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Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska Legislature makes progress on aid package for ailing seafood industry
Commercial fishing boats are lined up at the dock at Seward's harbor on June 22, 2024. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) To help pull the struggling Alaska seafood industry out of its tailspin, state lawmakers passed some bills aimed at lightening the financial load on harvesters and advanced others that are intended to help businesses and fishery-dependent municipalities. The bills stemmed from recommendations made by the Joint Legislative Task Force Evaluating Alaska's Seafood Industry, which was created by lawmakers last year and which completed its work with a report at the start of this year's session. Lawmakers passed two task force-related bills, giving unanimous or near-unanimous support. One of them, House Bill 116, allows Alaska fishing organizations to establish their own insurance cooperatives. The other bill, Senate Bill 156, shores up the Alaska Commercial Fishing and Agriculture Bank with a long-term loan from the state to keep the cooperative organization in business. The bills pose little to no costs to the state, according to legislative analysis. And they are only incremental steps toward addressing the big problems facing a major Alaska industry. Multiple and often interrelated forces have dragged down nearly all sectors of the seafood industry: low fish prices resulting from glutted world markets, high operating costs, financial turmoil among processing companies, labor shortages and numerous stock collapses or poor returns tied to a variety of environmental conditions, including climate change. While Alaska produces about 60% of the nation's seafood, that volume is overwhelmed by international supplies and global economic forces, limiting lawmakers' options to respond effectively, said Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau. 'Our role is not as big as we imagine. That means the Legislature has only so many tools,' said Kiehl, who served on the task force. 'But you see us, I think, turning the knobs.' Beyond the bills passed this year, other bills resulting from the task force recommendations have advanced far enough to be approaching full floor votes; the Legislature works in two-year cycles, and bills introduced this year carry over to next year. Those remaining seafood task force bills carry price tags for the state, however. They will get some extra scrutiny next year, given the state's dire fiscal condition created by reduced investment earnings and lower oil revenues, task force members said. 'We are in new and unusual times where, you know, we have to look at every issue and try to decide if it's worth the additional cost,' said Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, who served as the task force's chair. One bill, Senate Bill 135, would increase local governments' share of seafood taxes that are currently split with the state government. Currently, fishery business and seafood tax revenues are split evenly between the state and local governments; the bill would allow the local governments up to 75% of those revenues. Some fishing communities endured steep losses from the industry's woes. The island community of St. Paul, for example, saw a drop of nearly 90% of its tax revenue in 2024 after key crab harvests were canceled, according to legislative information. To Stevens, the sacrifice of state revenue through a smaller cut of fish taxes seems justified. Local governments' troubles are likely to continue, he said. 'I think that it'll be even more apparent that we need to give those fellows a break,' he said. Another important bill that resulted from the task force's report would broaden the state tax credit granted to companies that invest in equipment to create new seafood products, adding value to the fish they process. The two versions of the measure, Senate Bill 130 and House Bill 129, both had been sent to their respective bodies' finance committees prior to last week's adjournment of the session. The annual cost to the state would range from $930,000 to $4.2 million a year, depending on different scenarios, according to the state Department of Revenue's analysis of the Senate version. That might be seen as considerable, Stevens conceded. 'But I think it's a fair cost,' he said. It could improve the fortunes of the processing sector and potentially result in more revenues ultimately to the state, he said. Kiehl has high hopes for the bill. It will encourage the development of high-end products, key to the industry's recovery, he said. 'As much as our seafood as we can put into a premium space, that will help,' he said. Differentiating Alaska salmon, for example, as a premium product is critical when competition comes from huge amounts of cheap Russian salmon harvested by fish traps rather than by small family businesses, he said. At the same time, there are opportunities for Alaska fish oil and fish meal to be molded into new products like nutritional supplements, Kiehl said. Those opportunities could be explored by companies investing in equipment to add value to the raw fish they process, he said. The budget that lawmakers passed also reflects task force recommendations for boosted state marketing efforts. The budget includes a $10 million allocation for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, the state agency that promotes Alaska fish products domestically and internationally. Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed a similar amount from last year's budget but has expressed support for the ASMI funding this year. An estimated 70 percent of Alaska's fish is sold outside of the United States, according to ASMI. To Kiehl, that shows the importance of the organization's international marketing. 'I don't see a point in the next several decades when Americans buy all of our fish,' he said. 'Americans aren't eating salmon roe or herring roe. Americans don't eat sea cucumbers.' Not in the budget, however, is any significant increase for Alaska Department of Fish and Game fishery research, Stevens said. That may be possible in the future if the state manages to bring in more revenue through tools like changes in oil taxes, he said. More ominously, the Trump administration has slashed positions and fisheries research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with potentially dramatic impacts to Alaska. 'That's really shocking,' Stevens said. 'I am really concerned when the federal government talks about cutting science and research and all the things that they do right now to protect our fisheries.' The state cannot replicate that work by NOAA and its National Marine Fisheries Service, he said. 'The assumption that some people make, 'Oh, the feds can't do it, the state will,' However, we don't have the money to do all these things,' he said. Beyond fisheries, Stevens worries about deep cuts to federal social programs like Medicaid. 'It's going to be an enormous problem, maybe $1 billion, that the feds walk away from. We can't fill that gap.' Other fishery-related bills in addition to those recommended by the task force are also pending. One of them, House Bill 125, would reconfigure the state Board of Fisheries by designating two seats each to the commercial, sport and subsistence sectors, with the seventh seat to represent the science community. Sponsored by Rep. Nellie Jimmie, D-Toksook Bay, the passed the House on May 17 by a relatively close 22-17 vote. It now moves to the Senate. A bill introduced by Dunleavy would expand ASMI's authority, allowing it to market mariculture products. The idea has received a mixed response from the mariculture industry; some kelp harvesters are receptive, but many key shellfish growers oppose it. The Senate version of the measure, Senate Bill 131, had reached that body's finance committee by early May. The bodies' finance committees are usually the last stops for bills before they put up for floor votes. The House version, House Bill 135, had not seen action since March.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska Legislature considers expanding University of Alaska's governing board
The University of Alaska Fairbanks campus is seen on Oct. 10, 2024. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) The board in charge of the University of Alaska could grow by one member, if a proposal passed by the Alaska House of Representatives is approved by the state Senate and Gov. Mike Dunleavy next year. House Bill 10, from Rep. Ashley Carrick, D-Fairbanks, would add a UA faculty member to the university's board of regents. If enacted, HB 10 would expand the board from 11 members to 12, with the new seat reserved for 'a current full-time faculty member who is employed at and has acquired tenure at the University of Alaska Anchorage, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, or the University of Alaska Southeast.' Speaking on the House floor, Carrick said the addition of a new regent 'will provide the university with a greater ability to fulfill its mission and provide representation to this key stakeholder group.' Alaska would become the seventh state to have a board seat reserved for a faculty member, Carrick said. Other states have non-voting seats reserved for faculty members. The board expansion would expire in 2032 unless legislators later vote to permanently extend the new position. Under HB 10, the faculty senates of UAA, UAF and UAS would hold elections for two faculty members apiece for the board seat, and the governor would have the final pick. Each member would serve an eight year term. The Alaska Legislature passed 33 bills during its regular session this year, but HB 10 wasn't one of them. The House approved it by a 27-13 vote on May 7, but the Senate did not hold a committee hearing for the bill before lawmakers adjourned for the year. It's in a prime position to pass the Legislature next year, however; it's been assigned to just one committee before being presented to the full Senate. In the Senate, the bill is cosponsored by both Republicans and Democrats, including one member of the Senate's Republican minority caucus, Sen. Mike Cronk, R-Tok. The bill didn't advance through the House without opposition. In the House Finance Committee, Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River, said she had spoken to every member of the current Board of Regents and none of them were in favor of the bill. No members of the board offered testimony against the bill. Rep. Frank Tomaszewski, R-Fairbanks and another 'no' vote, said he believes that assigning faculty to the board could create conflicts of interest. Early this year, the university reached a three-year labor deal with the union representing faculty. That agreement happened after extensive work and a brief breakdown in negotiations, leading to both parties requesting a federal mediator. Speaking on the House floor, Carrick alluded to the university's budget and contract struggles. 