Alaska Native tribes have month to apply for federal energy grants

Alaska Native villages pay some of the highest energy costs in the country, most of them off the road system and off any grid, running heat and power on diesel that arrives by barge or plane. A federal grant program now accepting applications is built to help tribes change that — and the window closes July 16.

The Interior Department's Tribal Energy Development Capacity program, run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Division of Energy and Mineral Development, awards between $10,000 and $450,000 for a year of capacity-building: the legal and business structures, energy codes, and tribal utility authorities a community needs before it can develop or control its own power. All federally recognized tribes are eligible, including Alaska Native villages.

That eligibility lands heavily in Alaska. The state is home to 229 federally recognized tribes — more than any other state — with over 180,000 tribal members, from Ketchikan to Utqiaġvik and Eagle to Atka. And Alaska already draws an outsized share of federal energy help: the U.S. Department of Energy reports that between 2010 and 2024, 42 percent of all completed technical assistance and 28 percent of deployment funding from its Office of Indian Energy went to Alaska.

The capacity these grants build is what precedes real projects — the kind of planning that has let villages like Port Heiden pursue a hybrid renewable-and-battery system and Huslia stand up a wood-biomass plant to displace diesel heat.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who chairs the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, urged eligible tribes to apply in a June 10 announcement. Applications run through Grants.gov under opportunity number 362648 and are due by 11:59 p.m.