Gov. Sarah Palin last week said Alaska needs to spend billions on new hydroelectric power, even as falling oil prices pinch the state’s budget.
“While lower crude oil prices are reducing the costs of energy today, we must remain committed to achieving energy security for our future economic well being,” Palin said as she released a new state energy plan earlier this month.
Alaska gets about 90% of its revenue from energy, and oil prices have tumbled in recent months. But the state built up about $6.7 billion in reserves during the oil boom, and the Republican Palin earlier this month set a goal of producing half of the state’s electricity from renewable sources by 2025, up from about a quarter today.
Local news reports said the clean energy goal would require the state to build a major hydroelectric dam. The Anchorage Daily News reported that the governor was likely to revive a plan to build a $5 billion-plus dam on the Susitna River between Anchorage and Fairbanks. The cost estimate is from the 1980s and is currently being updated.
The state last year gave the Alaska Energy Authority the money to begin studying the feasibility of the dam, and Palin this month asked the Legislature to merge six local energy utilities into a single utility that could undertake such a massive project.
