Alaska villages hit hard by rising fuel costs may find help from a proposed university program.

UAF Cooperative Extension Services has teamed up with the Cold Climate Housing Research Center on a funding request to the Denali Commission for a program that would help rural Alaska communities create individual energy plans.

The program would also include a new certificate program in Rural Utility Maintenance for the university.

John Davies, director of the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, said if the plan is approved it could help villages save a quarter of their current heating and electricity costs in the short term, and could eventually help some villages to cut out hydrocarbon use altogether.

The proposal asks for about $500,000 per year for five years, which would be used to hire about six additional staff members to implement the program, Davies said. "This would not be a program to tell anyone what to do, but help them create an energy plan."

Fuel costs in rural Alaska have reached extreme highs lately, and the effects are far reaching. Last October, for example, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported that gas in Toksook Bay cost $4.55 per gallon. This cost cascades down into the price of food, heat, and subsistence practices and even affects such basic needs as water delivery.

The director of cooperative extension at the Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel, Lucy Jackson Bayles, said that the need is urgent. "The impact on families is huge," she said. "I have heard of some folks having to choose between groceries and fuel."

Several families in the Bethel area have begun to share housing because they can't afford to heat their own homes, Bayles said. "I've noticed that some folks are not driving their own cars because of high fuel costs, and are resorting to taking cabs more frequently or walking when it's not too cold," she said.

Governor Frank Murkowski has also identified the issue as a serious one. "Without a doubt, the No. 1 concern in rural Alaska right now is the high cost of energy," he said.

Examples of recommendations to Bush residents are simple improvements like more efficient insulation, light bulbs, and ventilation, but consultants also suggest larger changes, like switching to pellet stoves or masonry stoves for communities that have forested land nearby.

"There are a lot of beneficial regional industries that villages can look at," Davies said. "Coastal communities can develop wind energy. Some villages can look at nearby coal deposits, others hydroelectric power."

Many of the energy saving strategies require a high initial investment, but the returns are worth it, Davies said.

UAF Cooperative Extension Service energy and housing specialist Rich Seifert echoed Davies' comments about conservation of energy and housing improvements. "The most important thing we can do to help rural Alaskans face the future we believe is coming is to improve housing and lower energy demands," Seifert said. "Conservation is the only defense people have against high energy costs that they can control, and it looks like if we don't improve conservation, rural Alaskans will be blown away by the price increases."

The plan will was also presented at an Alaska Federation of Natives meeting in Anchorage. "AFN was very receptive to the idea," Seifert said. "They know the seriousness of the problem."