Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- The Matanuska Electric Association is still years away from building a coal-fired plant in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. But opponents are lobbying hard to get the utility to reconsider its plans.

Tuesday, the cooperative announced five possible sites for the 100-megawatt coal-fired plant, which the utility hopes to open in 2015 along with a proposed 100-megawatt natural-gas-fired plant.

The sites include two locations in gravel pits near Mile 37 Parks Highway south of Palmer, a gravel pit at the intersection of Parks Highway and Vine Road, a site south of Millers Reach Road in Houston, and a spot northwest of Blodgett Lake near Meadow Lakes.

Co-op officials hope to pick a site by June, which they said would give them the seven years necessary to get state and federal permits and to build the plants. The cooperative has scheduled public meetings on the sites May 19 and May 24 in Eagle River, Houston and Palmer, and is sending out ballots next week to ask members to vote on their preferred site.

Co-op officials want to build the plants so the utility can supply its own power instead of purchase power from Anchorage-based Chugach Electric Association.

Cooperative officials say generating their own power will mean lower rates for members. And they contend the coal plant in particular will be a buffer against rising natural gas prices. Both plants would start up in 2015 after the contract with Chugach expires.

Opponents, however, say they think there are viable cleaner alternatives to coal, including hydroelectric, geothermal and tidal, and think utility officials have not been upfront in providing information to members about how utility officials reached their conclusions.

Specifically they note that the utility has refused to release all but a 10-page executive summary from a 70-page analysis done for the cooperative by the engineering firm CH2M Hill that recommends building a coal-fired plant.

MEA spokesman Tuckerman Babcock said the utility couldn't release the full report for strategic reasons. He cited a need to withhold information from Chugach Electric until Chugach releases a similar report for its own future plans.

Opponents say the executive summary raises questions they can't answer without seeing the utility's basis for assumptions on such things as future coal prices and possible taxes on carbon emissions.

"Those are huge questions for me, and I think we have the right to have the answer," said Pete Houston, a Palmer area resident who heads a newly formed opposition group called MEA Ratepayers Alliance.

Houston, 39, lives near one of the proposed sites. His group wants the MEA board to give members access to the report before taking any action.

Opponents say their concerns are largely environmental. The coal-fired plant would spew carbon dioxide and mercury, and possibly generate coal dust from moving and storing coal, they say. They also cite the hazards of coal mining.

They also question the economics of a coal plant and whether it would be the most economical option.

Mark Foster, a former Regulatory Commission of Alaska commissioner now a private utility consultant based in Anchorage, said he found the executive summary lacking.

He noted in particular that the summary cites what he considers unreasonably low estimates for coal prices compared to natural gas prices and low estimates for possible carbon dioxide taxes of just over $9 a metric ton.

He noted other estimates for carbon taxes estimated a tax as high as $25 a metric ton in 2015.

If MEA figures are low, other projects, like a talked-about hydropower plant at Lake Chakachamna and geothermal project near Mount Spurr, would be more feasible, Foster said.

Babcock said the cooperative has faith in the estimates made by CH2M Hill

Houston said he wonders why, given the opposition to coal, the cooperative isn't considering building the natural- gas-fired plant then either buying the rest of its power from Chugach or generating it from other sources.

Board Vice President Larry DeVilbiss said that would still leave the utility dependent on Chugach for power and subject to rising natural gas prices.

Babcock said the utility is aware that not releasing the full report by CH2M Hill bolsters opponents' arguments that the utility is being secretive. He said the cooperative may consider releasing the report before Chugach releases its report, which he said was likely in October.

"There's not a concern with sharing with the membership. There's a concern of sharing it with Chugach," he said.

In the meantime, opponents say they are trying to rally people against the proposed coal-fired plant.

The MEA Ratepayers Alliance plans to hold a renewable energy parade Monday outside the cooperative headquarters in Palmer in advance of a scheduled board of directors meeting, Houston said.

A group of opponents also recently lobbied the Assembly to weigh in on the subject, and specifically asked that all Valley residents be able to comment on the utility's coal plant plans. A few Assembly members criticized the cooperative's public process, but it wasn't clear what action the Assembly could take. MEA is a member-owned cooperative based in Palmer and is separate from the borough government.

Spokeswoman Lorali Carter said the cooperative is limiting voting on the five sites to MEA members, although the meetings in May will be open to the public.

The meetings will also contain copies of maps detailing the sites and a cursory review done by CH2M Hill of each of the five locations.

Babcock said opposition to the coal plant has so far been fairly minimal, with his office receiving only about a dozen calls, most opposed to the idea. But he said he expects to hear much more once people hear where the proposed sites are located.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

A map detailing the proposed sites for two new power generation plants and more information about the meetings is available at the Matanuska Electric Association Web site: www.matanuska.com.