43°

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski requested $15.5 million in federal funds for those projects last week, but it's unlikely the full appropriation will be granted, said Murkowski spokesman Chuck Kleeschulte.

"This is a difficult year," Kleeschulte said Monday.

Members of the Southeast Conference Intertie Committee traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to ask for the money. Dave Carlson, intertie coordinator for the conference, said $500,000 of the request is for the Petersburg-Kake leg.

"The money would be used to get that project kick-started, to get the route selected and update the engineering," Carlson said.

The remaining $15 million is for the Juneau-Hoonah leg, but would probably only get developers from Douglas Island to Admiralty Island, home to Greens Creek, Carlson said.

"That would be used primarily for construction. They're about 75 percent complete with design," he said.

Carlson said a denial of the full $15 million would not derail the Juneau-Hoonah leg of the intertie, which is projected to cost $41 million in total.

"We understand that there's budget constraints and we understand it might take a couple of years to get it," he said. "If we got it in two years, that would be fine."

More important, he said, is the Petersburg-Kake money to start that leg's design. That leg is estimated to cost $16 million to $35 million, depending on the chosen route.

A power line has been constructed to the end of North Douglas Highway, said David Stone, vice president and director of consumer affairs for Alaska Electric Light & Power. The line to Admiralty Island and on to Hoonah will be a continuation of the existing line.

Stone said AEL&P has not acquired permits for the new construction.

"You've got to have funding for that," he said, adding that if all the funding comes through and there are no glitches, construction could begin in 2004.

The federal government is requiring a 20 percent match for any money appropriated to the intertie, Carlson said. He said the match should be satisfied by the $6 million AEL&P has spent building the transmission line to the end of North Douglas, and AEL&P's financing of the $35 million Lake Dorothy hydroelectric power project, which has yet to be built. The state also gave a $150,000 grant to the Southeast Conference last year.

The Southeast Caucus of the state Legislature issued a statement last week in unanimous support of the intertie project.

Masha Herbst can be reached at masha.herbst@juneauempire.com.