Dunleavy declines to appeal judge's ruling in favor of rural power subsidy

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration will not appeal a court ruling that upheld the funding of Alaska’s rural subsidy for home electric power, it said in a written statement Thursday afternoon.

The announcement came a day after Anchorage Superior Court Judge Josie Garton ruled that the administration acted incorrectly when it determined that the subsidy’s billion-dollar endowment could be drained into a state savings account.

The decision, and the governor’s choice not to appeal, means roughly 82,000 rural Alaskans will continue to receive subsidized home electricity. Some of those Alaskans began receiving bigger bills earlier this month, but many utilities had delayed billing until the result of the lawsuit.

The Alaska Energy Authority operates the subsidy program, formally known as Power Cost Equalization, and authority director Curtis Thayer said the public corporation is ready to reimburse utilities under its regular procedure.

Read more: https://www.adn.com/politics/2021/08/12/dunleavy-declines-to-appeal-judges-ruling-in-favor-of-rural-power-subsidy/
(Anchorage Daily News)