House of Representatives Passes KEA Expansion Bill

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

The Kodiak Electric Association is trying to speed up an expansion to its Terror Lake Hydroelectric Project, and the process is one legislative step closer to completion.

KEA wants to use up to 20 acres of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge to build an extension to the project. With that comes a lot of paperwork and authorizations, some of which KEA CEO Darron Scott says are duplicative.

Back in January, Representative Don Young introduced a bill to the House of Representatives to speed up the process.

It would allow KEA to skip certain parts of the authorization process under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and the Department of the Interior.

On Tuesday, Young spoke again before the house.

“Mr. Chairman, may I say that the [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] support this. There is no objection to it. It’s a solution waiting to happen.”

The bill passed 424 – 1.

But it still needs to go to the senate.

Scott says they’re pushing the project forward on the legislative side, but they’re also working on the permitting process as it stands – duplicative steps and all.

He says they’re trying to avoid the consequences of a delay, like growing energy demands and project debt, and the expansion is on a deadline due to weather.

“Terror Lake – it’s high altitude, the project where we’re gonna be doing the work is high altitude, so there’s a limited amount of time we can contractors on the ground to start putting their bid package together, and we miss that window of time, then you lose a whole year.”

He says, one way or another, they’re hoping to start construction by summer 2018.