Dunleavy signs bills aimed at modernizing energy production and delivery in Alaska’s Railbelt • Alaska Beacon

Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday signed three energy bills passed by the Legislature in response to looming energy shortages and delivery problems in the state’s most populous region.

Dunleavy said the bills are part of a wider strategy of modernizing Alaska’s energy portfolio and systems of delivery, making them more diverse and dependable.

“Over the past two years, we’ve passed several bills that will transform Alaska’s ability to tap into its world-class energy for decades to come,” the governor said at the signing ceremony, held at the Alaska Energy Authority office in Anchorage.

The first measure he signed into law on Wednesday was House Bill 50, which started out as legislation authorizing the state to make money by capturing, storing and sequestering carbon gases but was expanded as elements of other energy bills were added.

The carbon-capture section of the bill creates a regulatory framework for that enterprise, and the mature Cook Inlet oil and gas basin, in Southcentral Alaska, is the region most likely to first serve that purpose, Dunleavy said.

Another part of the bill concerns the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. That section expands the commission’s jurisdiction to include natural gas storage. The bill also authorizes a system of reserve-based lending, through which the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority would be able to help finance known natural gas fields in Cook Inlet that currently lack the investment they need to be developed. The bill also modifies the state’s geothermal leasing program, allowing for larger total lease holdings and making other changes intended to induce more development.

The newly signed bill largely focuses on Southcentral Alaska’s Cook Inlet, with good reason, Dunleavy said. Alaska’s oldest producing oil and gas region, with its towering volcanoes, dramatic tides and other natural resources, is teeming with renewable and traditional fossil fuel potential, he said.

“This Cook Inlet probably is the most energy-rich basin on the planet. Within 50 miles you have gas, oil, geothermal, tidal, coal, onshore wind, offshore wind. It’s tremendous,” he said.

The second bill Dunleavy signed on Wednesday, House Bill 307, consolidates management of the energy transmission system that serves Alaska’s Railbelt, the corridor that runs from Fairbanks to the Kenai Peninsula. The bill eliminates “wheeling rates,” the charges added for energy as it is transported between segments of the system. Through an expanded tax exemption and other provisions, it also aims to open access to the system to energy produced by independent producers like solar farms.

Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, said energy experts have been hoping since the mid-20th century to establish such a unified system for the Railbelt.

“Here we are, 70 years later, and we’re finally accomplishing something,” said Giessel, who was one of the legislators speaking at the bill-signing ceremony.

The bill “represents unity,” she said, reflecting interests, concerns and recommendations from a widely diverse group of energy producers, utilities, consumer advocates, labor advocates and others. 

“Alaskans have to come together to unify in our vision, or we’re not going to get things accomplished,” she said.

The third energy measure that Dunleavy signed on Wednesday was House Bill 273, which creates an energy fund as a subsidiary of the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. The Alaska Energy Independence Fund is intended to help finance sustainable energy to benefit homeowners and businesses and attract federal money available through the Inflation Reduction Act.