I ran into Dan Osborne the other day

and he told me that yes, in fact, the margin required on the G&T was not the 1.25 minimum required by the Regulatory Commission, it was higher, as they had presented, because of GVEA's own requirements. He thinks the membership made an error in voting the G&T down; I disagree--there were other things about the proposal that I didn't like, aside from the margin weirdness. My question to him was, if there was a requirement within GVEA to keep the margin higher, then why didn't anybody tell me this when I asked them, or explain the seeming discrepancy by telling me where the requirement came from? He wasn't able to explain that, but then, we only discussed it briefly and in passing.

Anyway, we are going to get together and he'll tell me all about it then. I'm hoping he can explain this business here, too. Even though the whole thing was rejected by the membership, I think it's important to know what happened and why, because a lot of people I've talked to feel like the board was attempting to get one over on the membership. That's not a good thing.

GVEA Districts 5 & 6 Elections

I'm inviting all GVEA Districts 5 & 6 candidates to be blog contributors themselves. To invite them, If they don't want or aren't able to do so, they are welcome to offer comments to this posting or any other.

My invitation to all current GVEA Board directors to become blog contributors remains.

News-Miner interviews of District 5 candidates

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner has interviews with the candidates, too, asking them about upcoming priorities. According to the article, the priorities break down like so:

•Bartos - taking greater advantage of alternatives to petrochemical power generation: alternative fuels, using state and federal programs that encourage alternative fuels
•Berg (the incumbent) - hiring a new manager, improving communications
•Pieczynski - maintaining infrastructure (looking at renewables on the way, even if not currently cost-effective), working on easements, adding more members to the grid (through greater transparency)

But read the full article.

Interviews complete

Jeanne Laurencelle interviewed all six candidates for the two open seats on the GVEA board of directors at the annual meeting, and the article will appear in the May Republic. The questions she asked (on the G&T issue and how it was handled; renewable energy; and domestic partner benefits) and the answers they supplied will supplement those found at the GVEA website.