[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 108 (Wednesday, September 6, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9046-S9047]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. MURKOWSKI:
  S. 851. A bill to provide for the extension of preliminary permit 
periods by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for certain 
hydroelectric projects in the State of Alaska; to the Committee on 
Energy and Natural Resources.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise to introduce legislation to give 
private developers more time to complete planning and financing for a 
complex of three high-mountain lake-tap hydroelectric projects that 
promise to provide at an electric power for Southeast Alaska and for 
the Pacific Northwest.
  Today, I introduce legislation to extend by a total of six years the 
time for developers to secure data necessary to determine the 
feasibility and prepare a development application for three individual 
hydroelectric projects, all located up Thomas Bay in Southeast

[[Page S9047]]

Alaska, near Petersburg, AK. This legislation will give time for 
construction of the estimated $75 million, 45-megawatt Cascade Creek 
project, the $56 million, 30-megawatt Scenery Creek, and the $40 
million, 20-megawatt Delta Creek hydroelectric projects to be built.
  The extensions are needed and justified since the three renewable 
energy projects can only proceed after a $30 million, 27-mile high-
voltage transmission line is constructed in Alaska to the U.S.-Canada 
border, after another $130 million is spent for 150 miles of new line 
are built in Canada, after $120 million is spent for 140 miles of 
transmission line upgrades are finished on the Canadian side of the 
border to move the excess power to Skeena near Terrace in Canada, and 
after portions of the proposed Southeast Alaska, Electric, Intertie are 
finished to also permit excess power from the existing Swan Lake and 
Tyee Lake hydroelectric projects, and the proposed Mahoney Lake project 
near Ketchikan, AK, to be shared among Panhandle communities and to 
connect to export transmission lines.
  The developers of the Thomas Bay project, Cascade, LLC., deserve a 
time extension since the company, so far, has focused all of its 
planning efforts on winning approval and financing for the vital 
electrical interconnection between Southeast Alaska and Canada, not on 
finishing the three individual power projects. The State of Alaska only 
in early summer 2006 approved a grant of $3.2 million to pay for 
planning to develop a comprehensive plan and review the economic 
feasibility of using several of Southeast Alaska's nearly 100 potential 
hydroelectric sites to provide power for both local needs and for 
export of the surplus power to the Pacific Northwest power grid to help 
with financing of the 95 megawatts of installed capacity, 410 gigawatt, 
power project.
  These hydroelectric projects all involve tapping high mountain lakes 
for power. They do not require the damming of fish streams, so they 
have no negative environmental impacts. They will produce electricity 
at substantial savings over the 40- to 50-cents per kilowatt hour cost 
of generating power from expensive diesel fuel in the region and they 
will also reduce the effects of local air pollution and reduce carbon 
dioxide generation through the avoidance of fossil fuel combustion.
  Congress routinely extends the three-year deadline for worthy 
potential FERC-licensed power projects to provide additional time for 
completion of preliminary planning, financing and design. It is 
certainly appropriate to grant these three projects that are so 
interconnected this additional time to work out the contractual and 
financial planning and to finish the environmental studies needed for 
construction permits to be obtained.
  Developing renewable energy that can be produced without any 
environmental impacts on streams and the fish and wildlife they support 
is an increasingly important task of government. This bill will help 
such environmentally-sensitive development occur and will help reduce 
the nation's dependence on foreign fossil fuels. I hope for speedy 
passage of this measure.
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