Plans by the Native Village of Kotzebue to sell wind power to its local electric cooperative are on hold after the federal government slashed a $150 million grant for Alaska tribal infrastructure projects earlier this month.
The project, a partnership between the tribe and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, was meant to build two 1-megawatt wind turbines. The Environmental Protection Agency awarded the grant in December.
“The new administration basically said that they have had a change in priorities and are trying to pull the funds,” said Chad Nordlum, energy project manager for the Native Village of Kotzebue. “Basically they have sent us a termination notice of the funding.”
The funding would have brought more than $150 million to rural communities across the state — from erosion control infrastructure in Kipnuk to plumbing in Huslia. In all, the EPA plans to cancel 781 grants nationwide. That’s per court documents filed in late April.
The tribe planned to use the turbines to generate energy and revenue for tribal programs. Nordlum said the project is part of a larger tribal initiative to produce renewable energy and then sell the power to Kotzebue Electric Association.
“The magic sauce in this whole thing is that it really brings more money into the community,” Nordlum said. “It helps money stay in the community instead of spending millions of dollars buying diesel fuel.”
He said the tribe worked closely with KEA, who pitched the project to the tribe.
KEA can now produce as much as 30% of its energy from renewable sources — a solar farm and two large wind turbines. The rest comes from diesel generation, with fuel primarily sourced from Canada. Nordlum said purchasing wind-generated energy from the tribe would be a new model for KEA.
“They've never bought power from anyone else,” Nordlum said. “But if you look down in the Lower 48, that's kind of how the grid is built.”
The tribe would produce power independently, and the money earned would fund tribal programs. Those programs include “essential community needs, like water/sewer improvements, economic development and more local jobs,” according to a press release from the tribe.
“All of our programs are federally funded. They're basically designed in Washington, D.C. and then given to the tribe,” Nordlum said. “Having our own income would actually allow us to design more of our own programs for our people, in the way that we think could actually make a difference.”
Nordlum and representatives from KEA say producing energy locally could help lessen the effects of potential tariffs and other instabilities in the world market.
“This is an opportunity to produce more energy here and for those of us who don't produce oil, this is what we can produce,” Nordlum said. “This is what we can use to stabilize our prices, even create a more circular economy in our little villages.”
Nordlum said the tribe and ANTHC plan to dispute the grant termination.
The tribe’s solar farm project, which received a $3.35 million dollar grant from the Department of Energy last year, also lost funding since Trump took office. Nordlum said that grant is also in the negotiation process.
