security. But imported LNG is not the only solution at hand.

CIRI has been working hard to develop the Fire Island Wind Project, a local energy solution that is primed for construction and could contribute non-fuel electricity before the winter of 2012, thanks in part to an unprecedented level of cooperation and effort from the Federal Aviation Administration. Fire Island would produce up to 52.8 megawatts of electric energy, mostly in the winter when it is urgently needed, from a local, abundant and free source of energy. Fire Island's energy would offset up to 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year. That would significantly improve our local energy situation by helping address the winter deliverability issue and by pushing out the annual crossover problem by several years.

Fire Island offers a local and private investment solution at a cost of power that will compete with or beat the utilities' cost of power produced from local natural gas -- and far below the energy costs for electricity made from imported LNG -- at the project's date of commercial operation. And let's be clear -- despite historic talk of other alternative renewable or non-traditional energy sources for Southcentral Alaska, Fire Island is the only project ready to help immediately.

Southcentral Alaska has the opportunity today to choose between local energy at a competitive and flat price for 25 years, or imported LNG from foreign and potentially hostile regimes with no control over price.

I urge Southcentral Alaskans to support Fire Island wind and other local solutions to the Railbelt's looming energy crisis. And in the meantime, when the mayor asks you to turn down the heat and turn off the lights, you should probably listen.

Margie Brown is CIRI's president and chief executive officer. CIRI's business portfolio includes both traditional and alternative energy development projects in Southcentral Alaska, including the Fire Island wind farm. CIRI is hosting a town hall meeting about the Fire Island wind project at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at the Wilda Marston Theater in the Loussac Library, 3600 Denali Street.