Anchorage Daily News

Energy information goes viral. Wherever you turn in Alaska today, people are talking about the high price of energy, whether it's gas for the car or heating oil for the stove or kilowatt-hours for the lights. Today's Newsreader pulls from all corners of Alaska to illuminate how widespread the concern, how real the peril and how leaders are looking to innovation for solutions.

< What happens when a village runs out of fuel? That's not theoretical for Manokotak, about 25 miles south of Dillingham, reports the Bristol Bay Times. The entire village ran out of gas June 2. The spring barge was due in June 6, except delays in a Dutch Harbor dry dock held up the vessel, finally due in this Monday.

In the meantime, the village moved to emergency energy, at a dear price. The first 1,600-gallon supply had a price tag of $8.30 per gallon. The next shipment, a 400-gallon batch brought in by air, went for $9.85 per gallon.

Even when the barge arrives, gas will be $6.70 per gallon, and stove oil will be $7.50 per gallon. The increase in stove oil will affect electricity in the village, which will climb from 34 cents per kilowatt-hour to 45 cents on July 1.

< Maybe underground houses are the answer. Bethel and Kotzebue are considering abandoning their houses on stilts -- they are easy to level as the ground shifts -- in favor of subterranean living, reports KYUK.

Guy Adams, executive director for the Northwest Inupiaq Housing Authority, says fuel prices will only rise. "We pay around $6 a gallon for heating fuel. We anticipate $1 to $1.50 hike," when the first barge arrives. They'll build fewer and smaller homes.

Lincoln Saito, director of the Chukchi campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks located in Kotzebue, has a directive to look for sustainable ways to live in rural Alaska. He invited Adams to view an underground house in Bethel. An underground house retains heat and warms incoming water and heat through the ground.

"The exodus from the villages is real," Saito said. "This is a tipping point year when people aren't able to heat their house and stay safe up here in the Arctic."

< Looking to Mount Spurr for geothermal energy that's close to the power grid. KBBI reports that the state is moving forward with a lease sale for geothermal exploration and development at the active volcano on the west side of Cook Inlet, just 80 miles from Anchorage. Applications are due by July 7.

< A geodesic dome greenhouse in Nikolski will provide local fresh veggies. The village council spent $13,000 on the dome, and spent $8,000 to get it to the 30-person community of Nikolski, on Umnak Island in the Aleutians. Shipped vegetables, they say, arrive in Nikolski ready for the compost pile. They plan to grow beets, carrots, kale, spinach, peas and maybe some dwarf fruit trees, KIAL reports.

A thermal water tank will absorb heat during the day and keep the greenhouse warm at night, supplemented by wind power. The dome can withstand winds up to 100 miles per hour and is anchored by two foot-long cement piers.

< Looking to wind power for a seafood plant in Unalaska. The Dutch Harbor Fisherman reports that Westward Seafood is considering the use of wind turbines in Pyramid Valley to power its seafood plant.

< Fishermen in Bristol Bay say fuel prices are changing how they fish, gear they use. Whether it's opting for the most fuel-efficient engine, or moving more slowly through the water, fisherman are sharing strategies for stretching fuel, reports the Bristol Bay Times. More fuel tips for fisherman are on fishupdate.com.

< Meanwhile, $300 million is already available for weatherization programs. Both the Fairbanks Daily News Miner and the Arctic Sounder have stories explaining the two programs that got big funding boosts this year to help Alaskans make their homes more energy efficient.

Both programs are run through Alaska Housing Finance Corp., and funding grew from $6 million last year to $300 million this year and eligibility requirements were loosened.

The corporations Weatherization Program got $200 million for homes at or below the median income level. A second program, the Home Energy Rebate Program, got $100 million. It will reimburse homeowners up to $10,000 each for improving the energy efficiency of their homes. There is no income limit.

Find out more at the AHFC's Web site.

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Whistle-blower sues FAA over '90s Alaska Airlines inspections. The Seattle Times reports today that a former top safety inspector, Mary Rose Diefenderfer, has filed a discrimination suit in federal court.

Diefenderfer started at the FAA in 1988, and over the years had clashes with Alaska Airlines over her efforts to enforce regulations. She reported incidents of falsification of records and of pilot training.

Her lawsuit alleges that the company took increasingly aggressive efforts to stifle her and undermine her team of inspectors and that her bosses were complicit, eventually removing her as the principal inspector in 1997 and reprimanding her for talking to the media in 1999.

She resigned from the FAA in 1999. A year later, Flight 261 crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Point Magu, Calif., killing all 88 aboard. An investigation showed faulty maintenance of a critical stabilizer assembly was responsible for the crash.

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A short film on global warming is under way in Kivalina, funded by a Berlin film competition. Lifepr.de reports that Gina Abatemarco will create the short film with Anna Wendt Film Production from Berlin.

Shooting started Monday, and the 10-minute film, called "My Sea Wall," will depict "the existential struggle to deal with the consequences of global warming."

The ocean threatens to wash away the village, leaving the 400-some villagers with one option: to resettle elsewhere. For the time being, the only thing saving them from catastrophe is a gigantic wall of sandbags created to prevent further erosion.

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Alaska still hits it out of the park for tourists. Summer remains the major season of travel in Alaska, and for those who actually live here, not always a compelling topic. But Newsreader found some travel references worthy of brief note.

< Couch surfing gets a foothold in the 49th state. CouchSurfing Alaska Collective Blog details their work here on improving surfing and hosting opportunities for members. If cheap travel suits you, check it out.

< Letter to Santa: Dude, they're eating your herd! OK, maybe that's the best line in this short Los Angeles Times travel blog entry on seeing the Last Frontier.

< Rarely do visitors visit Alaska and rave about Anchorage. But the San Francisco Chronicle's travel writer did. From Flat Top to bike trails to New Sagaya groceries, Spud Hilton was one happy camper.

< Salmon fishing out of Sitka. The picture alone will make you smile. The Los Angeles Times column On Fishing has a short account of a slow but very successful trip out of Sitka.

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Other headlines of interest to Alaskans:

< Earl Finkler and wife Chris are leaving Barrow for Wisconsin (Arctic Sounder)

< State Supreme Court rules Homer's cap on store-size initiative invalid. (Homer News)

< Alaska Airlines says it won't abandon Alaska despite fuel prices (Coast Alaska)

< Way up North, Democrat targets Alaskan icon (Berkowitz v. Young) (msnbc.com)

< McCain takes heat in California over offshore drilling, ANWR (San Francisco Chronicle)

< Yukon River king salmon subsistence fishery curtailed (Fairbanks Daily News Miner)

< Criminal charges possible over Wasilla administrators’ alleged coercion, lawyer says (The Frontiersman)

< Ethan Berkowitz gets his hunkiness due. (Ownthesidewalk.com)

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