By Roger Maynard, on November 24th, 2011  Connelly Lake outlet, photo by Danny Gonce Paid commentary:
As you all probably know, AP&T has filed an application for a preliminary permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the Connelly Lake Hydroelectric Project (Project). We have read all of the comment letters that have been submitted to FERC as of November 21, 2011, and it seems like there are a few misconceptions about our plans. We’d like to take this opportunity to clarify a few matters regarding our interest in the Connelly Lake site. We have structured this as a series of questions and answers. Read more->
By Roger Maynard, on November 19th, 2011  Alaska Power and Telephone Manager for Power Operations in Haines, Danny Gonce, reports that the sudden onset of cold weather has made it necessary to begin providing supplemental power with diesel generators. Read more->
By Roger Maynard, on October 27th, 2011  AP&T Manager of Power Operations for Haines, Danny Gonce HAINES–The Connelly Lake hydro issue always draws a crowd in Haines, and last Friday’s Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Chilkat Bakery & Restaurant was no exception.
AP&T’s Manager of Power Operations for Haines, Danny Gonce, said that AP&T has applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for additional permits to continue studying the Connelly Lake hydro site, and the comment period for that permit is now closed. Several comments were received, both for and against. Read more->
By Roger Maynard, on September 15th, 2011  Google Earth rendition of the Chilkoot Valley, looking north from Chilkoot Lake, showing Connelly Lake. Notes by Roger Maynard HAINES has an energy crisis. A little town in the middle of coastal Alaska with high mountain lakes and running water everywhere, we should be rolling in surplus hydroelectric power, but we’re not. Instead, we periodically burn diesel to smoke up our valley at a premium cost to consumers. Even without the diesel surcharge, electrical (IPEC) business customers in the upper Chilkat Valley are getting soaked up to $0.61 per kilowatt hour. Read more->
By Editor, on March 24th, 2011 Deanna Garrison | KRBD
KETCHIKAN–Congressman Don Young says this month’s ruling by a federal judge reinstating the roadless rule in the Tongass would most likely prevent the development of future hydro-electric projects in much of Southeast. Young made the statement during a community roundtable in Ketchikan today.
Listen to KRBD report.
By Editor, on March 23rd, 2011 Associated Press
JUNEAU — The Alaska Energy Authority could create a subsidiary to buy, build, own, run or finance a huge hydroelectric project under a measure approved by the Senate Resources Committee.
The panel’s version of Senate Bill 42 now goes to the Finance Committee.
Read full article in the Anchorage Daily News.
By Roger Maynard, on March 9th, 2011  Haines power consumption: Hydro vs. Diesel HAINES–Monday’s joint meeting between the Haines and Skagway borough assemblies underscored a number of issues of mutual concern. Among the most important is just how tenuous is our source of reasonably-priced electrical power.
Presently, Haines receives nearly 100% of its power from hydro projects in or near Skagway. The day the Haines-Skagway undersea cable fails, all of this power will have to be generated by the diesel-fired power plant in Haines. Read more->
By Editor, on March 2nd, 2011  Rolls Royce The 102EX is also known by the name Phantom Experimental Electric and is intended to test the opinion and reaction to alternative power configurations with stakeholders, enthusiasts and the media. The vehicle is a pure test bed at this time and there are no plans for a production version of the vehicle.
Read more at DailyTech.com.
By Roger Maynard, on December 28th, 2010 The Chilkoot Lake Recreational Use Area Meeting scheduled for January has been cancelled until further notice.
If you have questions please call Representative Thomas office at 766-3581
For more info about the Chilkoot Lake Recreational Use area proposal, read the following from the Haines Alaska News: “Chilkoot Corridor Meeting” (12/4/2010)
By Editor, on December 16th, 2010 By Danny Gonce, Alaska Power & Telephone:
HAINES — Skagway has been running a little bit of peaking diesel the last couple of days. Our system peaks with this chilly weather has put us up in the 4300 kW range. Read more->
By Editor, on November 29th, 2010  Sow and two cubs at the fish wier. Photo by Roger Maynard This just in from Representative Bill Thomas’s office:
HAINES–You are cordially invited to attend a public meeting concerning the Chilkoot corridor, Friday, December 3, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. in the Haines Borough Assembly Chambers.
State of Alaska, Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation Director, James King and local staff will be in attendance. Read more->
By Editor, on November 28th, 2010 By Ben Brown | The Alaska Observer
JUNEAU — “Even Anchorage, Alaska’s metropolis, can no longer take its energy supply for granted, so I’m excited with this week’s news that the Susitna Dam Hydroelectric Project is back on the table as a viable and economically sensible means to address energy needs in Southcentral Alaska. It will also help encourage sustainable energy projects across the Last Frontier.”
Read more in the Juneau Empire->
By Roger Maynard, on June 28th, 2010  Salmon River area. Gustavus historical photo GUSTAVUS — The community is celebrating its new Falls Creek Hydroelectric Project, which came on line last year. Now its diesel generators have been replaced with cheap, clean and plentiful hydroelectric power. Gustavus’ diesel generators cost 74 cents per kilowatt-hour to produce power during the peak of fuel prices, with a more recent price of 39 cents per kwh. Falls Creek will bring that cost to under 20 cents.
