Email from Alaska Senate Majority Rainy Days Rainy Days September 27, 2025 Dear Friends and Neighbors, The rainy, windy weather is a good time for long meetings indoors (ideally with a hot cup of coffee). But I got out of the office—and out of town—to Sitka for Southeast Conference and the Village Public Safety Officer graduation at the Public Safety Academy. No sense being a shut-in, no matter what the weather does! It was a privilege to attend the VPSO graduation in Sitka. Alutiiq dancers (pictured here) and Yupik dancers attending Mt. Edgecumbe High School participated in the ceremony. I'm grateful to everyone who stepped up to go through this difficult training to serve their communities. Town Halls Rep. Story & I are looking forward to holding town halls and open office hours around the district. Please come share your thoughts and bring your questions! Haines, Klukwan, Skagway, & Gustavus are scheduled. We'll have updates on Juneau events soon. Haines Office Hours: Fri. Oct. 10, 12:30-2pm at the library Town Hall: Fri. Oct. 10, 7-8pm at the Legion Hall Klukwan Town Hall: Sat. Oct. 11, 10am-12pm at the Hospitality House Skagway Town Hall: Sun. Oct. 12, 5-6:30pm at the AB Hall Office Hours : Mon. Oct. 13, 11am-1pm at the library Gustavus Town Hall: Tues. Nov. 4, 5:30-7pm at the library Office Hours: Tues. Nov. 4, 9-11am at the Fireweed With local elections coming up, it's a good time to remember all the non-partisan staff who work hard to make it all happen. Rep. Hannan, Lt. Gov. Dahlstrom, & I celebrated Gail Fenumiai's decades of work and leadership at the Division of Elections. Making it to Regionals I got to attend Southeast Conference in Sitka last week. As always, it was great to gather folks from around the best region in the state. We shared information, ideas, struggles, and successes. Two issues stood out to me above the rest: mariculture and housing. It won't surprise you to hear housing was a big topic. Juneau has long struggled with it. I was a little surprised to learn just how much the rest of the region struggles. It’s Southeast’s greatest economic problem according to this year’s Southeast by the Numbers. It’s not just one type of housing, either. Rental prices are higher than locals can afford. 80 percent of tourism employers say housing availability is a critical issue for staffing. Landslides and flooding in our communities are taking existing units out of service, and the costs of building keep going up. It’s not all doom and gloom, though. More communities are recognizing the problem and making moves. The numbers show progress: Southeast saw an 8 percent increase in housing units over the last decade. It’s not enough, but it's a start. In the success column is our mariculture industry. Southeast Conference has what’s called the Alaska Mariculture Cluster. It's a group of industry folks, tribes, UAS, and more—all dedicated to distributing $49 million from the feds. They're investing that in workforce development, research, marketing, and a $9.3 million set-aside for a revolving loan fund. We’ve seen the success of that model with commercial fishing, and I have high hopes for it in the mariculture industry. Importantly, Southeast Conference is setting a model for how to use a big federal grant like this. There was a 20-year plan in place before the money was awarded. The feds gave them five years to spend it, but they didn't panic. About $17 million has gone out the door at the three-year mark. They're working with stakeholders and industry across the region to make sure all the rest gets spent carefully and well—on the sort of infrastructure that will benefit the businesses for years to come. I can't guarantee the federal funding will hyper-accelerate the new industry to success, but this approach gives it the best possible shot. More farms are opening, and private investment is starting to flow into kelp and oyster businesses. The early indications are promising. Earlier this summer I got to observe special National Guard chemical/biological/nuclear response units from several states training at the Capitol and around Juneau. Local police, fire, and security folks all participated. I appreciate the effort to train for scenarios we hope will never happen. I'm also glad to see good communication among agencies, so everyone's talking to each other if there is an emergency. The Energy Blues A new issue just cropped up about our sustainable, renewable hydropower. Juneau is proud our local utility is almost 100% fossil fuel-free. It's good for the environment, of course, but it also helps the city and local nonprofits qualify for grants they otherwise might not. It lets Greens Creek Mine tell their investors they contribute less to global climate change when they plug in. The Juneau Carbon Offset Fund can honestly tell people their contributions go to replacing oil-fired heat with renewable hydropower-powered heat pumps (and low-income Alaskans save money on their home heating bills, too!) That could all get confused. The Alaska Industrial Development & Export Authority has a proposal to sell Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) based off the energy generated by the Snettisham hydroelectric project. RECs are weird. They're a thing you can buy that isn't a thing. When a company buys a REC, it pays for the right to say it has the renewable nature