A Senate committee has come up with a $293 million state energy plan - Senate Bill 220, the Alaska Sustainable Energy Act.

Anchorage Sens. Bill Wielechowski, a Democrat, and Lesil McGuire, a Republican, chair the Resources Committee, which developed the proposal.

Speaking with press on Thursday morning, the senators said much of the act follows through on recommendations made by consultants Black and Veatch in a massive report on Railbelt energy issues released in December.

There's a bit of everything in the package, which doesn't so much create anything new, but instead lines out where the senators think more state money should go.

McGuire took great care in noting that neither she nor Wielechowski are chairmen on Senate Finance, which would typically recommend project-specific spending. That title goes to Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, also a resources committee member, and Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel.
Stedman advocates additional attention for Southeast hydro projects and electric grid interties, which are addressed in the Wielechowski-McGuire plan. And Hoffman leads a group of Bush lawmakers who fight hard each year for dollars in the Power Cost Equalization program, which offsets unimaginably high electricity prices in rural areas. Full funding for PCE is also included in this omnibus bill.

Some of the myriad energy bills either left over from last session or recently filed weren't included in the omnibus. Wielechowski said those could be incorporated into the bigger package.

And what about in-state natural gas?

We'll have to see. It's not specifically included, but the governor's budget includes continued funding for studies. Wielechowski weighed in with this: a bullet line is a great idea, if it truly delivers gas at affordable prices. There's a real question lingering as to whether an in-state line would have solid economics without significant state subsidies.

Their take seems to be that Alaska could enjoy electric power from renewable resources at low cost, and use its non-renewable resources like natural gas to create value-added products - think petrochemicals or liquid petroleum products - that feed the state's treasury.