After a little down time, legislators get back to work

MARY NELSON

June 05, 2008 at 3:54PM AKST

It was great to be home with family and friends in Bethel for a little while in late May.

Congratulations again to all of this year’s graduates. I would also like to thank the Tundra Women’s Coalition for the lovely award at the Yukegtaaq event.

I am now back in Juneau for the special session and look forward to again having the chance to work on developing a natural gas pipeline project and solving the energy crisis in Alaska.

Energy relief package
On May 15, Gov. Sarah Palin unveiled her short-term energy plan to provide temporary relief for Alaskans suffering from high energy prices.

The governor’s press release explains the basic points of the plan:

“The package includes two parts — returning surplus funds through a grant to all electric utilities to reduce ratepayer bills and an Energy Debit Card for the next 12 months.

“Returning surplus funds through grants to electric utilities will result in a 60 percent reduction for all ratepayers. The benefit will flow to homeowners, renters, schools, governments and businesses. A review by the Department of Law has indicated that there should be no federal income tax consequence since the grants act to offset the revenue collected by the utilities themselves.”

The governor goes on to offer some details about her Energy Debit Card idea, playfully dubbed the “Sarah Card” by some. The debit cards will allocate $100 per month to every qualifying Permanent Fund Dividend applicant to spend on energy purchases such as heating oil, electricity and gasoline.

Money for children’s benefits will be added to the card of the sponsor, usually a parent, on their PFD application. Money unused one month will carry over to the next. Benefits received will be considered income by the IRS.

The total cost of the plan would be $475 million for the grants to electric utilities and $729 million for the Energy Debit Cards for a total of $1.2 billion. The governor proposes the energy relief plan last one year.

The energy relief plan is by no means finalized. The plan must be approved by the Legislature, possibly starting June 20 of the special session, which started June 3.

There are bound to be changes made. I will keep an open mind and carefully consider any new ideas; regardless, you can bet I will be fighting for the final plan to include some relief as soon as possible for the people of the Y-K Delta.

Just as I did after Rep. Bill Thomas’s $500 energy rebate was first proposed back in January, once again I would caution everyone to not assume anything before this plan is finalized. That said, I am still confident some form of energy relief will emerge from the special session.

Energy conservation suggestions
I am sure most of us in rural Alaska are already taking drastic energy conservation measures, but to be certain we are not missing anything I encourage people to check out www.alaskaconservationsolutions.com/acs/
conservation.html.

Feeling for the first time an energy crisis like the folks in the Y-K Delta have been dealing with for years, our friends in Juneau have recently cut their energy consumption by as much as 40 percent after an avalanche took out their hydro power lines in April.

Air discount for special session travel
Anyone planning to travel to Juneau for the special session that started Tuesday, June 3, should try to take advantage of this offer:

Alaska Airlines and the Alaska Committee have again teamed up to offer Alaska residents discounted round-trip airfare to Alaska’s capital during the summer 2008 special legislative session.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan members should have received an e-mail with a unique discount code offering 40 percent off three-day advance purchase fares on travel to Juneau when purchased through alaskaairlines.com.

Mileage Plan members who have not received an e-mail can call (800) 654-5669 to get their code. Just go to www.alaskaair.com, enter your code in the Discount Code cell and click on the question mark for a full explanation.

Discounts are valid for travel May 31 through July 7.

Rep. Mary Nelson, D-Bethel, represents District 38 in the Alaska House of Representatives. She announced in January that she wouldn’t seek reelection.