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Alaska

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This summary is part of Beyond the Beltway: A Report on State Energy and Climate Policies produced by the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law

 

Alaska is a Republican state, but at various times one branch of the legislature or the Governorship has been Democratic. The current Governor lost the Republican primary, ran as an independent, and then joined forces with the Democratic candidate, who became his Lieutenant Governor. The Republicans control both legislative chambers. This political backdrop, together with Alaska’s unique geography and resources among U.S. states, presents a mixed energy and climate policy scenario.

The good news is that Alaska gets 20% of its energy from hydro, as well as another 2.5% from wind, which did not really make an appearance at all until 2013. Half of its energy comes from natural gas. The bad news is that coal and oil burning account for more than 10% each.

Solar development is hampered by the shortness of winter days, although there is some distributed rooftop solar. Wind, however, has great potential. Alaska Power and Telephone has announced plans to build a 1.8MW wind farm near Tok, Alaska.[1] In many rural areas of Alaska, electricity is extremely expensive due to the difficulty of importing fossil fuels, so renewables are welcome cost-cutters.[2]

Alaska has experienced about twice as much warming as the rest of the United States. According to the pre-Trump Administration U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “average annual temperatures in Alaska are projected to increase an additional 2 to 4°F by the middle of this century.”[3] There are some obvious energy-related benefits to this warming, such as lower heating costs. But there are even greater negatives:

“Higher temperatures and drier conditions increase the risks of drought, wildfire, and insect infestation. Large wildfires have consumed more boreal forest in Alaska in the last ten years than in any other decade recorded, and the area burned annually is projected to double by 2050.”[4]

Coastal communities in Alaska face particularly urgent risks due to climate change, with some already forced to consider wholesale abandonment due to sea level rise and increasingly dangerous storms.[5] In 2007, Governor Sarah Palin appointed a sub-cabinet group to advise the governor’s office on climate policy. That group in turn appointed a task force on adaptation, which issued a 2010 report with recommendations for the state, although it does not appear much progress has been made on these goals.[6]

 

  1. Robin Whitlock, “Alaska Power & Telephone to construct 1.8MW wind farm near Tok,” Renewable Energy Magazine (July 4, 2016), https://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/wind/alaska-power-amp-telephone-to-construct-1-20160704.
  2. David W. Shaw, “What Rural Alaska Can Teach the World about Renewable Energy,” Scientific American (March 26, 2017), https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-rural-alaska-can-teach-the-world- about-renewable-energy/.
  3. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (January 19, 2017 Snapshot), “Climate Impacts in Alaska,” https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-alaska_.html.
  4. Ibid.
  5. Erica Goode, “A Wrenching Choice for Alaska Towns in the Path of Climate Change,” New York Times (November 29, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/29/science/alaska-global-warming.html.
  6. Adaptation Clearinghouse, “Alaska’s Climate Change Strategy: Addressing Impacts in Alaska,” http://www.adaptationclearinghouse.org/resources/alaska-s-climate-change-strategy-addressing-impacts-in-alaska.html.