By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

A new battle has surfaced in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough's plan to provide oversight for new power plants in the valley.

Matanuska Electric Association on March 4 delivered to borough offices in Palmer petitions bearing nearly 3,200 signatures in support of repealing the borough's power plant ordinance.

Acting Borough Clerk Joell Church said March 6 that a canvas board was at work checking to be sure each signature was valid, and that a determination would be made by March 14. If at least 1,854 of those signatures are valid, voters would be asked Oct. 7 to decide whether to repeal an ordinance for the borough to regulate and permit power plants in the valley.

Borough Manager John Duffy said the borough told MEA officials they would like to meet with them, but to date no meeting had been scheduled. Duffy also said the reason the borough passed the power plant ordinance in the first place was that numerous residents had come to the borough expressing their concern over the proposed coal fired power plant. People testifying at public hearings were in overwhelming support of that ordinance, he said.

MEA board chair Lee Jordan, who was recently defeated for re-election, said the utility was “trying to save our members $11 million or more.”

Jim Sykes, of the citizen advocate group Utility Watch, said it's simply a matter of the borough trying to get MEA to reveal information that everybody needs to know.

“Yes, regulation does cost money, but it is not going to cost as much as they suggest,” he said.

Jordan said the ordinance was “ill advised, poorly thought out, and it would be very expensive for us to go through a large number of ill-defined hoops,” that would give the borough the final say over permits for any power plant.

He defended MEA's right to use staff, as well as volunteers, to gather the signatures.

Jordan said no cap has been put on MEA expenditures to repeal the ordinance.

“With $11 million at stake, it is worth it to spend a little bit of money,” he said. “For something this important, we're not going to go half way. It's absolutely vital that we have a power plant built in the Mat-Su to ensure power in the event disaster strikes and takes out the only two lines that get power to us.”

The borough ordinance would require MEA to come up with a power plant design, then the borough would hire an engineering firm review the plans. The firm would bill the permit applicant for the cost of the engineering study, he said.

Most of what the borough is asking for in their ordinance is already going to be provided to other regulatory agencies, Sykes said.

Still, Sykes said, it didn't surprise him that MEA used the ratepayers' money for the process of gathering signatures. The utility had been using ratepayers' money for years in numerous litigations, he said.

“In my opinion, MEA has generated more frivolous and unneeded lawsuits than any other electric utility” (in Alaska), he said. “We've asked for years for them to reveal the number of lawsuits they've done and how much they spent, but never got it.”

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.