[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9737-9739]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

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      By Ms. MURKOWSKI:
  S. 1583. A bill to authorize the expansion of an existing 
hydroelectric project; to the Committee on Energy and Natural 
Resources.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation 
that will speed the next phase of a renewable energy project in my home 
State of Alaska, that Congress effectively authorized 35 years ago.
  Back in 1980, Congress in Section 1325 of the Alaska National 
Interest Lands Conservation Act, noted that the Kodiak Electric 
Association Inc., KEA, then wished to build a lake-tap hydroelectric 
project by taking water from Terror Lake, a high alpine lake, which was 
placed just inside the boundary line of Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge 
by the act. At the time KEA had wanted to build a 20 megawatt 
hydroelectric project inside the refuge to power the namesake community 
on Kodiak Island. Under the law, the Secretary of

[[Page 9738]]

the Interior was to approve the project and its expansion on a ``case-
by-case'' basis--the law simply saying that nothing in the 1980 Act 
``shall be construed as necessarily prohibiting or mandating the 
construction'' of the project. The Secretary the next year approved the 
power project, which started generation in the mid 1980's. A third 10-
megawatt turbine since was added to the project in 2012-13.
  Kodiak Electric Association, a rural electric cooperative, is a 
leader in Alaska in promoting renewable energy. In 2014, 99.7 percent 
of its total electricity came from hydroelectric generation and from a 
Pillar Mountain wind turbine farm--the first community in Alaska to be 
nearly 100 percent supplied by renewable energy sources. But that 
designation will disappear if the next phase of the originally planned 
Terror Lake project is not constructed, since the utility will need to 
resume burning more diesel fuel to produce power if additional 
hydroelectric generation from the lake is not permitted. That will 
result in the burning of 2 million gallons of diesel fuel--in a typical 
year given current electricity load forecasts--that will emit 26,000 
tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually.
  The new expansion involves diverting five small streams located on 
Alaska State lands in the adjacent Upper Hidden Basin--streams 
branching off the East and West Upper Hidden Creeks--and allowing the 
water to flow into Terror Lake through an underground tunnel that will 
be drilled through the ridge line marking the boundary between State 
and refuge lands. The project, which will impact about 13 acres of 
refuge lands, 3 acres being made up by the tunnel itself, will have a 
single visible impact, some grading for a construction laydown area on 
the rocky slopes above the upper end of the lake, and the ``natural'' 
waterfall that will result from water entering the lake from the 
tunnel. The entire extent of the project involves drilling a 1.22 mile-
long tunnel, about 2,150 feet by current estimates being on refuge 
lands, plus the diversion structure on the State's creeks, a water 
pipeline to carry water from the East Creek over to the main diversion 
structure located on the West Creek, and a related access road.
  The project should have no impact on the environment or wildlife, 
since the amount of water being diverted from the 4 square mile basin 
is so slight as to have no impact on fisheries at the mouth of the 
Kizhuyak River on the east side of Kodiak Island at Ugak Bay, into 
which the Hidden Basin Creeks flow. The project should not affect the 
wildlife along the shore of the steep, rocky lake. The project will not 
involve adding turbines or equipment to the existing Terror Lake 
powerhouse, as the project will not increase the maximum amount of 
megawatt production, but simply increase the annual total production of 
electricity from the power project. Terror Lake in 2014, a normal water 
year, produced 134 gigawatt-hours of electricity. By the addition it 
should produce about 30 additional gigawatt-hours annually, about a 25 
percent increase.
  The project, besides allowing KEA to utilize clean, renewable energy, 
should also enhance the utility's innovative wind-hydro integration 
system and further its micro-grid energy storage technology.
  While this project should be able to proceed by seeking 
administrative approvals either because of its ANILCA inclusion or 
because of Title 11 of ANILCA, which governs future rights-of-way 
requests, I am introducing legislation seeking Congressional approval 
to speed up the start of construction on the power project. Without 
Congressional approval, the utility will need to fund two environmental 
impact statements, EIS's, instead of one, covering the exact same 
issues, delaying the start of construction by years. With congressional 
approval, the project will still face the delay of the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission conducting a single EIS as part of its hydro 
licensing amendment process. The project still will be subject to any 
conditions to protect fisheries or wildlife placed on the project by 
the USF&WS under Section 4(e) of the Federal Power Act. But it will 
have to clear only one such EIS process, sparing rate payers on Kodiak 
Island a doubling of the permitting expense.
  This authorization will simply allow another phase of the Terror Lake 
project to be constructed, as it was envisioned nearly 40 years ago. In 
the 1978 feasibility plan, two years before passage of the Alaska 
National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the Hidden Basin Creek 
diversion was clearly outlined. ``This scheme is the most economical 
means of increasing the output of the development . . . and it can be 
built whenever the growth in power demand in Kodiak justifies it. 
Therefore, the scheme is included in the present report as a 
recommended future development,'' said the Terror Lake hydro report in 
December 1978.
  The project will permit additional clean, renewable energy to be 
generated for the inhabitants of Kodiak Island, but without any 
environmental or negative fishery or wildlife consequences. This bill, 
if approved by Congress this year, will produce that power more quickly 
and at less cost than will be involved should a lengthy, multiple 
administrative review take place. It is unfortunate, but in the past 35 
years since passage of the Alaska lands act, no entity has ever 
completed the lengthy process and received a right-of-way permit under 
the bureaucratic process set up by Title 11 of ANILCA. I hope that this 
project will not have to attempt to be the first to actually navigate 
the Title 11 right-of-way process in order to proceed.
  I hope Congress will quickly approve this authorization so that more 
renewable electricity can flow to the citizens of Kodiak in the near 
future.
                                 ______
                                 