of the power. It's tied to a certain number of kilowatt-hours of hydropower (or wind or solar,) but you don't have to actually be plugged in to the renewable source to get the REC from it. You could run a factory off coal power in China and buy RECs tied to hydropower in Juneau, and voila! You can claim your factory is carbon neutral. The catch is: then Juneau folks couldn't say their electricity is renewable. Someone else would own that characteristic of the kilowatt-hours we actually use here. (There are also RECs that support brand-new renewable energy sources. I don't have as hard a time with a company claiming credit for helping fund additional renewable power—especially if the renewable project wouldn't have gotten built REC money.) So why is this an issue now? A few decades ago, AIDEA issued tax-free bonds so AEL&P could buy the Snettisham hydroproject that produces most of Juneau's power from the feds. It was cheaper for ratepayers that way. AIDEA owns all the generation equipment, but everything that comes off it goes to AEL&P. The utility has to operate and maintain it, while paying AIDEA enough to retire the bonds. The contract is very clear about all that. But it doesn't explicitly say who owns the nature of the power itself. The authority and the utility are in court sorting that out now. It's an interesting legal issue, with a couple of good arguments on both sides. AEL&P is right that AIDEA was only ever in the deal as a financing conduit and not to make money off of Snettisham or anything coming from it. AIDEA is right that the first proto-version of RECs existed in the world when the contract was drawn up, so it could conceivably have included them in what AEL&P gets. They argue that means AIDEA owns and can sell the renewable characteristics of the power it doesn't own. The arguments go on beyond that, but I'm not an attorney, and definitely not an expert on how courts read contracts. I got involved in the dispute only to ask that no RECs get sold until a judge decides. Both parties have agreed to that. We'll all want to keep an eye on this one. All my best, Did someone forward you this newsletter and you want your very own copy? Did you fall into it through the series of tubes and now want it sent straight to you? SUBSCRIBE Events & Happenings Around District B Juneau Fire Station Story Time On Oct. 4, bring the kiddos to Douglas Library for a perfect afternoon. They’ll start with story time featuring CCFR firefighters and then get a special tour of the Douglas Fire Station and fire trucks! Juneau Romeo and Juliet Come watch a great production of this classic running through Oct. 9! Juneau Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors Through Oct. 19, check out this free-wheeling comedy, which plays fast and loose with Dracula! Juneau Symphony Come to the Symphony for the season’s opening concert to hear Rachmaninoff on Oct. 4! Juneau First Friday Dance All ages and levels welcome for First Friday dancing on Oct. 3! Skagway Ghost in Jar Get in the spooky spirit at this craft workshop Oct. 18! You’ll have a fun time and a cool decoration for Halloween. Skagway Skype a Scientist Ask a veterinary student all your “batty” questions Oct. 18. Appropriately for October, you’ll get to learn all about bat science! Skagway Book Club October’s Book Club will read “The Red Tent”. Enjoy an interesting read and then join the discussion Oct. 26! Skagway Trunk or Treat Join the fun with this annual tradition! Put on your costumes and bring the kids to Trunk or Treat Oct. 25! Haines Chilkat Chef Challenge Support a good cause and have a blast at the Chilkat Chef Challenge! You’ll get good food and a show as local chefs battle it out on Oct. 11. Haines First Friday On Oct. 3, there will be fun all around town with galleries and featured exhibits, plus much more! Haines Afternoon Art Make your home festive for fall with homemade leaf lanterns! Create your masterpiece Oct. 10! Haines Tikes and Trikes Bring the kiddos (infants through kindergarten) to the Haines school on Tuesdays & Thursdays for indoor play group! There will be fun activities and a chance for parents and kids to socialize! Klukwan HARK It’s that time! Get nail clippings and vaccinations for your furry friends when HARK comes to the village Oct. 16! Gustavus Bunco Bring finger food to share and come have a good time at Bunco night Oct. 11! Gustavus Second Saturday Market Shop local on Oct. 11! Come check out all the offerings during the Second Saturday Market at the Community Center. Gustavus Silent Reading Looking for a quiet night out? Come to the library with a snack and a good book to enjoy some quiet company Oct. 14! Gustavus Everybody Welcome Band Bring your musical talent (or learn a brand new instrument!) with the Everybody Welcome Band. Enjoy dance tunes & more on Oct. 9. Is there an event in our district I should know about? Please call or email! Want to Send Snail Mail? Alaska State Capitol Room 514 Juneau, AK 99801 You Can Call: 800 550 4947 907 465 4947 Or Email Me! Contact My Staff, the people who power the work: Aurora Hauke 907 465 5051 [email protected] Ella Adkison 907 465 6419 [email protected] Cathy Schlingheyde 907 465 6827 [email protected] Senator Jesse Kiehl | Alaska State Capitol Rm. 514, 4th Avenue & Main Street | Juneau, AK 99801 US Unsubscribe | Constant Contact Data Notice