'Over the last decade, the University of Alaska has navigated some of the greatest fiscal and social challenges that have taken place in our state's history,' she said. '(HB 10) allows for better representation in the driver's seat to help make difficult decisions with the rest of our board members about our university system in its future.' The 34th Alaska State Legislature is scheduled to reconvene on Jan. 21, 2026.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska Senate passes elections overhaul to update voter rolls, introduce ballot tracking, curing
A sign posted on Aug. 18, 2024, outside of the Alaska Division of Elections office in Midtown Anchorage directs voters to the polling place inside. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) The Alaska Senate voted to enact new rules to streamline the voting process in Alaska and expand voter access. If signed into law, the legislation would update the state's voter rolls, mandate that the state pay for postage for mailed ballots, introduce a new ballot tracking system, and repeal a requirement that a witness sign absentee ballots, among other changes. The Senate passed Senate Bill 64 along caucus lines, voting 14 to 6 on Monday. The bill now moves to the House for consideration in the last week of the legislative session. Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage and a bill supporter, called it a 'compromise bill' years in the making at a news conference on Tuesday. 'It includes 12 different bills that have been introduced over the years from members of all political parties — Republicans, Democrats, independents, minority and majority members,' he said. 'Roughly 50% of the bill is at the request of the minority in the House and the Senate. So it is truly a compromise bill.' Wielechowski said the first goal of the bill is to update the state's voter rolls. 'We have 106% more registered voters in the state than we have citizens, and so it takes some steps to fix that,' he said. Under SB 64, the Division of Elections would send a notice to confirm address if the voter has: Registered to vote in a another state Received a driver's license in another state Registered a vehicle in another state Served on a jury in another state Obtained a resident hunting or fishing license in another state Pays resident tuition at at university in another state Receives a residential property tax exemption in another state Receives public assistance in another state If passed, the bill clarifies residency as 'as a place where a voter has a reasonable and articulable plan to return to whenever they are absent.' The bill would shorten the timeframe in which Alaskans are marked as inactive voters and can ultimately be removed from the voter rolls if they don't vote. It also would expand the list of things that trigger notices to start that removal process. Once those notices are sent, the voter will have a chance to respond within 45 days, or be moved to an inactive status for a period of 28 months, or two elections. In that time, a voter can confirm residency and their voter registration by contacting the division, or by voting. Wielechowski said the bill addresses the causes of ballots being disqualified, by eliminating the witness signature requirement for absentee ballots and allowing mistakes to be corrected ahead of Election Day. 'It fixes a number of issues that have resulted in voters' ballots being thrown out, particularly military voters, and particularly those in rural Alaska: There's a witness signature problem,' he said. Wielechowski pointed to House District 18, which includes Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, as having the highest rate of reject ballots in the last election. In the 2024 general election, the state rejected 1,303 absentee ballots, or 1.7% of ballots cast. Nearly 40%, or 512 ballots were rejected due to 'improper or insufficient witnessing.' That was fewer than the special election in 2022 following the death of U.S. Rep. Don Young, when over 7,500 ballots were rejected, with a third of those due to a lack of witness signature. If passed, the bill would allow for voters to fix minor errors, with the division notifying and allowing the voter an opportunity to correct a mistake before Election Day, a process called 'ballot curing.' The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, which advocates for civil and voter rights, has been calling for both items, and supports the bill, according to Michael Garvey, its policy director. 'We've seen it lead to completely unnecessary rejections,' he said. He noted that rejection rates have been higher in rural districts, as well as districts with higher proportions of Alaska Native voters. 