As you descend into the neck of a funnel, the less maneuver room you have. This describes the situation now for consumers regarding Cook Inlet gas supply. Because of purposeful malfeasance or simple ignorance over the last couple of decades we no longer have more sustainable and less expensive options for supply of gas or for alternate sources of energy. This crisis was a predictable as the tides in Cook Inlet.
Southcentral residents use gas for space heating and as a heat source to produce electricity. While the infrastructure for space heating cannot be easily converted from gas, the electrical infrastructure is much more adoptable, i.e., your home furnace needs gas while your light bulbs only need electricity. However, as we passed down into that decision funnel those alternate sources of electrical generation are now unavailable on the scale we will require soon.
Successes has a thousand parents while failure is an orphan. Who in government wants to be the “parent” for this failure? Are Alaskans really to believe that consumers who relied on this failed government-regulated private business monopoly approach instead of a public utility approach focused on gas instead of profit are to blame?
Now as our government has pushed us to near the bottom of the decision funnel, with no other viable options, I understand that importation of more expensive gas is our fate. Standby to pay for this failed policy.
— Lynn Willis, Eagle River
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