Breaking Barriers to Renewable Energy Production in the North American Arctic

• Jurisdiction: United States,Federal
• Publication year: 2018
• Citation: Vol. 35

§ 35 Alaska L. Rev. 67. BREAKING BARRIERS TO RENEWABLE ENERGY PRODUCTION IN THE NORTH AMERICAN ARCTIC

Alaska Law Review
Volume 35, No. 1, June 2018
Cited: 35 Alaska L. Rev. 1

BREAKING BARRIERS TO RENEWABLE ENERGY PRODUCTION IN THE NORTH AMERICAN ARCTIC

Henrik Strand ^[*]

As climate change continues to affect our lives, the communities at the northern extremes of our world have witnessed the changes most profoundly. In the Arctic, where climate change is melting permafrost and causing major shoreline erosion, remote communities in Alaska and northern Canada are particularly vulnerable. Furthermore, these communities have limited access to electrical grids and bear oppressive energy costs relying on diesel generators. While some communities have started to incorporate renewable energy into their hamlets and villages, progress has generally been limited with the notable exception of Canada's Northwest Territories and some coastal communities in western Alaska. During its latest stint as chair of the Arctic Council, the United States outlined community renewable energy in the Arctic as one of its primary goals. This Note focuses on regulatory and practical policy solutions to make that goal possible. It draws on examples from industrialized countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as examples from developing countries, such as India and Peru, to examine solutions for the technical, economic, regulatory, and community engagement problems that Arctic communities in Alaska face when setting up new energy projects. Additionally, this Note describes the current political structure of Alaskan villages under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and argues that Alaska Native Corporations should play a role in developing clean, cheap energy sources for their shareholders. Finally, this Note argues that public-private partnerships, like the non-profit Arctic Energy Alliance in the Northwest Territories, shows that clean, renewable energy projects for rural Arctic villages are possible throughout the Arctic. This Note draws lessons from other communities throughout the world and attempts to apply them to the unique situations that remote northern Alaska communities face regarding access to clean, renewable energy.

INTRODUCTION

Unalakleet, Alaska is a small community on the edge of the United States. Situated along the Bering Sea, just south of the Seward Peninsula in western Alaska, this village of about 700 residents was once saddled by some of the highest energy costs for any village in the nation. ^[1] For many rural Alaskan villages like Unalakleet, energy costs have been astronomical, reaching up to one dollar per kilowatt-hour when the national average is twelve cents. ^[2] The use of costly and inefficient diesel generators that burn imported fuel during the long, cold winter months accounts for much of this expense. ^[3] In 2009 however, Unalakleet installed enough wind turbines to produce 600 kilowatts of power, thus reducing the village's demand for diesel fuel by thousands of gallons. ^[4] It is in villages like Unalakleet where "[e]conomics, not the environment, are driving a shift to renewables." ^[5] Therefore, extensive wind resources available along the western Alaska coastline have become perfect places to experiment with small renewable power microgrids advocated for by groups like the Renewable Energy Alaska Project. ^[6]

Rural Alaskans are not the only people who experience these drastic economic fuel costs. Colville Lake is a community in Canada's Northwest Territories that endured a power crisis starting in 2015. ^[7] Not only was Colville Lake one of the most expensive communities to power according to the Northwest Territories Power Company, it was powered exclusively by dirty, unreliable diesel generators. ^[8] Even though the community was spending over $140,000 on diesel to power a town of 190 people annually, ^[9] the power source was so unreliable that the community experienced an average of one power outage per week, caused by power spikes from events as innocuous as too many stoves cooking dinner. ^[10] Additionally, residents complained about the "smelly" air hanging low around the hamlet and the poor air quality caused by continually operating diesel generators. ^[11]

To solve this problem, the community banded together and worked with the Arctic Energy Alliance (AEA), a government affiliated non-profit society that implements community energy plans, to create a solar/diesel hybrid system that powers the community today. ^[12] The current system may have cost $7.7 million to construct, but the Northwest Territories government only paid $1.3 million. ^[13] The payment structure by the AEA promotes self-sufficiency and self-determination for villages without outside subsidy. Currently, the AEA works primarily in the Northwest Territories to coordinate between various governmental departments and agencies to provide a "coordinated approach to public education and delivery of energy conservation services." ^[14] It is precisely these types of success stories-created by partnerships between village tribal councils and governmental non-profits-that could be established throughout the Arctic if other countries can create organizations like the AEA, which enable Arctic communities to develop their own strategies for clean, cheap, renewable power.

Climate change has hit Arctic communities hard over the last ten years. Villages in western Alaska have even had to relocate to the mainland as their historical towns, built on spits into the Bering Sea, have completely eroded. ^[15] Additionally, as discussed above, many of these communities rely entirely on diesel generators. ^[16] Despite these crippling energy costs, the growth of renewable energy projects in these rural communities throughout much of the Arctic has been slow. ^[17] As chair of the Arctic Council between 2015 and 2017, the United States outlined community renewable energy in the Arctic as one of its primary goals. ^[18] This Note will focus on practical suggestions to make that goal a reality.

While there are many commonalities between Arctic communities worldwide, for the purposes of focusing on policy solutions in Alaska's villages, narrowing the scope of this paper will help eliminate variables irrelevant in Alaska. First, by concentrating primarily on Canada and Alaska, this Note focuses on common law jurisdictions that share similar regulatory structures and court proceedings, which do not exist in other Arctic countries rooted in the civil law tradition.

Moreover, within Canada, the Northwest Territories is most like western Alaska because the majority of the communities in both areas are isolated, roadless, and currently use diesel generators as their primary form of power. ^[19] These "energy islands" are the focus of this Note because they are the communities disproportionately affected by high energy costs and the current regulatory structure that favors large energy producers. ^[20]

In addition, both of these regions have similar levels of infrastructure to support energy improvements, unlike the northeastern Canadian territory of Nunavut, which lags behind Alaska and the Northwest Territories for programs available for energy development. ^[21] Yukon is also not a good fit as a comparison to western Alaska because of its significant hydroelectricity capacity, which decreases territory-wide energy costs dramatically and reduces the need for more investment in renewable resources. ^[22]

Even though the Northwest Territories and Alaska are similar in geographic and demographic make-up, they also have some differences. The Northwest Territories is not a province of Canada, which means that the territory can only exercise powers delegated to territories by the Parliament of Canada. ^[23] Alaska, on the other hand, not only has greater control over the policies it can pursue, but also has the native corporation structure as a convenient way to create public-private partnerships. ^[24] Finally, the United States and Canada have different political cultures, as well as different official postures on climate change and the need for renewable energy. ^[25] However, even with all of these differences, this Note will attempt to bridge the gap between the two communities to tease out solutions to community energy problems and improve the communities as a whole.

Because these areas have more significant similarities than they do differences, this Note will outline some of the legal and policy barriers in Alaska and use different Canadian jurisdictions, especially the Northwest Territories, to outline potential solutions to the current barriers. Part I will outline the current state of energy production in remote villages in Alaska and northern Canada. Part II will describe the various barriers to renewable community projects in the Arctic and recommend solutions to these problems by highlighting programs that are already working to ameliorate these issues in the United Kingdom, India, and South America. Part III will focus on the different structures that are currently in place in Alaska and Canada designed to help native communities take control of their energy futures. This section will begin by comparing the corporate structures of the native corporations established by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) to the Makivik Corporation in northern Quebec. Additionally, Part III will briefly discuss the AEA in the Northwest Territories as a case study for the proliferation of...