Category Archives: Legislation and Policy

Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly to debate air quality agreement

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Tuesday, January 12, 2010:

An air quality agreement between the state and borough goes before the Borough Assembly for approval on Thursday.

The agreement provides little detail on how the borough will reduce air pollution but paves the way for an air quality plan led by the municipality instead of the state.

The federal government has put the Fairbanks North Star Borough on notice that levels of a pollutant known as PM 2.5 must be brought down by 2014. Studies show too much exposure to the pollutant can make people sick.

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E.P.A. Seeks Stricter Rules to Curb Smog

From The New York Times, Thursday, January 7, 2010:

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed a stricter standard for smog-causing pollutants that would bring substantial health benefits to millions of Americans while imposing large costs on industry and local governments.

The standard would replace one set by the Bush administration in March 2008, which has been challenged in court by state officials and environmental advocates as too weak to adequately protect human health and the environment.

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Parnell says delay greenhouse gas rule

From The Associated Press, Saturday, January 2, 2010:

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell wants the Environmental Protection Agency to halt its effort to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

In a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Parnell says the proposed regulations would bury Alaska’s businesses, institutions and state environmental agencies in paperwork without accomplishing its goal.

Parnell says he wants the EPA to wait on the rules until Congress comes up with a solution to the greenhouse gas problem.

Rogers: Climate policy not realistic for UAF

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Sunday, November 22, 2009:

Hundreds of university chancellors and presidents have signed a pledge to steer their campuses toward a climate neutral policy on greenhouse gas emissions, but don’t expect the University of Alaska Fairbanks to join them anytime soon.

Chancellor Brian Rogers said he’s been asked by students and faculty to sign the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, but he doesn’t think it’s a realistic goal for a campus in an extreme cold-weather environment.

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Energy plan calls for unifying electric utilities

From Alaska Dispatch, Monday, November 9, 2009:

State energy planners expect a 50-year economic plan for the Railbelt’s six electric utilities to help make the case for major cooperation on power generation and transmission.

Due out at the end of November, the plan — called the Railbelt Integrated Resource Plan — offers a roadmap for building up electric generation and transmission infrastructure through the state’s most populous region. The plan pinpoints the best options for future infrastructure with minimum long-term costs to rate payers, Alaska Energy Authority project manager Jim Strandberg said.

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The Pursuit of New Ways to Boost Solar Development

From YALE environment 360, Monday, November 9, 2009:

The solar power boom in Germany, Spain, and parts of the United States has been fueled by government subsidies. But now some U.S. states — led by New Jersey, of all places — are pioneering a different approach: issuing tradable credits that can be sold on the open market. So far, the results have been promising.

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Climate Bill Must Be Strengthened to Spur Investment in Energy Efficiency to Save Consumers $Billions, Create Millions of New Jobs, Support Robust Economy

Released by the American Council for an Energy Efficient-Economy (ACEEE), Tuesday, October 27, 2009:

Climate Change Policy as an Economic Redevelopment Opportunity: The Role of Productive Investments in Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions offers critical insights about climate legislation just as U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), introduces her new climate bill and hosts a week of hearings.

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Questions Linger Over Energy Star Ratings

From NPR, Thursday, October 22, 2009:

Energy Stars are those blue stickers that are supposed to help you choose the most energy-efficient appliances, TVs and other power-hungry gadgets. More than one-third of Americans use them to pick products, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which runs the program with the Energy Department.

The government says Energy Star is working so well that last year it helped Americans save the same amount of greenhouse gas pollution as is produced by 29 million cars.

But for years, critics have pointed to several flaws in the program that raise doubts about the reliability of Energy Star ratings. For instance, side-by-side and French-door refrigerators can get Energy Stars even though they use a lot more electricity than do fridges with freezers on the top. That’s because the government splits up various types of refrigerators into different categories and judges each separately.

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Disabled to get funds for Energy Star items

From the Anchorage Daily News on Friday, October 16, 2009:

The Alaska Housing Finance Corp. is preparing to divvy out Alaska’s comparatively small share of $300 million in federal stimulus m