Public service began in earnest in 1999 when I served 6 years on the Borough Assembly. I remember thinking that our community's biggest challenge was growing the economy so that our children would have jobs when they finished their formal education.

Without a doubt, my professional experience with municipalities and school districts helped me as an assembly member. I served as chair of the audit and finance committees, and as presiding officer. If I were to summarize my efforts in a few sentences, I would say that, with the help of fellow Assembly members, I changed borough law to strengthen the control the assembly had over the budget process, created a mechanism to rebate surplus taxes and helped develop ways the Borough could support economic development. I also located funds and led efforts to pave the Carson Center and Hez Rey parking lots and initiated efforts for the Borough to fight the wetlands regulations applied to permafrost.

Two of my three children live Outside now, so I can’t say this any clearer - the economy is still our greatest challenge. We must continue efforts to bring jobs to Fairbanks, and with that, find solutions to our high energy costs. This community cannot survive with five-dollar heating oil. We need gas provided to our town, cheaper electricity, and enough oil coming down the pipeline to support the two refineries located here.

We have to support efforts to develop world-class gold deposits, like The Tower Hill Mine near Livengood, and keep interior mines, such as Fort Knox and Pogo, productive. They provide so many good paying jobs and are powerful stimulants to our local private sector.

The military bases are essential to our local economy, especially the two closest to Fairbanks. We need to continue encouraging utilization of our military bases and efficiency of their operations. Taxes should be fair and recognize the high cost of heating these facilities. Fairbanks has always been a military town. We must fight to keep it that way.

The University of Alaska is a powerful engine for economic growth. Not only does it bring in research dollars from its Arctic research mission, it has the potential to be the cold-weather research center for the entire country. Our facilities, built with the help of federal dollars, position us well to provide much-needed research and solutions to our nation’s energy problems. But we need to do more by looking for ways our private sector can work with UAF to build industry and job opportunities.

Tourism is an important source of cash to our community. I fully support the use of borough bed tax revenues to market Fairbanks and help make it a year-round tourist destination. We all have seen the tremendous increase in our tax base from private investments in tourism facilities and infrastructure, and we must continue supporting this industry.

Fairbanks is an important service hub, providing transportation services by rail, air, river, and highway to interior river villages. We need to work with these communities to enhance their economies and reduce their costs. When the Bush hurts, Fairbanks businesses hurt. We must work with our legislators to fund the Dalton highway. This important lifeline to the oil fields has to be maintained so that it is safe for trucks and ready for increased use when a gas pipeline is built.

All of our industries require affordable energy and plenty of it. As we wait for North Slope gas to come to market, Minto Flats and the Nenana basin offer viable, near-term energy that can provide price competition to North Slope and Cook Inlet supplies. The borough’s role is to help educate its citizens on the economic realities of our energy alternatives and advocate for development of all sources of energy, including oil, natural gas, hydroelectric, clean coal-fired generators, and other sources that will reduce our costs and provide our community with fuel and electricity.

As Mayor, I’ll be an effective voice for economic development and will speak out against forces that threaten our energy future. I’ll manage our government finances as I would a private business, looking for efficiencies and cost-cutting opportunities, making sure that quality is not sacrificed or necessary services diminished.

Energy for the Borough
As the price of crude inches up and we begin paying more for gasoline and home heating oil, we are reminded of the fuel prices in the winters of 2007 and 2008 and the high price of gasoline last summer. With no solution in sight, our town continues to be vulnerable.

The coming debate is “what can our borough do” to find a solution for high energy costs, particularly home heating oil. High fuel bills make living here very expensive and make attracting new jobs to Fairbanks extremely difficult.
We can’t go back to wood. Most homes don’t have wood stoves and those that do require the owner to make a major hobby out of cutting wood. Feeding the stove 24/7 requires lots of time and attention most of us don’t have.  Outdoor furnaces are not much better. The wood must be dry, the fire can’t go out, and if you live in the city, the neighbors will complain about your smoldering fire. Not to mention the EPA and their serious efforts to impose tougher air quality standards, which worsen with wood burning.

Converting from oil-fired to electricity is an option, but the technology to heat efficiently using electricity doesn’t exist yet, and our electricity costs increase with the price of oil. Until hydro, natural gas or more coal generation is brought on-line, the price of electricity will not lure many to replace their oil-fired burners.

Our best hope is for gas to be found in Minto Flats. It’s 50 miles from Fairbanks, would require less investment in pipe and would be the most efficient source for us. It also would provide price competition to gas supplies brought from the North Slope if and when the “big pipe” project ever materializes. Drilling is scheduled for later this year, and we should all hope for success.

If gas doesn’t come from Minto, then trucking from the North Slope or a bullet line from Cook Inlet or the North Slope are options. All of these projects have potential and formidable problems, and are not on the immediate horizon.

We simply need to produce more oil. Production is dropping and less oil in the pipeline makes it more expensive to operate. It is a downward spiral we must reverse. When the price of oil spikes again, increased revenue will offer plenty of incentive for companies to explore for new reserves. We must ensure state policy recognizes the need for increased North Slope production, and that regulations and taxation are not impediments to development.

So, here is what I think our borough should do to help solve high energy costs:

1. Our community and legislators should come together now and forge an alliance with others around the state to provide long-term solutions. We need to develop hydro generation projects, pipelines from oil and gas fields, wind generators, where it makes sense, wood-fired furnaces for less developed villages and other technologies that can compete with fossil fuels.

2. We need the state to get its spending and obligations under control. Oil wealth is needed to help us transition to gas and electric energy sources. We can have inexpensive energy, but the state must have the wealth to underwrite it. That means more oil production and more investment in energy infrastructure. Our local refineries should not have to pay the state world market prices to operate.

3. In the short-term, when fuel prices spike again, the state will likely be awash in oil revenues. As the governor did before, an energy rebate can help people survive the inflation. But this kind of rebate should occur only with a commitment to get our hydro, gas, coal, and wind assets on line for the long-term use and stability of our communities.

The borough has a role in solving our town’s energy problems, but we can’t do it on our own. We must understand them first, then have leaders willing to work with others and doggedly advocate for our interests.