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Rural legislators trying to get help to residents struggling with high heating costs are trying to figure out how much the state will have to give to better-off city dwellers to get a deal.

With just a day left in a special session that by law has to end by midnight tonight, the House and Senate still appear far apart. Three days after the Senate passed its energy relief bill, the House has yet to pass its version, raising concerns no bill will get passed.

"I think there would be some very disgruntled people, and some people would be in a great deal of trouble with fuel bills," said Senate President Lyda Green, R-Wasilla.

Members of the Republican-controlled House Majority Caucus appeared set Wednesday evening to finally pass a bill, but one that would abandon the Senate's plan to target relief to high-cost areas but also provide Alaska Permanent Fund dividend recipients with an additional $500.

Instead, House majority members want to provide recipients with checks for $1,200 and a repeal of the state fuel tax.

Fairness definition question

The key issue is fairness and how it is defined. Sometimes, proximity to the state's population center of Anchorage defines what's fair.

The further from Anchorage, the higher the heating bills and the need.

The crisis facing Alaska's villages was unforeseen as recently as last spring, when the Alaska Legislature concluded its most recent regular session.

"Nobody in their wildest dreams or wildest nightmares could have envisioned we'd be where we are today with $130 a barrel oil," said Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, whose constituents are among those suffering the most.

A few legislators did see the crisis coming, but even they say they were shocked by its severity.

During the last session, energy relief bills in the House and Senate were unable to reach the floor. Sen. Tom Wagoner, R-Kenai, introduced an electric rebate bill, but the minority member's bill never even got a hearing in committee.

Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Haines, introduced a bill to give out state rebate checks, but it died in the face of Republican opposition in the House Finance Committee, despite the fact that Thomas is a Republican who sits on that committee.

Gov. Sarah Palin has since called the Legislature back into special session, where it is now considering several energy relief plans.

Many lawmakers are willing to help out those suffering, including the delegation from urban Juneau, which has allied with its rural neighbors.

They're running into difficulty elsewhere, however. Representatives of communities with already low energy prices are trying to get a share of the state's largess for their constituents.

"The thing is, you got yours, we want ours," said Senate Majority Leader Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage, describing the sentiment.

Senate tries limits on energy costs

The energy relief plan the Senate came up with was to cap heating oil costs at $3 a gallon, with the state picking up anything above that. To Sen. Kim Elton, D-Juneau, that sounded fair, although Bethel would get much more than Juneau.

Heating oil prices are a dollar or two above the $3 cap in Juneau, but several dollars above that in Southwest Alaska.

To get support for that deal, said Elton and Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, it was necessary to provide equivalent relief to residents of the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage and Mat-Su, all of which have access to cheap natural gas from Cook Inlet and the peninsula's Beluga gas field.

Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, said big dividend payments seem to be the price to get any help to people.

"In order to get it to the people who really need it, in this Legislature you probably have to give it to those who don't, also," he said.

How to provide that benefit in Southcentral Alaska is still under debate, with the Senate trying to do it with energy relief and the House with bigger dividend payments.

With natural gas subsidies included, people who heat with electricity in Southeast Alaska also got energy relief. The bulk of those people are constituents of Elton and Stedman.

Now, some powerful House leaders are suggesting that money be provided as cash, instead of energy relief. The House ditched the Senate's complicated relief plan in favor of $1,200 cash payments added to this year's permanent fund dividend.

Demand strong for dividend

"A lot of people I talk to want the $1,200. They think it's due them," said Rep. Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski. Chenault is co-chairman of the House Finance Committee, which along caucus lines Tuesday rejected the Senate plan for its own.

In the meantime, House Democrats have been frustrated in their inability to get money put into renewable energy projects.

Tuesday, the House rejected Anchorage Rep. Harry Crawford's plan to spend $2 million to study a big hydroelectric project at Lake Chakachamna. Republicans rejected the plan on a party-line vote, saying it had not been vetted enough.

Crawford suggested that a lot of the dividend payments would be spent on cocaine instead of energy relief.

"I'll bet you a good $3 million to $4 million of this is just going to go up people's noses, and that's not going to be vetted very properly," he said.

The shift from energy relief to cash payments based on dividend applications will further exclude new Alaskans from getting help from the state.

Palin originally proposed providing payments to Alaskans with at least six months residency, but legislators rejected that in favor of using the dividend criteria that can require two or more years of residence before qualifying for dividends.

• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.