Ahhh Mike, four words for you buddy...

          (4/19/09) On Saturday during the debate over the capital budget, Fairbanks Representative Mike Kelly raised objections to a $9 million appropriation for state energy assistance money and suggested people in rural Alaska should be cutting wood rather than the legislature cutting them a check.

"I'd rather tell the guy, go out there and cut your own wood or do something for yourself. ... I don't know how many of the 200-plus villages have a wood supply within a rock toss, but there's a lot of them because I've been to a lot of them," Kelly said.

Ahhh, four words for you Mike old buddy: Healy Clean Coal Plant.

HCCP was built by the Alaska Industrial Development Export Authority for the Golden Valley Electric Association and completed in 1999 when Rep. Kelly was the CEO of GVEA.  The HCCP cost $300 million to construct, paid for by a combination of funds including state and federal money.

After completion, GVEA claimed the plant didn't work properly and refused to accept the keys and pay the cost.

Since the plant was built on GVEA land, Kelly and his co-op board denied the state access, which prohibited AIDEA from selling the plant, monetizing the asset and repaying taxpayers.

After years of GVEA refusing to accept the plant or pay for it, it was written down on AIDEA's books. In the 2005 lawsuit filed under the Murkowski administration, the state was suing GVEA for $167 million in damages.   

So because Kelly was CEO during the time the coal plant was being built for GVEA, he enjoyed this albatross hanging around his neck for the last decade. It was long rumored that Kelly and the GVEA Board were planning on waiting out the state until the asset was worth next to nothing and then they'd attempt to get a sweetheart deal.

Meanwhile, for the last eight years, AIDEA has paid GVEA roughly $1 million a year in custodial costs to look after the plant and to provide electric power to keep the plant warm. During that time, GVEA has used the facility for their own use such as storage, auto repair and other uses. In addition, they've used parts off of the new plant to operate their original plant 

But today Kelly wants to lecture rural Alaska about depending on assistance from the state.

That's just priceless....$300 million worth of priceless.

More on Kelly's debacle called the Healy Clean Coal Plant:

http://www.andrewhalcro.com/healy_clean_coal_rewarding_cheats_and_con_men

http://www.andrewhalcro.com/the_healy_clean_coal_plant

http://www.andrewhalcro.com/healy_the_art_of_a_shady_deal