WASILLA -- A disgruntled ratepayer and member of the Matanuska Electric Association is circulating a petition to recall two board members for withholding information from MEA members.
The two board members, board president Lee Jordan and David Dahms, questioned why Bill Erickson targeted only them. Erickson holds Dahms and Jordan responsible for failing to provide the MEA cooperative membership, essentially its ratepayers, with the full Integrated Resource Plan developed by engineering and consulting firm CH2M Hill.
The board voted unanimously to withhold all but the 10-page executive summary of that report, say Dahms, Jordan and representatives of the MEA front office. The CH2M Hill report, 70 pages long, provides the basis for a plan adopted by MEA to erect two 100-megawatt power generation plants, one fired by coal, the other by natural gas.
Ballots due June 6 ask MEA members to select from a list of five the best sites on which to erect the two plants.
The coal-fired plant, which would employ fluidized-bed technology, in particular attracts opposition. Detractors warn of mercury emissions and say relying on coal as a fuel hearkens to the 19th century.
Erickson, a building contractor, suggested that ousting Dahms and Jordan presents anti-coal-plant members with an opportunity.
"All these nasty things are going on," Erickson said. "We're just going to get them out of there and regain control of the utility."
Jordan on Monday said MEA worked three years creating a plan to build its own generation plants and free itself by 2015 of reliance on Chugach Electric Association, from which it purchases power for MEA consumers.
The alternatives proposed by opponents of the coal-fired plant are insufficient to satisfy the growing demand for power in the MEA service area, said Jordan, Dahms and MEA company representatives.
"Studies have been made and there's just nothing out there," Jordan said. "In 2015, we have to make sure people have electricity when people flip the switch and there's just nothing that can guarantee that" other than the plan MEA proposes.
Dahms agreed. Now the pastor of Lazy Mountain Bible Church in Palmer, Dahms said he's a retired heating-and-air-conditioning engineer with some education in the design of power plants.
He also belongs to the Sierra Club and Wilderness Society, he said. He sees no contradiction in espousing what he said is the best option for generating electrical power -- 40 percent from a gas-burning plant, 40 percent from the coal-burning plant and 10 percent from other, renewable energy sources.
Of his fellow environmentalists, they may differ but no one rode their bike to the May 14 protest march outside MEA offices in Palmer, he said.
"I think we can differ kindly, and not just be nasty and mean," he said.
MEA human resources manager Tuckerman Babcock conceded that withholding the IRP may generate more ill will within the cooperative membership than any benefit the company gains by withholding the complete report.
"I thinks it's something the board considers monthly," Babcock said Monday. "I don't think the board adopted a policy set in stone."
MEA, Babcock explained earlier, wants to keep the IRP out of the hands of Chugach Electric Association. Babcock said Chugach could use information from the MEA report to keep MEA at a competitive disadvantage.
To successfully recall a member of the utility board of directors, Erickson must gather signatures from 5 percent of the cooperative membership, or about 3,000 signatures. Over the weekend, he appeared at three sessions scheduled by MEA in Eagle River, Meadow Lakes and Palmer to collect public comment on the proposed plant sites. At the sessions, Erickson distributed blank signature forms, he said.
Along the way, he crossed paths in a parking lot with MEA general manager Wayne Carmony. Erickson said he stopped Carmony by tapping on his shoulder and explained to him how Erickson's father and other Valley homesteaders created MEA.
The way MEA is run today, Erickson says, "is a personal affront to my family heritage."
Babcock and Lorali Carter, the company communications manager, said Erickson shoved Carmony, who called an Alaska state trooper after the confrontation and reported an assault. Erickson said a trooper called him about the incident.
Trooper Eric Hinton of Palmer spoke with Carmony, who told Hinton he might have twisted a knee as a result of Erickson pushing him, according to troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters. Hinton took no report but logged his conversation with Carmony, Peters said Tuesday.
Erickson, whom Babcock referred to as a "goofball," is now banned from MEA meetings, Babcock said.
Should he succeed in gathering enough signatures to force a recall, Erickson must present the petitions at least 40 days in advance of a membership meeting called to consider the recall.
Contact Mat-Su editor Joseph Ditzler at 352-6715 or jditzler@adn.com.
