Sustainable North

From Alaska Dispatch, Tuesday, September 7, 2010: A state program designed to ensure that rural Alaska communities have an adequate supply of home-heating fuel is headed into its second successful year, the state reported in a press release. The Fuel Watch program is an initiative of Gov. Sean Parnell that was implemented by the Department [...]

[Read more →]

From The Anchorage Daily News, Sunday, August 15, 2010: As an Alaska Native veteran, I want to see our country expand our clean energy sources. It will help our planet and our state, it will help Alaska’s Native peoples and it will help our national defense. I am 69 years old. In my lifetime I [...]

[Read more →]

From US DOE, Monday, August 20, 2010: Last week as part of Vice President Biden’s announcement of 200,000 homes weatherized under the Recovery act, we asked you to send us your questions and comments about the weatherization process. Today, we’re following up with answers experts from the Department’s Weatherization and Intergovernmental Program: 1) From edmooney [...]

[Read more →]

From The Fairbanks Daily Newsminer, Thursday, July 29, 2010: A plan to transfer Fairbanks Natural Gas LLC from private to public ownership and truck liquefied natural gas to Fairbanks from the North Slope is doomed, according to an Alaska Gasline Port Authority board member. Board member Merrick Peirce wrote in an e-mail that the assumption [...]

[Read more →]

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Saturday, May 1, 2010: Fort Yukon could turn to wood-fired power to ease its reliance on diesel fuel. Tanana could install wind turbines and start using half as much fuel within a few years. The Alaska Energy Authority published those scenarios and about 200 more, including cost estimates, this week. [...]

[Read more →]

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Tuesday, April 27, 2010: Willie Hensley said this morning that Alaska, particularly its energy-starved rural communities, should think about bracing for tough times. Oil development and federal financial aid have left Alaska with great per capita wealth. They’ve declined in recent years, and Hensley, an icon in modern Alaska Native [...]

[Read more →]

From Alaska Dispatch, Wednesday, March 3, 2010: Skepticism about climate change is going mainstream, and that is worrying. One-third of Americans now say global warming doesn’t exist — triple the percentage of three years ago. This defiance of science isn’t just harmful for the environment. It’s also distracting us from growing threats to US national [...]

[Read more →]

From The Tundra Drums, Wednesday, February 17, 2010: Houses in Quinhagak battered by decades of fierce wet winds might soon be replaced by a new model that hearkens back to traditional Native sod houses. At a meeting last week, village leaders in the Southwest Alaska community accepted a preliminary plan for an energy-efficient home that [...]

[Read more →]

From Alaska Dispatch, Thursday, February 11, 2010: In terms of punctuation marks, Railbelt natural gas supplies are a bit of question mark, and fuel prices in the Bush are a big exclamation point. So, it’s safe to assume Alaska’s electricity producers and consumers would appreciate a little stability. At least one company wants to transform [...]

[Read more →]

From The New York Times, Wednesday, Februrary 3, 2010: President Obama moved on Wednesday to bolster the nation’s production of corn-based ethanol and other alternative liquid fuels and ordered the rapid development of technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of coal. The president is trying to expand the portfolio of American energy [...]

[Read more →]