Governor Bill Walker issued an administrative order in an effort to increase productivity amid collaboration and coordination within the state’s consumer energy.
The move was spurred by suggestions from Walker’s consumer energy transition team and the order directs the Commissioner of Commerce, Community and Economic Development to lead the motions to improve collaboration and coordination on consumer energy in Alaska.
In addition to the statewide collaboration of state agencies and other organizations, the order directs the Department of Natural Resources and the Alaska Industrial Development Export Authority (AIDEA) to assess potential natural gas supplies for an Interior energy development project.
In recent years, AIDEA had been working to deliver natural gas to Interior residents through the Interior Energy Project, a project which was terminated earlier this month due to higher than anticipated costs.
Governor Walker aims to put state resources towards finding new solutions to the energy disaster in the Interior by directing DNR to work with AIDEA to find other potential natural gas supplies.
The governor is also currently accepting suggestions from Alaskans for ways to reduce spending across the board.
Anyone interested can visit Walker’s website, take a survey where ideas can be stated, and the top five suggestions will be given a prize: a soup and sandwich lunch with Governor Walker.