Good news on the renewable energy front: Anchorage's first commercial wind energy project is going to get significantly bigger. The wind farm planned for Fire Island will go back to its original size: 36 towers with a total capacity of 54 megawatts. That's enough to power about 19,500 homes.
Project developers previously had to scale back the wind farm by a third, to avoid electronic interference with Fire Island navigation equipment serving Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
Now the airport and the wind farm developers, local Native corporation CIRI and its partner enXco, are working on a plan to upgrade and move the navigation system to a site on the mainland.
CIRI president and CEO Margie Brown announced in a newsletter last week:
"We learned in February that the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) does not object to replacing the existing VOR (navigation system) with an upgraded 'dopplerized' VOR located off island, provided a public comment period demonstrates that the airport does not object, that no user groups will be adversely affected, and that appropriate studies demonstrate that public safety will not be compromised."
CIRI spokesman Jim Jager said Tuesday the company sees no problem meeting those conditions. Putting the new system on the mainland, probably on airport property, will make it more reliable, easier to maintain, and easier for pilots to use, he said. The current equipment actually guides aircraft to Fire Island, not to the airport itself.
CIRI is offering to front the money for the relocation work (ballpark cost about $2 million or so), and get repaid later, so the job can be done more quickly.
"If everything works out as we anticipate," Brown wrote in CIRI's newsletter, "workers will start Fire Island site work this summer so that the expanded 36-tower project can be built and brought online in 2010."
The Legislature and Gov. Palin have set aside $25 million for the underwater power line connecting the wind farm to the Railbelt grid. That money can be released as soon as the project secures a contract to sell the power to one or more local utilities. The Fire Island wind farm might get a further boost from a renewable energy tax credit being considered in the Legislature.
Wind power from Fire Island would be a welcome addition to the region's electricity supply mix. Most of the area's power comes from natural gas, which is steadily growing ever more expensive. With zero fuel cost, wind generators can save money in the long run, even though the initial cost of construction is higher. State aid for this privately sponsored project is a wise up-front investment to help secure a more stable, long-term source of electricity for the Railbelt.
BOTTOM LINE: A new approach will help clear away a small obstacle to a bigger project .
Stevens vs. history
Who does Ted Stevens think he is, Richard Nixon?
You have to wonder after reading his agreement describing how the University of Alaska Fairbanks will archive his professional papers.
In a bid to hinder historians, Stevens set multiple conditions for access to the 4,700 shipping boxes containing the records of his Senate career. For one thing, his contract with the university exempts the parties from state and federal public-records statutes. And if Stevens or his heirs are unhappy with UAF during the next 10 years, they can take the boxes back. His contract with UAF is clear: Stevens made a loan, not a gift.
This is treating history as an earmark.
Until recently, I didn't realize the Stevens papers are literally Stevens' papers -- private property. It's true Congress made presidential papers government property in 1978 in response to Nixon placing his papers off limits to the public. (The government eventually bought the Nixon papers for $18 million.)
But Congress, ever sensitive to its own members, continued the tradition of allowing lawmakers ownership of their papers.
Stevens can turn his records into a 4,700-box bonfire if he doesn't like UAF's hospitality.
But he can't stop writers from writing about him -- and writing critically.
Stevens seems to have forgotten a couple other things.
First, the vast bulk of his records, once cataloged, will be of limited interest because they are so routine. A hundred requests for help obtaining a social security check are not a hundred times more interesting than one.
Second, material he is restricting -- some of which nobody will see for 50 years thanks to his contract with the university -- might place him in a more favorable light.
History does not wait for great men to set the terms and conditions of their biographies. Richard Nixon couldn't do it, and neither can Ted Stevens.
-- Michael Carey