      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

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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 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.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. KAINE (for himself and Mr. Flake):
  S. 1587. A bill to authorize the use of the United States Armed 
Forces against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant; to the 
Committee on Foreign Relations.
  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I am pleased today to introduce in the 
Senate, with my colleague Senator Flake, the first bipartisan 
Authorization for Use of Military Force, AUMF, against ISIL. The United 
States launched military action against ISIL over 10 months ago on 
August 8, 2014. It is far past time for Congress to fulfill its duty by 
debating and determining whether or not it is in the nation's best 
interest to order United States troops to risk their lives in this 
mission and vote on an ISIL AUMF.
  This bill authorizes the U.S. mission against ISIL for the purpose of 
protecting the lives of U.S. citizens and providing military support to 
regional partners in their battle to defeat ISIL. As stated by the 
authorization, the use of significant U.S. ground troops in combat 
against ISIL is not consistent with this purpose, except to protect 
lives of U.S. citizens from imminent threat. Other key provisions 
include a sunset after three years unless reauthorized; a repeal of the 
2002 Iraq AUMF; and a clause that defines this authorization as the 
sole statutory authority for the war on ISIL, as opposed to the 2001 
AUMF.
  Thousands of members of the United States Armed Forces have been 
deployed to support military operations against ISIL in Iraq and Syria. 
As of June 2015, the United States has conducted over 3,500 airstrikes 
against ISIL and spent more than $2,600,000,000 American taxpayer 
dollars on this war--a number that continues to rise by approximately 
$9,000,000 per day. Tragically, members of the Armed Forces have been 
killed in Operation Inherent Resolve, and United States hostages have 
been killed by ISIL in barbaric ways.
  However, while Congress has authorized appropriations for Operation 
Inherent Resolve and the training of anti-ISIL forces in Syria, it has 
yet to take formal action to approve this mission. Doing so is critical 
for reinforcing the leadership of the United States with our coalition 
partners and sending a strong message to our adversaries that the 
United States is united in the fight against ISIL and speaks with one 
voice in confronting ISIL.
  President Obama submitted an authorization for use of military force 
against ISIL in February 2015. And still Congress has not undertaken 
its most solemn duty and responsibility under Article 1. The American 
public deserves this congressional debate to educate them about the 
national security interests at stake and the advisability of this war 
and Congress should do its job by formally voicing its support or 
disapproval of the mission against ISIL.
  I am proud to join Senator Flake in introducing a bill to start this 
necessary debate. As we saw with the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, 
it is possible to find bipartisan compromise on even the toughest of 
foreign policy issues and I challenge my colleagues to finally come 
together to do what is right for our troops and our nation.

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