Management Advisory Questions Analysis
| 1. MEA
tells you how to vote before asking this either/or question. It
would be more meaningful to also ask about both local generation and
Chugach. Or perhaps a mix of local generation, cooperation with non-Chugach
utilities, or gathering power from other non-local sources.
MEA asked this type of question in 2007 and claimed "local generation" meant support for the proposed coal and gas plants, even though the plants were not mentioned on the ballot. |
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| 2. While
MEA makes no recommendation, the premise is that renewable energy will
cost more--maybe or maybe not.
The cost of almost all energy will rise, including coal, gas, hydro and most everything else. Renewables such as wind, tides, and geothermal incur no fuel cost. Adding together capital, operation, maintenance and fuel costs should be examined for all forms of energy. |
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| 3.
MEA
tells you the answer they want but provides no information on the upsides
or downsides of the limited choices. For example, ML&P is part of the Municipality of Anchorage with the lowest electric rates in the railbelt. Most railbelt utilities probably cannot succeed as investor owned structures. Co-ops can be good. Both Chugach and MEA have gotten into unhealthy processes unhelpful to consumers. |
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| 4.
In
general, oversight is better than none.
BOTTOM LINE: These questions, some asked very poorly and without upside/downside information about options, are advisory and nothing more. |