Kodiak Assembly member says Navy would back grid funding bid tied to Spruce Cape project

A classified Navy project at Spruce Cape could draw 70 percent of Kodiak's electric capacity once it switches on, Assembly member Bo Whiteside told the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly on Thursday, Oct. 1. Whiteside said Navy Special Operations Command is ready to sponsor a federal funding application to help the island's grid keep up.

Whiteside and Mayor Jared Griffin reported on last week's joint borough and city lobbying trip to Washington, D.C. Whiteside said Navy officials gave a briefing on Spruce Cape but would not describe the project in detail, confirming only that it is not a data center, but an offshore underwater project powered by the Spruce Cape facility.

"I keep having to do the math, but 70% of our total capacity is going to come from that facility once they flip that switch," Whiteside said. He said the Navy's timeline is 2028.

During public comment, Carleen McChesney said she had gotten conflicting information about the project and raised it with the president of Kodiak Electric Association's board, telling him it felt "like being bamboozled." He told her the military "is no longer calling it a data center," she said.

Whiteside said a Navy representative welcomed a borough application, and a senior defense staffer for Sen. Dan Sullivan was ready to back it too. Neither the Assembly packet nor Kodiak Electric Association's website addresses the project. Whiteside urged the borough to move quickly with KEA, the local utility, so design costs are not paid through another rate increase.

Whiteside said he raised the same frustration in his meetings, including with Sen. Lisa Murkowski. "I'm tired of being told no when we're plotting the amount of defense spending happening in our community, but not a dime of it is going outside of the gate," Whiteside said.

Griffin said the Defense Community Infrastructure Program helps fund civilian infrastructure supporting military readiness, but Coast Guard communities do not qualify since the Coast Guard isn't part of the Defense Department. Sullivan is in his fourth year of pushing to change that, Griffin said, and Griffin said he expects the effort may stall in the House again. Murkowski asked the borough's lobbyist to draft a similar program for Coast Guard communities. Transportation officials pointed the borough to the federal BUILD program, a Transportation Department grant program that has funded port projects, for harbor needs. "So we have two pathways we can apply for funding now, and we should jump on those pretty quickly," Whiteside said.

Griffin said Coast Guard leaders announced "the over $300 million in dock and waterfront investment that's moving forward at Base Kodiak" the day of their meeting. Griffin said demand is growing for higher-density housing for junior enlisted personnel amid that base growth.

Griffin said no one came home with a check.