Anchorage Daily News

PALMER - The future of electricity generation in Southcentral Alaska was on the table Wednesday at a Palmer Chamber of Commerce forum for candidates seeking seats on the Matanuska Electric Association board of directors.Five candidates are running for two seats on the board of the electric cooperative. Annual meeting notices and ballots are scheduled for mailing to MEA members by Feb. 15 and would be due back by Feb. 29. The MEA annual meeting is set for the next day, March 1, at Colony High School.

Candidate and current MEA board president Lee Jordan took the opportunity during opening and closing arguments to tout the need for locally generated power.

"I'm very concerned about the future of our power. There's only one issue here and that's local generation," Jordan said in his opening remarks.

MEA's long-term power supply contract with Chugach Electric Association expires in 2014 and MEA is making plans to generate its own power when it does. Last year, MEA officials asked its members to select a site for two power plants it planned to build in the Valley. A site south of Palmer was chosen for both a 100-megawatt coal-fired plant and a 100-megawatt natural gas-fired plant.

After the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly in August adopted a law regulating development of new power plants in the Valley, MEA shelved its plans for a coal plant.

Complying with the new law would be too costly and negate any potential savings from using coal, which was touted as the cheapest source of power available. Plans are still moving forward for a 100-megawatt natural gas-fired plant.

Jordan said he still believes coal is the best fuel for power generation. But the utility is committed to providing power with natural gas and is prepared to import liquefied natural gas from "anywhere we can so we can keep your lights on," he said.

Peter Burchell, also an incumbent board member, said he's been wrongly accused of supporting continued purchase of power from Chugach and of not supporting local generation.

"Those are myths," Burchell said.

Burchell said he doesn't favor building a coal-fired power plant in densely populated parts of the borough.

But he would support a small coal-fired or natural gas-fired power plant in MEA service territory, if that plan included working with other Southcentral utilities to develop a plan for all consumers.

COMBININING VIEWPOINTS

Eagle River resident Tom Staudenmaier, an annual candidate on MEA ballots for nearly 20 years, said he believes MEA should go away entirely. He'd like to see the numerous utilities along the Railbelt - from Homer to Fairbanks - served by one cooperative or company, he said. Reorganizing would cut costs and reduce overhead, he said.

"Clean it up," Staudenmaier said.

Tom Baird, a former mayor of Houston, a past City Council member and now a semi-retired pilot, touted his economic background.

The dairy farm his family ran in Michigan, thanks to a partnership with Michigan State University, had the highest profit margin of any dairy farm in the state, he said.

Baird said he hopes to bring that early economic training to bear as the cooperative moves toward local generation.

Baird said he supports the current MEA Integrated Resource Plan, which recommends that the utility generate its own power.

"The approach looks very logical to me. It looks to me like we do need our own separate power plant here in the Valley," Baird said.

Former Mat-Su Assemblywoman and longtime Palmer businesswoman Janet Kincaid said she wants to take a broader approach to providing power.

She wants to see MEA take a closer look at alternative power sources, such as tidal, geothermal and hydroelectric power.

"Above all, I think we need to cooperate with all the utilities along the Railbelt. It makes no sense to try to stand alone in today's world," Kincaid said.

Kincaid is putting her cooperation theme in action during the election. She is partnering with Burchell in the election, encouraging voters to put both on the board.

"We're both short, we're both plump and we have a lot of great ideas," Kincaid said at the forum.

WATCHDOG GROUPS

So far, according to campaign finance reports filed online at the MEA Web site, www.mea.coop, the two are far ahead in campaign fundraising. Burchell has raised more than $9,200 and Kincaid nearly $5,000.

Jordan, the only other candidate actively raising funds, has collected $3,200, $1,500 of which was his own money.

Baird and Staudenmaier filed exemptions indicating they don't plan to take in more than $100 in contributions.

Three groups have so far filed to influence the campaign. Lucille Frey, a longtime MEA volunteer, signed up "to defeat a bad bylaw amendment and promote two good candidates for MEA board of directors."

Tim Leach, president of MEA watchdog group MEA Ratepayers Alliance, registered the group's intent to provide information about candidates for the board election.

Jim Sykes also registered UtilityWatch, another MEA watchdog group, with the intent of providing "education, information and analysis as in the past," but said the group did not currently intend to endorse any candidate.

Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at www.adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 352-6709.

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