Todd Pedersen had to hustle—the sky was scheduled to start glowing soon, and he didn't want to miss it. It was just before sunset, a cold February evening in deep-woods Alaska, and the broad-shouldered US Air Force physicist was scrambling across the snow in his orange down parka and fur-lined bomber hat. Grabbing cables and electronics, he rushed to assemble a jury-rigged telescope atop a crude wooden platform.

A rocky inter-tidal sweep nurturing sea life at China Poot Bay has yielded countless hands-on lessons for Kenai Peninsula school children on field trips taught by the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies the past 25 years.Its rich store of marine life - between 50 and 70 species of invertebrates - draws 500-600 summer visitors as well, said Marilyn Sigman, Coastal Studies director.And now the area is seeing additional traffic from people traveling there to harvest the marine life to serve at the dinner table.

Rep. Jay Ramras tried to have it both ways last week in his report on Alaska gasoline prices. While the House Judiciary Committee report acknowledges a growing gap in Alaska and Lower 48 prices in the last year, Rep. Ramras advises against any "heavy-handed" government intervention to lower those prices.

HEA turns crooked corner
Who are the people that have authorized HEA to outweigh its members? Can anyone in that fine brick building hear us crying out here? There was a time in recent history people were warned first of catastrophic hikes, but HEA warns people after the fact.
In this month’s January edition of Kilowatt Courier we were warned that fuel costs will raise our electric bills. I got my electric bill first, and thought for sure they had made a mistake. My bill was $120 more than normal (normal since July, 2008, which was already had hiked by 47 percent), how about yours?

People opening their Homer Electric Association bills last week felt some sticker shock, as Homer's kilowatt hours became some of the highest in the nation at 21.5 cents.

By Sean Pearson
Editor

As the rest of the world scrambles furiously to develop new technology for energy generation via everything from solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and hydropower, Alaska once again shows forward thinking and innovation by stepping into the forefront of expertise by ushering in a new era of coal power.
Or not.

Wow. We got our electric bill on Friday andwere stunned. We are well aware that our household has been consuming lots of kilowatts this past month, what with the holidays and the cold snap, but this was totally unexpected. In one year the wholesale power cost adjustment has gone from less than a penny per kilowatt to almost 8 cents per kilowatt -- it doesn't seem like much until you multiply it by those kilowatts and what you get will make your jaw drop.

Bush residents struggle to balance the need for food with the need for fuel -- the building blocks of survival in a frigid winter that has months to go. Some call for massive airlifts of aid.
By Kim Murphy
January 25, 2009
Reporting from Tuluksak, Alaska -- As the temperature plunged to minus-40 degrees last month, Nastasia Wassilie waited.

The 61-year-old widow had run out of wood and fuel oil, and had no money to buy more. Nor was there much food in the house. But people here in rural Alaska try to take care of themselves. Her sister would come to help. Surely she would.