BREAKING - Friends of MatSu, MEA Ratepayers & Utility Watch Just Saved MEA Members a Half Billion Bucks

Back in the spring of 2007, the Board of Friends of Mat-Su discussed what role we might or might not play in the then-upcoming battle over Matanuska Electrical Association's plan for erecting a large coal-fired power plant between Palmer and the Matanuska-Knik River Flats. Some on the board had reservations about our taking a partisan role, stating that it went beyond our mandate as being an informational and educational group.

I said at the time that upcoming legislation nationwide and a growing awareness of the real costs of such power plants might make the coal solution far more expensive and less feasible than the poorly thought out MEA proposal was predicting. Sure enough, as more information came out, the plant's cost estimations rose.

Stories breaking yesterday and gaining traction today clearly show our board made the right decision to join the watchdog groups to thwart Tuckerman Babcock's dumbest idea yet. Yesterday, NPR's Marketplace ran a segment about how financial institutions are looking more seriously at these plants' real costs.

Will Babcock thank us for saving the co-op far more money than we - I'm a 24-year member - would be wanting to spend? Not likely. He's too busy preparing to clip Janet Kincaid's hair sample for drug testing, eh?