What a real energy policy looks like

in an amazing tone, how Palin has initiated and encouraged wind power in an oil producing state. 

Alaska produces more oil than any state except Texas, but most of it leaves the state. Small markets and high transportation costs have kept local fuel prices high. As oil prices spiked last year, the state’s coffers overflowed with oil tax revenue, but the rising cost of diesel and other fuels became a local crisis.

Gov. Sarah Palin and state lawmakers responded last year by pledging $300 million over five years in renewable energy grants to utilities, independent power producers or local governments. It is a substantial sum for a state with only 670,000 residents.

“Oil used to be cheap and convenient,” said Steve Haagenson, appointed last year by Ms. Palin as statewide energy coordinator. “Today, it’s just convenient.”

 The state already generates 24 percent of its electricity from renewable sources — almost exclusively hydroelectric — and Ms. Palin last month announced a goal of 50 percent by 2025. “Today’s current low oil prices should not lull Alaskans into a false sense of security, as if these low prices are going to last,” she said. (snip)

Right now Alaska is really the front-runner in wind-diesel applications,” said Ms. Dabo of the Alaska Energy Authority. “We take the steps from an engineering drawing board and really put those systems into place.” (snip)

The plunge in oil prices has caused some lawmakers to question the state’s ambitious investments in renewable energy, but Ms. Palin and others argue it is critical to push ahead. The Alaska Energy Authority released a hefty report last month assessing the feasibility of alternative energy projects in every rural community in the state.

Village residents, who are still paying high prices because of the spike in fuel costs last summer, like the idea of expanding the wind farm there.

“Jobs are scarce,” said Francis Sipary, assistant manager at the Nunakauiak Yupik Corporation store, “and members can’t afford to pay so much dollars the way the economy’s going.”