With all the moderate knashing of teeth regarding the proposed regulation of carbon dioxide by the EPA (WAY past time, in my view) and giving the responsibility for reduction to the states to work out, this recent article in the Alaska Journal of Commerce caught my eye. Maybe what the State of Alaska will kick in more money for upgrading tie lines and then require GVEA to mothball a coal fired power plant? Or maybe, not mentioned in the article, Aurora Energy would convert to natural gas? That would go a long way toward cleaning up downtown and still serve the core areas with district heat, but would certainly change the dynamic especially as far as steam goes.
Readers may recall reading about the various $900 million in recommended transmission improvements in a report from the Alaska Energy Authority. It didn't include proposed trucked natural gas in its projections, but is still draft.
And with all the spare capacity in the railbelt, there doesn't appear to be any crying need for Susitna.
So many moving parts.
