A collaboration between the University of Washington Center for Environmental Health Equity, Alaska Public Interest Research Group, Native Movement, and Cook Inletkeeper. Alaskans - especially low-income, rural, and Indigenous communities - face some of the highest energy burdens in the U.S., spending a disproportionate share of their income on...
Our two senators are well aware that "Alaska is different." But as Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan consider their stances on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, they should remember that the economic incentives shaping Alaska's energy infrastructure are, in fact, different – and not in ways that benefit their constituents. Energy burden is the...
The Su Dam isn't the way to energy independence – why is it coming up now? Electric cooperatives are run by leaders elected by their member-owners – that is, everyone who pays an electric bill. These boards are meant to vote on the direction of the co-op and to approve its major decisions. But when it comes to the highly consequential...
Thanks to our high latitude and the tilt of the Earth, Alaska has summer days when the sun barely sets and winters when it barely rises. As daylight stretches out, home solar owners are now entering their most productive time of the year. At the peak of summer, some solar homes can meet their entire monthly electrical demand with their panels....
The 2025 Homer Electric Association Board of Directors election is going on until April 30, but if you've been eagerly waiting for HEA to mail your ballot, stop waiting -- no paper ballot is coming in the mail. Instead of mailing physical ballots to members this year, HEA is emailing links to an online voting platform. Many of these ballot emails...
As members of electric co-ops, we have extraordinary power to shape our energy system. As Alaskans, we have extraordinary reasons to elect better leadership: complacent co-op directors are sleepwalking us into a costly and stagnant future. Between next month and April 2026, Homer Electric Association will rely on what is practically a Potemkin...
One month from now, on March 28, everyone who pays an electric bill on the western Kenai Peninsula will get their ballots to elect leaders for the Homer Electric Association (HEA). You will hold in your hands (or on your phone/computer, if you vote online) a chance to shape our energy and climate future. Use it wisely! HEA is led by nine...
The North Slope...
The Missed Milestone for Homer Electric Association — Ben Boettger 2025 would have been a milestone for Homer Electric Association. Under the renewable energy goal that HEA's directors set four years ago, it aimed to be 50% renewable by this December. Meeting this ambitious goal would have been hard and frankly unlikely. HEA was (and is still...
Our Modern Lives Demand Energy – So We Must Demand Energy We Can Live With — Ben Boettger For about 60 years, natural gas extracted in and around Cook Inlet has provided most of our heat and nearly all our electricity. The gasoline in our cars and planes is produced by the refinery in Nikiski, which primarily uses crude from Cook Inlet, as well...
