[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 96 (Tuesday, June 16, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4205-S4206]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. MURKOWSKI:
  S. 1585. A bill to authorize the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 
to issue an order continuing a stay of a hydroelectric license for the 
Mahoney Lake hydroelectric project in the State of Alaska, and for 
other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. 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.
  The entities backing Mahoney Lake's construction have spent more than 
$4 million on engineering and environmental studies--money in jeopardy 
of being wasted, if the stay and a continuation of the construction 
license is not approved by Congress. For that and a host of other 
reasons, I am introducing this legislation to extend the construction 
license and normal additional license periods under FERC rules for this 
project.
  Ketchikan, which recently received more clean, renewable energy with 
the completion of the Whitman Lake hydroelectricity project, likely 
will need additional power within the next decade. Currently the 
Southeast Alaska Power Authority, SEAPA, is conducting a review of all 
potential power sources. As part of that study the authority is 
studying the merits of a host of projects, including construction of 
Mahoney Lake. The authority, for example, is considering whether to 
raise the height of the existing spillway of the Swan Lake project to 
hold more water and generate more power. The authority is considering 
whether to purchase power from two potential Metlakatla hydro projects: 
the 4MW Triangle Lake or the 4.6 MW Lower Todd Lake projects on Annette 
Island. And the authority is also checking the potential economics and 
costs, including transmission lines, of new projects throughout the 
area.
  By this legislation I am simply trying to keep Mahoney Lake, which 
may be able to produce 41.6 gigawatts of additional power annually for 
the Ketchikan area, viable as a potential renewable energy project 
until that comprehensive review is finished in 2016 or perhaps in 2017.
  The three entities that currently hold the license for Mahoney Lake 
have certainly spent more than enough

[[Page S4206]]

on construction to meet FERC requirements that licensees show they are 
serious about progressing a project and aren't simply ``stockpiling'' 
hydroelectric permits/licenses. Cape Fox Native Corporation, 
especially, is deserving of an extension given its unique position 
under terms of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, ANCSA, 
Cape Fox was ``distinctly disadvantaged'' in its land selections under 
ANCSA because of Ketchikan land protections, the location of the 
Annette Island Indian reservation, and the then long-term timber 
contracts in the area owned at the time by the Ketchikan Pulp 
Corporation. All three issues prevented Cape Fox from selecting most of 
its lands inside its core selection areas. Arguably the Mahoney Lake 
hydro project site is the only valuable land that the corporation was 
allowed to select inside its core selection area, under the bill that 
settled aboriginal land claims in Alaska.
  This legislation will not advantage Mahoney Lake over any other 
project that may be considered to provide low-cost hydroelectric power 
to the region. But its timely passage will level the playing field so 
that Mahoney Lake can be considered on the same economic grounds as all 
other future power projects in southern Southeast Alaska. I hope for 
the bill's swift passage in this Congress.
                                 ______