Click here to read the entire story by Pat Forgey in the Juneau Empire online.
By Gary Lidholm, on February 26th, 2010 
There is much talk in the Haines community about the adverse impacts on the world-class fishery and wildlife resources of the Chilkoot River if Connelly Lake Hydro were to be built. Certainly these resources deserve first-rate protection. But how much would a hydro at Connelly really adversely affect the environment? Or perhaps, as some have suggested, could the hydro even enhance the resources?
Read more->
By Roger Maynard, on February 14th, 2010 Three weeks ago the Alaska Alliance for Commerce published a paid commentary in the Chilkat Valley News, comparing proposed hydro projects at Connelly and Schubee Lakes. Two weeks ago Rob Goldberg, Scott Carey and Kathleen Menke responded with letters to the editor regarding our paid commentary. Although we don’t intend to get into a tit-for-tat letter writing contest, we do consider it our mission to clarify facts when the anti-development folks resort to faulty assumptions and hyperbole.
Read more->
By Roger Maynard, on February 2nd, 2010 The Haines News poll posted here from January 9, 2010 through February 1, 2010 consistently showed strong support for Connelly Lake hydro, ranging from 79 percent to 84 percent during the time the poll was posted. The poll was not scientific, and respondents were not restricted. The poll was advertised in the Haines News print edition and on this web site. Read more->
By Gary Lidholm, on February 2nd, 2010 How do Connelly and Schubee Lake hydro projects stack up for feasibility study grant money in state-wide rankings developed by the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA)? Good enough to be recommended for partial funding but not in the first group of funds recommended by the governor.
Read more->
By Roger Maynard, on January 20th, 2010  Photo Map of the Chilkoot Valley, courtesy of Alaska DNR Alaska Power & Telephone has applied for grants and permits to develop Hydropower at Connelly Lake in the upper Chilkoot Valley. A few folks including a local environmentalist organization, Lynn Canal Conservation, have stated unequivocally that they will oppose development of Connelly Lake. LCC has already notified the Alaska Department of Fish and Game that they intend to sue to stop the project, even though they do not yet have grounds for a lawsuit.
In early 2009 LCC members suggested an alternative site, Schubee Lake, on the opposite side of Lynn Canal from Haines, indicating it has their support. Schubee has not been studied and there is little data to support this decision.
Read more->
By Roger Maynard, on March 6th, 2009 Senate Bill 31 encourages the development of Alaska’s vast alternative energy resources by offering power producers and utilities a valuable production tax credit for each kilowatt-hour of electricity they produce from geothermal, wind, hydro, tidal, wave, biomass, in-river, or solar energy. The program applies to energy systems capable of producing at least 400 kilowatts of electricity.
We believe this is the right way to encourage development in Alaska; This program would apply to AP&T’s Connelly Lake hydropower project.
We were please to hear testimony in support of this bill from the Alaska Conservation Alliance, Legislative and Communications Manager Sue Ely. Here is a summary from the energy committee transcript on February 12, 2009:
11:44:31 AM
SUE ELY, Alaska Conservation Alliance, Juneau, said her group represents over 38,000 Alaskans. Alaska is at an energy crossroads and volatile fuels prices are negatively impacting its citizens. Many electrical generation facilities are at or near the end of their life spans and will need to be replaced. Alaska should take full advantage of its vast clean energy resources. The governor wants to produce 50 percent of Alaska’s electricity from renewable resources. An alternative tax credit could help get there. Geothermal, reasonably-size hydro, wind, solar, biomass, hydrokinetic, and tidal can all provide stable-priced power. It can fill batteries in electric vehicles and warm and illuminate greenhouses to secure Alaska’s food source. Germany has already used a clean energy incentive to build an $8.7 billion renewable energy industry. It created 170,000 jobs. The bill is a strong first step in an energy plan for Alaska.
Lynn Canal Conservation, is a member organization of the Alaska Conservation Alliance.
Read SB 31 Bill Packet.
By Roger Maynard, on March 5th, 2009 On March 2, 2009 the Skagway News printed a letter to the editor from Kathleen Menke opposing the Connelly Lake project. We understand some folks have strong feelings about this issue, but when they publish false or misleading information we are compelled to respond. The following is the text of Ms. Menke’s letter with our comments:
No Chilkoot Valley Hydro
As Juneau faces its second year with avalanches wiping our their hydro power to the community, Alaska Power and Telephone is lobbying state and local officials for funding for a hydro-project in the Upper Chilkoot River Valley in Haines.
This is true, but we’re not sure what Juneau and avalanches have to do with anything.
Upper Chilkoot is a known avalanche area and also wetlands spawning grounds to wild sockeye and wild coho, and as such was designated part of the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.
It is not certain if the proposed dam is in an avalanche area, Read more->
By Roger Maynard, on February 19th, 2009  I’m not a biologist, and I don’t study fish, but since some opponents to the Connelly Lake Hydro project are predicting dire consequences to the fish and spawning beds in the Chilkoot River above Chilkoot Lake, I had a few questions. One of our local enviro-types has even been spreading a rumor that water flowing through a 6300 foot penstock would heat up to the point that it might hurt the fish.
