May 20, 2007

By Russell Stigall

Frontiersman EAGLE RIVER - Public feedback continued to be negative for Matanuska Electric Association on Saturday.

MEA held three simultaneous meetings Saturday morning, one in each of the co-op's three election districts, to explain its ongoing site selection process and hear testimony from ratepayers about the plan to build two new power plants.

The meetings were at three locations - Midnight Sun Family Learning Center in Meadow Lakes, Pioneer Peak Elementary School on Trunk Road near Palmer, and Eagle River High School. Another round of meetings at the same locations will be held on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Nearly all who spoke at the three meetings expressed opposition to either the plan itself or the process MEA is employing to fulfill the plan.

Eagle River-area ratepayers gave a lukewarm turnout at their meeting, which had to compete with a warm and sunny morning and drew only about 25 citizens.

Tuckerman Babcock, the MEA spokesperson there, presented the five potential sites the co-op has chosen for its proposed power plants - one coal-fired and one natural gas-fired - and explained the voting process MEA is currently encouraging its members to participate in.

The meeting was for public opinion, Babcock said, and questions would not be answered. Public comment was limited to three minutes for each speaker.

The meeting featured seven testimonials from Eagle River residents.

The first, former board candidate Will Alteneder, talked about the cooperative's plan to build 200 megawatts of new electric generation in the Valley by 2015. Of this, half is to be produced by a simple-cycle natural gas turbine generator and half by a circulating fluidized bed coal-fired generator.

MEA consulted international engineering consulting firm CH2M HILL before arriving at its power production plan, the details of which, MEA officials claim, are in an Integrated Resource Plan that MEA's management and board have refused to release to the public.

Alteneder said to avoid an underestimated price tag on the co-op's proposed power scheme, MEA needs to have its IRP peer reviewed so ratepayers can have confidence in the analysis done by CH2M HILL.

“Were their assumptions right? Does the math work?” Alteneder asked. “MEA has done an irresponsible job moving forward without having that done.”

Susan Ely, an Eagle River resident who holds a master's degree in environmental science said MEA is getting ahead of itself asking member-owners to pick a site without first asking them whether they agree with the plan to build new power plants.

She related MEA's rush to pick a site to a choose-your-own-adventure book.

“You don't look at the last page and make the last decision,” Ely said. “That is what MEA is asking us to do.”

The meetings run in conjunction with an advisory vote for MEA member-owners to offer their opinions about where the co-op should build its new generation facility.

Newly elected MEA board member Katie Hurley said it was interesting to hear the young speakers talk about health and values. Hurley will take her seat on the board in July.

The coal generator has spurred opposition from Valley groups Utility Watch and MEA Ratepayers Alliance, as well as from unaffiliated individuals. No one present in Eagle River spoke in favor of MEA's plan.

At the Meadow Lakes meeting, which had similar attendance, all but one person who offered public testimony also spoke against the plan, according to former MEA board of directors member Michael Janecek. As he had at the monthly meeting of the MEA board on Monday, Janecek said he opposes the co-op's plan at Saturday's hearing.

At Pioneer Peak, about 30 people spoke and all but one expressed opposition to MEA, according to Utility Watch founder Jim Sykes, who said the testimony focused primarily on what speakers said is the lack of a meaningful public process surrounding MEA's proposal.

As he has repeatedly in recent weeks, MEA's Babcock refused to comment further to the Frontiersman after the Eagle River meeting.

Contact Russell Stigall at

352-2267 or russell.stigall@ frontiersman.com