'And so someone who's taken the time to fill out their ballot, put it in the mail, put a stamp on it, and a lot of cases to have that rejected, and then just to be notified that it didn't end up counting, that's pretty dispiriting,' Garvey said. 'And so the state really should have a way to allow voters to fix that small amount of mistakes.' The ACLU filed a lawsuit in 2022 asserting the state violated due process rights when rejecting ballots without notice or opportunity to correct errors. The Alaska Superior Court denied the motion in a January ruling, but said that the Legislature could enact a 'notice-and-cure system.' Under the legislation, voters would be notified of technical mistakes before an election and be able to correct them. Voters would not be able to open the envelope and change their vote, but be able to fix external mistakes, such as missing a signature. The division would notify the voter within 24 hours, by email or phone number, and the voter would be able to provide identification and correct the mistake by filling out and submitting a form. The bill also establishes a new ballot tracking system, so voters can be notified when their ballot is received and counted. It also provides for paid postage for all absentee ballots. Other new provisions in the bill include: Adding tribal identification cards to the list of acceptable voter identification in person and by mail; Removing hunting and fishing licenses from the list of voter identification; Establishing a new rural community liaison position within the Division of Elections to support rural districts, including recruitment and training of poll workers; Requiring that secure ballot drop boxes be available at every division office, and allowing municipalities to provide drop boxes in accordance with division regulations; Requiring the state to develop a cybersecurity program, and notify the public if there is a data breach; Requiring that absentee ballot counting start 12 days before the election; and Requiring the division to publish results for all rankings in the precinct results. The Division of Elections has estimated that if passed, the bill's new provisions, staff salaries and cost of paid postage would cost $765,000 in one-time costs and $190,000 annually. However, Republican members of the Senate objected to what they say is not enough security protocols to prevent opportunities for voter fraud. 'We have a moniker: You want to make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat,' said Sen. Mike Shower, R-Wasilla in an interview Thursday. 'I want to be clear that I've never said fraud swung an election. I said I want to make sure we don't have the potential for fraud, which I think the Division of Elections director agrees with.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Shower said he opposed removing the witness signature, without another kind of verification check. 'We suggested several things, like doing what the Permanent Fund Division, use their data, have two attesters… (who) under the penalty of perjury, would have to attest that yes, you are, in fact, her (the voter),' he said, and it was rejected by the bills sponsors. Shower also opposed several items, including ballot drop boxes, and has concerns about the language around residency and whether voter rolls are accurate or updated. He said he also has concerns that mail-in absentee ballots present a scenario where they're fraudulently filled out, and the division cannot verify the true identity of the voter. 'Who knows where they went? Who knows how many of them came back? We have no idea,' he said. Opponents of these proposals have pointed out that there isn't much evidence of Alaskans committing the crime of voter fraud. The state has investigated a few cases – the current system catches when two ballots are submitted for the same voter, which has been extremely rare, and can result when a voter forgets that they had already cast a mailed ballot. Shower said he's concerned about personal data breaches like in 2020, where an estimated 113,000 voters' personal data was exposed, and he wants to see the state take more serious security protocols. The bill is now being heard in the House Finance Committee and is expected to move to a full House vote in the final days of the session, which ends May 21. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Long-term efforts to clean air in Alaska's second-largest city are paying off
Smokestack emissions rise into the air on Feb. 7, 2025, above Golden Heart Plaza in downtown Fairbanks. Snow dusts the statute of the "Unknown First Family" that is the plaza's centerpiece. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) Just 140 miles south of the Arctic Circle, far from any major industrial or population centers, Alaska's second-largest city has struggled for decades with some of the nation's worst winter air pollution. Now years of work to clear particulate pollution from the air in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the approximately 7,500-square mile district encompassing the city of Fairbanks and its outskirts, is paying off. At issue are the pollutants known as Particulate Matter 2.5, minute particles no bigger than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. Less than 5% the width of a typical human hair, they are health hazards. They can become embedded in the lungs and even pass through respiratory membranes to get into the bloodstream and body organs. Since 2015, levels of those fine particulates – the majority of which has come from wood-burning stoves – have been roughly cut in half during the worst winter air-quality days. 