Alaska News Daily Brief, Thursday, October 29

Alaska News, Thursday, October twenty-ninth. This morning's brief spans hours to decades: snow that fell overnight, a shelved dam coming back up for a vote, and road plans meant to last until twenty fifty. Five days out from the election, state police have been told to look into who got whom onto the Senate ballot. And the Parks Highway is about to get buried.

0:26Dunleavy orders state investigation after Times report on second Dan Sullivan

Governor Mike Dunleavy has ordered the Alaska Department of Public Safety to investigate whether an effort to recruit spoiler candidates into Alaska's U.S. Senate race broke state law. Spoiler candidates are ones meant to pull votes away from a rival. The effort includes Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired Petersburg teacher who shares a name with Senator Dan Sullivan. Dunleavy announced the investigation yesterday on Facebook. It followed a New York Times report that aides to Democrat Mary Peltola worked with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on what they called a ballot composition project. The governor says the department will look at whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted. His post didn't name anyone, or say which laws might have been broken. Peltola's campaign says it had no involvement with either Sullivan campaign and didn't recruit any candidates. The Democratic committee denies it too, and Daniel J. Sullivan has said he got into the race on his own. The state already tried to keep the Petersburg man off the ballot back in June. The Division of Elections rejected his filing as not made in good faith. But a Superior Court judge said that good faith test isn't anywhere in state law. The Alaska Supreme Court agreed, and Daniel J. Sullivan went back on the ballot. The Times also noted that stacking a ballot is common and generally legal. Both parties have done it in Alaska. The U.S. Justice Department cited the same report yesterday. Its federal lawsuit asks a judge to hold up certification if Senator Sullivan loses but would have won with the other Sullivan's votes. The Justice Department now says it'll ask a judge to let it get evidence from the Peltola campaign on a fast track. Election Day is Tuesday.

2:09Comments close Friday on Mat-Su plan setting which roads can get federal money

In the Mat-Su, tomorrow is the last day to comment on the Valley's first long-range federal transportation plan. It's called MatSu 2050. It decides which road, path and transit projects can get federal money through twenty fifty. A project has to be on that list to get federal dollars. And without an adopted plan, the Valley loses access to that money. The Valley needs this plan because the 2020 Census counted more than 50,000 people in the core area around Palmer and Wasilla. That size triggered its own federal planning agency. The draft counts 4,250 crashes there from twenty eighteen to 2022, including 37 that were fatal. Palmer Mayor Jim Cooper chairs the agency's board. "We sit in traffic where we never used to," he wrote in the draft. The biggest near-term projects are a Parks Highway interchange at the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, at about one hundred thirty-five million dollars, and a rebuild of the Parks from Seward Meridian to Church Road, at about ninety-two million dollars. In August, at the borough's request, the board voted 5 to 2 to push walking paths at Knik-Goose Bay and Finger Lake elementary schools onto the long-term list. Three borough road projects took their place. Borough staff said the Assembly would see twenty-four million dollars in pathway projects as out of proportion. Cooper voted no, saying a borough priority isn't necessarily a Palmer or Wasilla priority. Comments go through the agency's website. The board plans to adopt the plan in December.

3:56Winter storm could drop up to 15 inches on the Parks Highway through Broad Pass

Up the Parks Highway, the National Weather Service has a winter storm warning out for Broad Pass. Forecasters expect 7 to 15 inches of snow there. The warning runs from 1 this afternoon until 2 tomorrow afternoon. Light snow overnight could have left 3 to 6 inches by this morning. The heaviest snow is expected tonight into tomorrow morning. The warning says travel could be very difficult, with snow piling up fast. Visibility could drop to a quarter mile or less. Temperatures are expected to climb above freezing tomorrow afternoon. That could mix the snow with rain or turn it to rain. Farther south, there's a winter weather advisory for the Susitna Valley from around Willow north to the Talkeetna Spur Road. It runs until 1 this afternoon. Up to 2 inches of snow and a tenth of an inch of ice could make this morning's commute slick, especially on bridges and overpasses. Freezing rain is most likely around Willow. It's the latest rough stretch for that corridor. Troopers warned of hard driving near Cantwell on Monday. Earlier this month, the state urged drivers to stay off the highway from Talkeetna to Cantwell. The state's 511 road conditions service has the latest.

