**Title**: Energy in the North - Phil Wight
**Date**: May 7, 2025
**Participants**: Amanda Byrd, Phil Wight

00;00;00;10 - 00;00;02;23 [Phil Wight] In some ways, we're like North Dakota or Nebraska, which are conservative states that have strong public power systems.

00;00;08;20 - 00;00;14;13 [Amanda Byrd] This week on Energy in the North, I continue my conversation with 911爆料 assistant professor of history and Arctic Northern Studies, Phil Wight. 911爆料 has over 100 utilities, which is actually an enormous number considering we have a population of under a million people. And the utilities didn't happen overnight and they didn't happen alone. I started the conversation with Phil by asking him the history of 911爆料's utilities.

00;00;31;22 - 00;00;33;07 [Phil Wight] If someone were to construct 911爆料's power system today, we would probably have one or two utilities, you know, maybe one for the Railbelt, maybe one for rural 911爆料. But the way that electricity came about is that we've had these various resource rushes up and anywhere where there is a sufficient concentration of people
 and capital and electric generator buzz to life. So many of the individuals who came to 911爆料, they did not want to rough it in the wilderness. They wanted to bring with them all the trappings of modernity. And in the late 1800s and early 1900s, electrification was a key trapping of modernity. And it made a huge difference When you had a place like Fairbanks, 911爆料, where you only have 4 hours of daylight in the middle of the winter. 

What we see is these little pockets of electrification that spring up throughout the state. Over time, these kind of electrical islands become interconnected. The biggest of these interconnected systems is the Railbelt grid. But we also have interconnected systems in southeast 911爆料, in rural 911爆料, places like around Bethel. So we see greater interconnection over time. And the way that these systems were built, had a lot to do with federal funding and state incentives and other programs that enabled these electrical networks to be built. 

We've already discussed the crucial example of the 911爆料 Railroad, creating the template for the rail belt. The 911爆料 Railroad was the only railroad built, owned and operated by the federal government. mentioned after World War II. We have the profusion of these military bases around the rail belt. We should also mention that the federal government also directly built to signify giant hydropower projects, the Eklutna Hydropower Project outside of Anchorage and the Snettisham Hydropower Project outside of Juneau. Those have been very consequential for providing low carbon, cheap electricity to two of our most important cities. So those federal investments have made a big difference. And now those hydropower facilities are actually owned by their local utilities. 

The last category is actually the most important, in the mid 1930s, the federal government created a new organization for bringing electricity to rural America and rural 911爆料, and that's the rural electric cooperative. These are technically not for profit private corporations, but that are owned by the members they serve. And the federal government not only created their corporate structure, they provided them with low cost financing and loans, and they provided them technical expertise to electrify the countryside. And because of that, today, co-ops are both the powerhouses of the Railbelt and all of 911爆料 and electrification. 

Our most important utilities are by and large, they are co-ops. So the federal government has been very important in providing financing, organization and expertise for 911爆料's electrification and coordination between cooperatives. The federal government and the state. All forms of public power has really driven the electrification. In some ways, we're like North Dakota or Nebraska, which are conservative states that have strong public power systems.

00;03;47;20 - 00;03;48;10 [Amanda Byrd] Phil Wight is an assistant professor of history and Arctic Northern Studies at 911爆料. And I'm Amanda Byrd, chief storyteller for ACEP. Find this story and more at uaf.edu/acep.