'We have made tremendous strides in reducing PM 2.5 in the area, and I think that's something that needs to be acknowledged,' said Steven Hoke, the borough's air quality manager. Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Grier Hopkins remembers past decades, when clunker vehicles filled the streets and poured smoky pollution into the air. That problem has largely been addressed by improved automobile technology and the diligent use of plug-in block heaters that improve engines' efficiency in cold weather. He also remembers old boilers that belched smoke, causing some to drift from the outdoor air into school hallways and classrooms. Those boilers have disappeared, and the difference is dramatic, he said. 'While we can have the reputation of some of the worst air in the nation, it doesn't feel like that when you're here,' Hopkins said. 'I would argue it feels a lot cleaner here when I'm walking around than if I'm in Los Angeles on a smoggy day or something like that.' An important milestone came in the last days of the Biden administration, when the Environmental Protection Agency gave its blessing to the state's air plan for the Fairbanks North Star Borough. The tentative approval of what is known as the State Implementation Plan, or SIP, means that the borough will likely not face any additional air-quality related restrictions on construction or development at least until 2027. There are still improvements to be made. The borough continues to have occasional daily violations of air-quality standards in the winter. And there are continued state Department of Environmental Conservation advisories about health risks from particulate pollution, especially in the outlying community of North Pole, home to about 2,400 people, where inversions tend to be more intense. Over the winter of 2024-25, there were 32 such advisories issued for the borough. Because federal standards on acceptable levels of fine particulates are tightened periodically, more progress is expected to be needed to meet future Clean Air Act requirements. For Fairbanks, the air-quality challenge is stubborn, resulting from a mix of geography, climate and economics. Like other cold-climate cities surrounded by mountainous regions, the Fairbanks area gets enveloped periodically in seasonal inversions, with stagnant cold air filled with ground-level emissions becoming trapped beneath warmer air. 'The cold air gets stuck in the valley and the warm air that's the wind and it's coming in from somewhere else just rides right over it,' said Bill Simpson, a UAF chemistry and biochemistry professor who studies Arctic air pollution. Inversions are common elsewhere, in places like Denver, Salt Lake City, Calgary and Anchorage. Those cities, like Fairbanks, have contended with trapped particulate pollution during inversions. But Fairbanks' inversions are more severe, more concentrated and longer lasting. At this high latitude, there is little winter sunlight to overturn and weaken inversion layers, as happens in Rocky Mountain places like Salt Lake City and Denver. This far inland, there is no ocean breeze to disrupt the inversions, as happens in Anchorage or in Scandinavian cities. The lack of winter sunlight and lack of ground-level heat and wind compresses the Fairbanks inversion layer to only 230 feet or so, Simpson said. Layers in Lower 48 sites are typically at least twice that high, Simpson said, making their particulate pollution more dispersed. Once an inversion sets it, violations of the Clean Air Act's 24-hour standard for fine particulates often follow, Simpson said. 'When there's a really bad day, it's just really hard to avoid because the boundary layer is so shallow,' he said. Fairbanks inversions can persist for days, creating temperature differences between high and low elevations that are much as 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Levels of fine particulates within those inversion pockets, though much lower than they used to be, are typically close to twice the regulatory limit of 35 micrograms per cubic meter, according to the EPA. Inversions are a fact of life for residents, like the West Valley High School ski team members who congregate for practices and competitions at Birch Hill, the cross-country venue on a ridge rising more than 1,000 feet above the city. 