5:08Fairbanks' new comprehensive plan won't ban data centers, despite calls for one

Now, quickly, around the state. Fairbanks' new 20-year plan won't ban data centers, even though many public comments asked for a ban. Planners say putting a ban in that plan would be legally problematic, and any rules for data centers would come later.

5:28Kenai planners approve Beaver Loop day care and give it two years to open

Kenai planners approved a therapeutic day care on Beaver Loop Road. It's for young children, including kids with disabilities. The operators have two years to open it.

5:39Alaska Energy Authority board votes Nov. 5 on a new look at the shelved Susitna dam

The Alaska Energy Authority's board votes November 5th on taking a new look at the shelved Susitna dam. The authority says time is of the essence. If a federal tax credit applies, it could cover up to half of the dam's eligible cost.

5:56EPA moves to let Alaska permit carbon storage wells, leaving out a pore-space provision

The E-P-A has proposed letting Alaska issue its own permits for wells that bury carbon dioxide underground. But the plan leaves out two parts of the state's 2024 carbon storage law. One would fold in the underground space, called pore space, of landowners who don't agree to it. The other says carbon dioxide stored under a permit is not a pollutant or a nuisance.

6:20EPA proposes letting existing high-pressure compressor station controllers meet its Alaska standard

In a separate proposal, the E-P-A is revisiting its 2024 methane rule for the oil and gas industry. One part deals with gas-driven controllers, the automated instruments that hold pressure, temperature and liquid levels steady. Existing controllers at compressor stations that need more than 100 pounds per square inch to operate could follow the standard written for Alaska sites without electricity. That Alaska standard lets those sites cut controller emissions with lower-emitting options, instead of meeting the rule's zero-emissions requirement. The agency says retrofitting existing sites would cost too much. Comments are due December 16th.

7:03EPA proposes letting new oil wells flare associated gas rather than pipe it to sales lines

Another part of that same methane proposal would let new oil wells burn off their gas instead of piping it to sales lines. The flares would have to destroy 95% of emissions. The old rule assumed a pipeline within 50 miles, and Alaska operators flagged that as a gap.

7:21Premiums rise in 2027 for AlaskaCare retirees' dental, vision and hearing plans

State retirees on AlaskaCare will pay more again in January for dental, vision and hearing coverage. Retiree-only coverage goes to eighty-three dollars a month in both plans. That's up from seventy-seven dollars or eighty dollars depending on the plan.

7:38BLM switches White Mountains and Steese to winter snowmobile rules after snow arrives

The Bureau of Land Management switched the White Mountains and Steese areas to winter rules yesterday, now that snow is down. Trails are open to snowmobiles under 1,000 pounds through April 30th. Some trails still aren't marked.

7:51Seward's harbor proposes higher travel lift rates and passing card fees to customers

Seward's harbormaster wants to raise travel lift rates 10% plus inflation in both 2027 and 2028, and pass card fees on to customers. One cable for a lift went from twelve thousand dollars to thirty-five thousand dollars.

8:10Seward city manager floats cutting electric rates instead of property taxes in 2028

Seward City Manager Kat Sorensen pitched cutting everyone's electric rates in twenty twenty-eight instead of cutting property taxes. She'd do it by dropping the roughly six hundred seventy-eight thousand dollars fee the electric department pays the city's general fund each year. Sorensen said the idea came to her that day.

8:28Contango begins drilling the east end of the historic Lucky Shot gold mine

Near Willow, Contango started underground drilling October 22nd at the old Lucky Shot gold mine. The crews are working the east end of the mine's veins. The company says no modern program has tested that stretch.

8:43Cordova to close part of Fourth Street Thursday and interrupt water service to fix a leak

Cordova is closing Fourth Street between Browning and Council at 9 this morning to fix a water leak. The detour is Davis Avenue. The city called it a water service interruption notice, but the notice doesn't say who could lose water or for how long. It also gives no date for reopening the street.

9:01Wrap-up

Mat-Su residents, your last chance to comment on MatSu 2050 is tomorrow, through the planning agency's website. If you're driving the Parks toward Broad Pass, check 511 first. Also today, the European Union extended duty-free quotas for Alaska pollock and cod, and Anchorage Assembly members want mandatory jail for repeat public intoxication. That's all for this edition of the Alaska News daily brief. The full stories are at Alaska News dot com. And that's the way it is, Thursday, October twenty-ninth, twenty twenty-six.