A burning issue: Bush energy costs rising: utility costs now amount to more than a third of income among low-income households in remote places.

• Author: Colby, Nicole A. Bonham

As the promise of spring blooms on the horizon, Alaska residents statewide sigh in the relief of managing yet another winter-one that somehow seemed longer due to periods of occasional plunging temperatures and the high cost of household utilities. Although global oil prices have dropped since the highs of last summer-when most remote communities purchased their winter fuel stores-Alaskans and government officials have learned to recognize energy prices as chronically fickle. So even though Alaskans may get some temporary relief in their energy costs this spring, the overall trend is a general upward sweep since 2000, with some rural residents paying utility costs 50 percent higher than six years ago.

KEEPING WARM AND THE LIGHTS ON

On Jan. 9 of this year, the National Weather Service report summarized the Interior simply: "Once again temperatures across the Interior were very cold indeed." With Arctic Village at minus 44, Chandalar Lake at minus 56, and Tanana at minus 49, the cost of simply staying warm and keeping the lights on was no doubt on the minds of area residents. That even though long-term research shows that Alaska temperatures may actually be increasing. The Alaska Climate Research Center presents data indicating that, if considering a linear trend of mean annual temperatures, the state has actually warmed 3.5 degrees since 1949, according to analysis presented on its Web site. Researchers acknowledge, however, that viewing the data in such light does not tell the whole story. And regardless of such an incremental shift, heat and electricity will remain winter staples until the state warms a whole lot more. So while residents accept the volatility of weather trends and global energy fluctuations, they nonetheless still have to write out a check for monthly utility bills. There is little debate that those have increased, as well.

HOT TOPIC

Utility costs became such a hot topic last summer that two Alaska entities issued high-level reports regarding the impact of rising energy costs to Alaska residents. Both painted a serious, if not dire, picture.

"Households in remote rural places face utility costs 50 percent higher now than in 2000," write researchers Ben Saylor and Sharman Haley in an October report of the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA)'s Institute of Social and Economic Research. The report, titled "Effects of Rising Utility Costs on Alaska Households," divides the state into three categories: Anchorage, other large...