'If it's cold, you don't go on White Bear. It can be like a 20-degree difference sometimes' said team member Maya Griek, referring to a long trail that loops down to the ridge's lowest elevations. While there are multiple contributors, from big coal-fired power plants to small local coffee roasters, the primary reason for Fairbanks' winter air pollution is relatively simple. It comes down to what people burn to stay warm and how they burn it. That also makes it hard to control. Fairbanks temperatures can dip below minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and residents rely heavily on woodburning stoves as either main sources of heat or supplemental sources and where natural gas options are limited. That is a contrast to cities like Anchorage and Calgary, where most indoor heat comes from natural gas, or Scandinavian cities, where heat pumps and geothermal energy are widely used. On the coldest days, severe inversions and pollution problems are most likely — and the desire to burn wood is the highest. But those are the days when burning is banned. Burn bans have been unpopular. In 2018, voters passed an ordinance stripping the borough of enforcement powers on air-quality matters. Enforcement of bans and other matters, as a result, is up to the state. That means the borough's job, as Hopkins and Hoke describe it, is to monitor, provide opportunities for cleaner air and encourage residents to do the right thing. 'You can't convince somebody to do something they don't want to do,' Hoke said. 'The best way to get them to do that is get them to see the benefits and then to convince themselves.' Since wood burning remains the top source of particulate pollution, much of that encouragement has focused on better wood stoves. Since 2010, the borough, state and EPA have collaborated on a stove-trading program that enables people to replace inefficient stoves with modern versions. From 2010 to 2024, 4,783 old wood-burning stoves were swapped out for upgraded heating devices, according to the borough's records. Officials are also pushing residents to burn better wood. Kiln-dried wood, which burns more efficiently and produces less particulate pollution, is an important element of the newly approved plan. Such wood has been offered since 2020 by a company called Aurora Energy Solutions. It has two kilns to process mostly birch, though some spruce is in the mix as well. Birch, a hardwood, is the main firewood source in Interior Alaska. Though ubiquitous in the region and readily available through timber sales held on state land, it contains large amounts of water that can make burning slow and smoky. The moisture content in delivered birch logs can be as high as 50%, in the form of liquid water in summer and ice in winter, said Susan Shopper, the general manager. The kilns, which are heated to 230 degrees, convert most of that moisture into steam that is released into the air. The resulting product has a moisture content that is no higher than 20%. The company aims for even lower levels that are in the teens, Shopper said. There is high demand in winter for the dried wood, which costs money up front but saves it in the long run, she said. But when it comes to meeting that demand, there is a seasonal mismatch. The best season for drying wood is summer, when the coal-fired electricity plant across the street has the most excess steam power to sell to the kiln operation. It generally takes 4 ½ days to complete a wood-drying cycle in the winter; in summer, that time is cut to two days, Shopper said. The worst time to dry wood, or to buy dried wood, is the dead of winter, when people want it the most. During the hot, around-the-clock summer daylight, it can be a challenge to get customers to think about stocking up on wood for the cold, dark winter to come, Shopper said. 'Processing and drying in the summer is very advantageous for us economically. But that's not what people tend to want to buy firewood, so it's kind of hard,' she said. While the characteristics of Fairbanks' air-quality situation make it tough to address, they also fascinate scientists. In 2022, nearly 50 scientists from North America and Europe gathered at UAF for a project to examine details of the borough's air quality. The Alaskan Layered Pollution and Chemical Analysis project, or ALPACA, was not focused on regulation, but the information has proved useful to agencies and to people trying to address air-quality problems in other far-north and mountainous regions that also face inversion challenges. For seven weeks, the group made detailed measurements of air quality and weather conditions at varying atmospheric layers. They also examined indoor air quality and the interplay between indoor combustion and outdoor particulates. Their studies have explored not only what goes into the air but how different pollutants react with each other once emitted, said Simpson, the project's leader. While woodsmoke is the underlying problem, emissions from other sources like power plants and heavy diesel-burning vehicles compound it, as different pollutants' molecules bond with the woodsmoke molecules. One important finding is that sulfur, a byproduct of diesel, oil and coal combustion, is a significant problem. Through that chemical bonding process, sulfur is responsible for about 20% of the particulate mass, Simpson said. Information about sulfur's proven contribution helped lead the EPA to propose a mandate for ultra-low-sulfur fuel for those businesses and residents that burn diesel. But state and borough officials convinced federal regulators that such a requirement would be counterproductive because the high cost of ultra-low-sulfur fuel in such an isolated market would drive some Fairbanks residents to burn more wood, even if they did so on the sly during ban periods. A compromise that went into effect in September 2022 is a state regulation requiring low-sulfur in the Fairbanks area, but not ultra-low-sulfur fuel. While regular fuel has sulfur levels of about 2,000 parts per million, lower-sulfur fuel has half that. Ultra-low-sulfur fuel, in contrast, has no more than 15 parts of sulfur per million. Simpson said that the compromise has been effective in reducing the sulfur dioxide. 