Fairbanks News-Miner - Begich Calls for Alaska Energy Solutions in Fairbanks

News Article

Fairbanks News-Miner - Begich Calls for Alaska Energy Solutions in Fairbanks

Under golden-leafed birch trees in Golden Heart Plaza, Mark Begich, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, said he sent letters Monday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, urging them to join in a bipartisan effort to tackle both short-term relief and long-term solutions in a national energy package to give help and hope to America's working families.

Congress must put aside partisan politics and implement a national energy package, Begich said at the Monday afternoon news conference.

"It's critical, now more than ever, to put aside partisan bickering," Begich said.

Noting the changing leaf colors as precursor to the long winter ahead, Begich said the skyrocketing cost of home heating fuel prices "is crippling many communities and stretching pocketbooks," and hospitals, schools and businesses are making tough budget decisions to cover record electricity bills.

Even with the recent downturn in gas prices, Alaskans still have the highest gasoline and heating fuel prices in the country, Begich said, forcing home owners to make hard financial decisions and forcing others out of their homes.

In his letter, Begich wrote that American families need immediate bipartisan action from Congress and the president to bring short-term relief from high energy prices.

"Americans will not be able to fill their home heating fuel tanks in coming months if Congress does not take action," he wrote.

Begich asked Senate leaders to:

• add an extra $2.5 billion in funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program;

• clamp down on oil market speculators and price gouging by producers and distributors;

• release 70 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve;

• double tax credits for energy-efficiency home improvements and allow employers to create pre-tax flexible spending accounts for transportation costs;

As for long-term solutions, Begich urged Senate leaders to:

• open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to responsible oil and gas development;

• accelerate the sale of leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska;

• provide incentives for oil and gas federal lease holders to develop quickly and supply the Alaska natural gas line;

• create an loan fund to retrofit public buildings for energy efficiency;

• offer low-interest loans to public utilities for transition to more efficient and renewable power generation;

• build vocational education programs that train workers to construct, operate and maintain renewable energy generation plants and transmission systems.

Three Fairbanksans backed Begich's energy urgency message with their personal experiences.

The Rev. Murray Richmond, chaplain at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, said he "hangs out" with the sick and local clergy and is seeing hospital patients who have gone off their prescription medications because of skyrocketing living expenses. In addition, Richmond said, local churches are feeling the pinch with contributions going down and maintenance costs going up.

Elyse Guttenberg told of her family's increased expenses — an electric bill $100 higher than the same month last year and fuel oil costing $2 more per gallon — and its attempts to reduce bills by replacing windows, shutting off the furnace and signing up for an energy audit.

"This is the conversation everybody is talking about," she said.

Real estate broker Eileen Cummings said the real estate market, for both buyers and sellers, has been hurt by the continuing energy crisis and it is important for something to get done about it.

Buyers are paying much more attention to previous fuel consumption and alternative heat sources when looking for a home, she said.

In his travels around the state during his campaign, Begich said rural communities have been particularly hard-hit by skyrocketing fuel prices.

When the last fuel barge comes in before freezeup, it is the price Bush communities are stuck with all winter.

Shop owners are worried about shipping products in with the high cost of transportation, he said.

Begich added that rural residents in some areas are taking on the challenge with a wind farm project under way on the Kuskokwim River and experimentation with tidal energy in the Dillingham area.

Source