Message from Joe Usibelli Jr. We need innovation, reliable energy for future of Alaska Editor’s Note: This opinion was first published in the Anchorage Daily News A nchorage IBEW business manag- er Dave Reaves recently declared that because of climate change, Biden’s job-killing policies becomes real for working families everywhere. Reaves zeroed in on the Fairbanks region, arguing that it must “move away” from coal, diesel and wood, and instead use liquefied natural gas and renewables. The oft-re- peated narrative that coal will be replaced by renewables or natural gas is seldom
Alaska needs to move away from using many traditional energy resources that it has relied on for decades. Interestingly, Reaves said little about the economic devastation this would cause in Alaska and throughout the nation. President Joe Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline has snuffed out thousands of jobs in the Lower 48, many of them good-paying union jobs. Meanwhile, Biden’s decision to shut
questioned. But how realistic is that? Fairbanks and the surrounding commu- nities rely on coal for roughly 30% of their energy needs, and there is no readily available alternative. Natural gas is not available on such a large scale, and if it were, it would be ex- orbitantly more expensive than coal. Coal is Interior Alaska’s lowest-cost source of energy and switching to other fuels would increase regional energy costs by at least
down further oil and gas leasing on fed- eral lands is estimated to wipe out around 3,500 jobs in Alaska, also including many union jobs. The IBEW endorsed Biden for president. Reaves seems to be practicing damage control as the pain of Mr.
JOE USIBELLI JR.
$140 million annually. Recently, when the University of Alaska Fairbanks had to decide on replacing a half-century-old coal
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The Alaska Miner
April 2021
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