'What we've seen is that the SO2 in the atmosphere is cut in half. It's really, really worked to clean up the amount of sulfur in the atmosphere,' he said. Could Fairbanks ever be entirely free of winter woodsmoke? It seems unlikely in the near future The particulate-free source of energy used for heat elsewhere in Alaska – natural gas — has limited application in Fairbanks. The borough-owned Interior Gas Utility provides liquefied natural gas that is delivered by truck to about 3,000 customers. The utility touts the air-quality attributes of natural gas with a simple slogan on its website: 'Breathe Easy.' However, Fairbanks lacks the grid connections and economies of scale that make natural gas the dominant energy source in Anchorage and other parts of Southcentral Alaska. To Hopkins, a wholesale switch to natural gas may be desirable from an air-pollution standpoint, but it is not realistic. 'The problem is even if you get a gas line coming through Fairbanks, you're never going to get infrastructure to a place that's the size of Connecticut when you only have 100,000 people in the area. It's too dispersed,' he said. The challenging atmospheric inversions will remain, he notes. So will the winter cold, which means the appeal of wood and woodburning will endure among many residents. Continued access to better stoves and better wood is a practical way to benefit both air quality and residents' pocketbooks, he said. 'People see that it works. People see the financial savings to themselves,' he said.' This story has been supported by the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous and compelling reporting about responses to social problems, SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska small businesses need investment, not abandoned contracts
Traffic in downtown Anchorage on Oct. 10, 2024. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) This week is National Small Business Week, a time to celebrate the entrepreneurs who keep our communities vibrant and full of opportunity. In Anchorage, we're lucky we don't have to look far to see that spirit in action. Just last week, a room full of small business owners, proud families, and community members gathered in Spenard to celebrate the newest graduates of Anchorage Community Land Trust's Set Up Shop and Indigenous Peoples Set Up Shop programs. These programs help entrepreneurs in underserved communities launch and grow their businesses, creating a ripple effect of community revitalization and generational wealth. But just as we mark this week meant to honor small businesses, the future of this work is in jeopardy. Recently, the federal government terminated congressionally approved grants that fund these very programs. That means Set Up Shop — a proven path to self-sufficiency for underserved entrepreneurs — may not continue in its current form. And let's be clear. This isn't about government waste or bloated bureaucracy. It's about breaking a contract. Imagine hiring a contractor to paint your home. They buy the paint, prep the walls, schedule a crew, and then you cancel the job halfway through and refuse to pay. Most people would agree that's unethical, and certainly indefensible. Yet that's exactly what's happening to nonprofits like ACLT, who were asked to do a job, only to see the funding pulled midstream. The work still needs to be done, but the government has walked away. We're not just talking about line items in a budget. We're talking about hard- working Alaskans who have done everything right. They've taken business classes, written plans, earned certifications, and opened storefronts, and are now left with fewer tools and less support than they were promised. When we don't invest in our own people, we pay the price in other ways, with lost jobs, empty buildings, and neighborhoods full of untapped potential. When an entrepreneur opens a new business in Anchorage they hire locally. They spend locally. They transform vacant lots into thriving storefronts. The economic return goes far beyond the individual business owner and it makes our city a better place to live. Set Up Shop has helped more than 500 entrepreneurs turn ideas into realities, and side hustles into fully fledged businesses. These businesses hire locally, pay taxes, and invest in their neighborhoods. That's not charity. That's economic infrastructure built from the ground up. We will continue to do this work, with or without the original funding. That's what it means to serve your community. But we could benefit from you being with us. If you believe in the promise of local business and the power of neighborhood-led change, we invite you to consider supporting ACLT and, most importantly, supporting these entrepreneurs. You could visit their businesses, share their stories and help us keep the momentum alive. Because when we invest in our neighbors, we all win — and that's just good business. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
