Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation needed to provide additional options for how Ketchikan and parts of Southeast Alaska can receive additional clean, renewable electricity in the future. Today I am introducing legislation being requested by Cape Fox Native Corp. of Ketchikan, Alaska Power & Telephone Co., and the City of Saxman to extend a 2002 stay on the hydroelectric construction license for the Mahoney Lake project. This bill will effectively require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to grant another 10- year extension of the construction license for the project proposed northeast of downtown Ketchikan, in hopes that greater clarity will be obtained within the next decade on how to supply power to the region in the future. Mahoney Lake was first proposed as a 9.6-megawatt, MW, lake-tap hydroelectric project in the early 1990s. By 2002 the sponsors had not received a power purchase agreement, PPA, and had exhausted the then allowed FERC extensions of their construction license. In June 2002 they asked former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens to win legislative approval of a stay so they wouldn't lose the license. Effectively, they wanted the license expiration to be stayed until after completion of the then proposed Swan-Tyee electrical transmission intertie--in hopes that such completion would clarify future electrical needs in the community. That project has since been finished, triggering the potential end of the 2002 license stay.…”