In part to mesh with Trump administration priorities, Golden Valley Electric Association is changing up or eliminating projects funded by two Biden-era federal awards.
The utility’s board of directors adopted the modifications in a unanimous vote on Tuesday.
“I guess it was fear to lose the awards or have them modified in some way that was not acceptable to us,” Tom DeLong, the board’s chairman, told KUAC Thursday.
Golden Valley received both of the awards last year, and they total more than $300 million in grants and loans.
GVEA was selected for a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Powering Affordable Clean Energy Program award in June 2024, receiving a $100 million loan, $60 million of which is forgivable.
In September, the Fairbanks-based railbelt utility got $206 million from the USDA in 0% interest loans through the Empowering Rural America Program, $67 million of which could be awarded as grants after the projects’ completion.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which has come under fire during the second Trump presidency, funded both programs. Trump moved to freeze IRA funds his first day in office, but a federal judge this month ordered the administration to reinstate already-awarded funds.
According to GVEA Director of External Affairs Ashley Bradish, the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) approached Golden Valley staff about making amendments to their proposals, giving them a 500-character limit and a deadline of April 25.
“We were notified by them that we would have this opportunity to adjust the scope of our projects, if necessary,” she said. “By putting this in, it does not mean that is the end all be all, what is going to happen – it’s really allowing us to continue these convertsations with RUS.”
The text approved by the GVEA board Tuesday sticks to that character limit, and DeLong said he’s not sure how the short summary of their proposal adjustments will go over, but that it’s meant to be part of an ongoing dialogue.
“I don’t have very much confidence in anything regarding this area and the current administration, but clearly, with 500 characters, including spaces, this is really keeping our name in the hat and moving the process forward,” he said.
The board-adopted language says Golden Valley still wants to use the money to fund construction of two new 46 MW battery energy storage systems and 64 miles of transmission lines, among other additions to the utility’s existing infrastructure.
But their modifications strike two key items from the original proposals. One was to retire and refinance debt for the less-reliable of their two coal power plants in Healy, Unit No. 2. The other was to install upgrades at an independent solar farm in Nenana to support a power purchase agreement between that company and Golden Valley.
DeLong said nixing the solar farm upgrades has less to do with federal priorities and more to do with the company that owned the farm “dissolving.”
GVEA had intended to partner with Nenana Solar Farm, LLC, which was owned by Anchorage-based Renewable IPP, LLC.
“They pulled out of our project, so we are left without an independent power producer,” DeLong said.
In February, Renewable IPP also stepped back from a major solar project in Nikiski due to what their CEO called adverse economic conditions.
As for the Healy plant, the pressure to keep it operating is twofold.
The GVEA board had previously decided to postpone retiring the underperforming coal plant due to the natural gas crunch in the Cook Inlet, so DeLong said that change isn’t entirely attributable to the new administration.
But Trump did sign an executive order in April backing the coal industry. And 10 days after that order, the Environmental Protection Agency published a list of nearly 70 coal plants exempted from regulations limiting air pollution from certain toxins. Both of Golden Valley’s plants in Healy are on the list.
“We can’t shut down Unit No. 2 with no replacement power,” DeLong said. “Kind of between a rock and a hard spot: whether we remove the language to shut down Unit No. 2 because of a Trump administration order, or the reality of the [natural gas] situation.”
Beyond the capital projects, the two Biden-era programs called for Golden Valley to develop other methods for creating additional community benefits, and the language the board passed Tuesday says the utility will alter those plans, as well, to fit with Trump’s executive orders.
DeLong declined to comment on exactly what those modifications could look like.
But among other things, the draft community benefit plans aimed to expand educational opportunities to help diversify the workforce, and the federal government under Trump has repeatedly targeted diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Bradish said that’s the sort of thing the utility will likely remove from the plans.
“Unfortunately, if those were kept in, the funding would very likely be in jeopardy,” she said.