Anecdotal Information:
A couple of weeks ago I received a call from a friend who is a long-time Alaskan — a retired logger who spent most of his career in the woods and by the streams of southeast Alaska. He pointed out that some of the state’s most productive hatcheries are located at the bottom of power company penstocks because of the ideal water flow year-around. Read more->
By Roger Maynard, on February 4th, 2009  Google map of area During the past few weeks some members of Lynn Canal Conservation (LCC) have announced their unequivocal opposition to Connelly Lake as a hydroelectric site. At a January ESC meeting Tim Shields told the Energy Commissioners that if AP&T decides to pursue the Connelly Lake site, “There’s going to be a fight.”
Shields, a director of Takshanuk Watershed Council, and Rob Goldberg, a past member of the LCC board of directors and present member of the Haines Planning Commission, have presented Schubee Lake as an alternative. In his letter to the Haines ESC, Tim Shields says Schubee Lake offers “solutions to almost all of the problems presented by Connelly Lake.” Goldberg presented a paper comparing lake sizes, elevations and other factors to show that the two lakes have similar hydroelectric potential.
The folks at AP&T, to their credit, have agreed to consider Schubee Lake and will look at it when weather permits this spring. Wisely, they will continue with the permitting process for Connelly Lake. In the end, it’s AP&T’s decision which lake is best. Read more->
By Roger Maynard, on January 30th, 2009  Yesterday Skagway’s Goat Lake hydroelectric power plant was supplying power for Skagway, and for Haines via undersea cable, when heavy wet snow brought several trees into contact with the transmission line along the Klondike Highway. At 6:50 p.m. the lights went out in both cities.
Haines was without power for several hours while the Skagway crew worked to get their other power source up and running. But when I went for a walk at 6:00 a.m. today, the Haines diesel-fired generation plant was running.
Before the power outage Haines residents were enjoying power at the reasonable rate of just over $0.07 per kilowatt hour (kWh). If it becomes necessary to use the diesel power plant for a protracted period of time, the rate could go up to over $0.23 per kilowatt hour — over three times the cost of hydroelectric power, due to the high cost of fuel.
The diesel fired plant in Haines consumes 138 gallons per hour. Using the EPA emissions calculation for diesel, we are pouring 3063.6 pounds of CO2 into the air over Haines for every hour of power generation.
Additionally, a modern high conversion fuel refinery will end up producing about…10 gallons of low sulfur diesel from one barrel of crude. So it takes roughly 13.8 barrels of crude oil to produce the amount of diesel we are burning per hour.
Now tell me again what is environmentally unsound about AP&T’s proposed Connelly Lake hydroelectric project?
Sources:
United States. Environmental Protection Agency. Emission Facts: Calculating CO2 Emissions. 30 January, 2009. <http://www.epa.gov/oms/climate/420f05001.htm#calculating>.
Yahoo answers. “How many gallons of diesel per barrel of oil?” Online posting, source not verified. 30 January, 2009. <http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080202063522AAMikd7>
By Roger Maynard, on January 21st, 2009 Economist Thomas Sowell writes,
“Many desirable things are advocated without regard to the most fundamental fact of economics, that resources are inherently limited and have alternative uses.”
No matter how much wilderness or open space we have, there still could be more. Yet an open-ended demand for more wilderness ignores the fact that some development could result in a net gain for people AND for the environment.
An example is the proposed hydroelectric project at Connelly Lake: By building a low-impact hydro project capable of providing plenty of electric power to Haines in the foreseeable future we can significantly reduce fuel use, air pollution, transportation of fuel (and therefore less oil spill potential,) and cruise ship emissions (while docked.) The net gain in consumer savings, increased home values, clean air and water, and reduced carbon emissions undoubtedly exceeds the environmental costs of two miles of road and one small power plant.
Sources used:
Sowell, Thomas. Economic Facts and Fallacies. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2008.
By Roger Maynard, on December 9th, 2008 The Haines Borough Assembly meets at 6:30 p.m. in borough building (firehall.) Read a copy of the agenda, or go to the Haines Borough Website to pickup a full packet of information for the meeting. Of special interest tonight will be the Haines Energy & Sustainability Commission report, and the borough’s legislative priorities for the upcoming legislature.
Interested in Hydropower? Be there.
|
|
| Chip Bok
bokbluster.com
Feb 21, 2012
|
Publisher Information:
Publisher Information:
Alaska Alliance for Commerce, Inc. (AAFC)
P.O. Box 784
Haines, Alaska 99827
Editor:
Roger L. Maynard
P.O. Box 784
Haines, Alaska 99827
editor@hainesnews.net
The Haines Alaska News is a public information service of the Alaska Alliance for Commerce, Inc., a grassroots movement organized to advocate for small business and a free market economy in Alaska.
The AAFC is organized under section 501(C)(4) of the U.S. Tax Code; contributions are not tax deductible. |
|
| Help us keep you informed.
See complete publisher info at the bottom left sidebar. |
"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left."
Ecclesiastes 10:2 NIV
|
-- 
