Finally after all these years there is something of importance to which I am in total unabated agreement over with Don “Billy Goat” Young. The Susitna Hydroelectric Dam project! This mega-project surfaced many years ago, as a means to provide engineering, earth-moving and construction jobs and eventually permanent jobs. It would have produced reliable and cost effective electricity for the entire state by powering up the grid from free-flowing water hitting the blades of giant turbine wheels. And with so much availability, the state’s triangular grid of overhead high voltage electrical distribution lines could have been extended, with tentacles to cover many outlying areas – except maybe Juneau. This project would have provided even more jobs, while reaching out all the way to the villages. In fact, it would have created hi-tech research opportunities, especially with the use of “DC” single wire electrical transmission requirements for the “tentacles”. This would have been a project for the majority and minority alike. Reliable and cost effective energy is key to building a basic sustainable infrastructure. So too bad Don didn’t exercise better judgment and focus on this hydro project instead of coconut groves. Actually he tried, but we failed him. That is why it is good to see that it remains of interest to him. It would have also provided a world-class recreational area. From sport fishing to hunting to bird watching to sailing to jet skiing, maybe even a Loch Ness monster fantasy routine. Like the Hulk Nesting monster of the Girdwood shallows, a.k.a. Ted “House of Horrors” Stevens. The Canadians have done this hydro stuff very successfully, as this neighbor country produces enough water-renewable-electricity to satisfy its population and at the same time sells its money making natural gas to guess who? So have many states of the lower 48 union invested in hydropower. Many countries also invest time, money and effort towards this type of renewable energy. Look, there is enough wilderness acreage in this state that redesigning the landscape for a piece of sustainability; it would have been well worth it. Sure it would have been a scar, but in time healed away as we all would have learned to live with it without a lot of un-necessary pain and suffering. And it would have provided unique wildlife viewing areas, especially for waterfowl. Now I have had the luxury to observe the migration on several occasions, right there in “Big Oil’s” backyard in Prudhoe Bay. Fortunate for me, I have been there because I work there. That freedom - the migration that is - is not and never will be available to everyone, so why not have it available in our own backyard? It is something that could make us all more aware of the wildlife that calls this Alaska its home! Sure the “controlled” flooding of the Susitna lowlands would necessitate a change of habitat for the moose and bear, but we don’t realize how adaptable these creatures are when push comes to shove. With a big new lake at our convenience by conveyance, it could mean family and remote campgrounds, bike-paths and buggy paths, something for everyone - including “cheap” energy. Don’t you get tired of going to the same damn camping places? Its the same thing year after year, including the same old assholes who think they are God’s gift to the fishermen. With a “Bigger Lake”, it could mean getting away to new frontier. And it could also open up more then enough Swanson River canoeing type getaways. In the beginning to end it could be man-made managed, thus creating more jobs. From biologists to fish and wildlife technicians – even firework experts. So maybe it is time to look again towards the future. The project is still something that could turn this state around. With Ted and Don making it clear and convincing that the slop bucket is only half full these days, wherein “pork” will be a thing of the past, this state must act fast. Think of it this way. Had the dam been built and electricity was boiling my morning coffee water - instead of now way to expensive natural gas - then the Agrium plant in Nikiski could still be in operation - thus keeping an army of operation and maintenance technicians gainfully employed. The unemployment office could remain closed! And there is a tool available, in efforts to get this project going. It is called eminent domain. So I was glad to hear that it is still a pet project under Don’s consideration. I must admit, I do go along with him on this one. And to think what it could do for this state, future needs wise that is. Sure enough with proper planning and deliverables consistent with realistic timetables, it could provide enough electricity to light-up and heat the entire state. The giant state of California has an economy equal to a separate nation, all due to the fact that it controls the water resources. Now this state will never be able to compete for agricultural rights, unless somebody comes along with a big "still" wherein potatoes are the main ingredient. “We ain’t paid no whiskey tax since 1792”! But with low-cost electricity and wide open yet to be expanded ports to the Pacific, there is no telling what “cheap” electricity could invite in. We started in the right direction, with Foreign Trade Zones, but it never amounted to anything worthwhile. Why? Energy costs. See, we have been dreaming away this states livelihood for 30-years by now, with the prospects that a natural gas pipeline will bring cheap energy. It hasn’t happened and it won’t happen now or in the near and far future, especially now that all natural gas pricing is tied to the Henry Hub indexing. No way in hell is “Big Alaskan Oil” going to part with our gas under their leases at some cut-rate bargain. So it is time to rethink this state’s future wants and needs. Sure we want that wilderness, but we need other things. There is a new generation of Alaskans that are gaining control of what was once a pretty routine down and out authority by a few and for a few. It is a totally different climate out there on the tundra by now. It may be time to put heat on the dam project and back up to a vote. The younger generation needs this project so they cannot fail where we have failed, with sustainability their success and this once “Last Frontier” weaned away from welfare. So oldies but goodies, let the younger generation make the decisions. And the fact that this project will not benefit Juneau – just too far away – maybe it is also time to move “El Capital of Crooks” where it can’t continue its corrupt ways and means! Right there down-under the Susitna Dam spillway, where not only water is to be controlled!
CopyRight 2008 – Dixie Productions/MSK Media/Eagle Rock Press
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