• Won approval of legislation to create the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area to promote tourism on the Peninsula (PL 111-11, 2009).
• Southwest Alaska Geothermal Project – $5.3 Million (2009)
• $1.5 million grant for Chena Hot Springs Energy to build the first mobile geothermal turbine, a project finished in the summer of 2009.
• Secured FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) funding for the reconstruction of the Humpback Creek Hydroelectric Project for Cordova Electric Cooperative (destroyed in 2006).
• Kenai River Bluff Erosion – for an Army Corps of Engineers feasibility study to reduce bluff erosion – $96,000 (FY 2009)
• Kenai Water and Wastewater System Improvements to remove arsenic from the water – $300,000 (FY 2008)
• Juneau Forest Service Lab Collocation, phase 1 – $4,980,000 (2009).

• Municipality of Skagway for a wastewater treatment facility expansion project – $300,000 (2009)
• Budget language that requires the U.S. Forest Service to offer profitable tracts of red cedar timber to Alaska mill operators, and developed new definition of biomass to permit dead trees, tops, slash, brush and other trees from the Tongass to be used for power or biofuels to promote renewable energy. (Passed by the ENR committee but still pending a floor vote.)
• Chugach National Forest – Funding for Porcupine Creek Campground reconstruction – $1,911,000 (2009)
• Healthy Forest legislation grants for thinning in the Chugach Forest.
• City of Kodiak for water and sewer improvements – $300,000 (2009)

• Katmai National Park and Reserve – $6.4 million. Funds will go to replace failing infrastructure at the Brooks Camp (2009).
• Enactment of the Amchitka Nuclear Workers Compensation Aid Act (2004) – allowed compensation for workers who participated in nuclear tests in the Aleutians between 1965-1971.
  • Alaska Coastal Erosion – $2 Million (2009) Restored authorization for the Army Corps of Engineers to carry out storm damage prevention and reduction, coastal erosion, and ice and glacial damage projects in Alaska.
• Funded fisheries and marine mammal research and management,
• Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund – $80 million (2009)
• Sea Otter and Steller Sea Lion Education and Conservation in Alaska – $200,000 (2009).
• Seal and Steller Sea Lions Biological Research – $300,00 (2009, FY2010 Commerce, Justice Science Appropriations Bill)
• Stellers and Spectacled Sea Eider Research – $350,000 (2009).
• Introduced S. 930, the United States Ferry Systems Investment Act to, among other provisions, make ferries eligible for the clean fuels grant program.
• Introduced S. 1795, the Private Investment in Commuter Vanpooling Act to allow public vanpool providers to use fare revenues to purchase additional vehicles to accommodate growing demand.
• Co-Sponsored the following bills that were enacted into law (2009)

1.    Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program Act legislation authorizes NOAA to award competitive grants to coastal states, including the Great Lakes, to protect coastal and estuarine areas which have significant conservation, recreation, ecological, historic, aesthetic, or watershed protection value and are threatened by conversion to other uses.

2.    Ocean and Coastal Mapping Integration Act to would integrate Federal and coastal mapping activities throughout the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.

3.    Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observation System Act to establish an integrated system of coastal and ocean observations for the nation’s coasts, oceans, and Great Lakes;

4.    Federal Ocean Acidification Research And Monitoring Act to authorize a coordinated federal research program on ocean acidification and coordinate activities across federal agencies, establish an ocean acidification program within NOAA to conduct research and long-term monitoring, promote education and outreach, and develop adaptation strategies and techniques for conserving marine ecosystems.

• Sponsored and won approval of an amendment to the American Clean Energy Leadership Act for the Methane Hydrate Research Act Extension to authorize test wells for Alaska’s next most profitable energy resource(2009).
• Sponsored a bill (S. 923/S. 922) and won its inclusion as an amendment to the American Clean Energy Leadership Act that will provide new federal aid for an expansion of marine/hydrokinetic energy projects, tapping the tides, currents and waves of the ocean and in rivers to generate electricity (2009).
• Sponsored and succeeded in passing a series of provisions to make a pending Renewable Electricity Standard less economically painful and more beneficial for Alaskans. The senator won provisions that will permit Alaska utilities that generate renewable energy, even though Alaska is not connected to the interstate transmission grid, to sell credits equal to the power they produce from renewable sources, to utilities in the Lower 48. The credits may help them to afford to pay off financing charges for installation of renewable projects (Amdt. 09844, Section 131). The Senator also won amendments that will allow Alaska Native corporations to qualify (Amdt. 09307) along with tribes to gain extra (double) credits from the generation of renewable energy, which may help to finance renewable projects in rural areas. (2009)
• Won an amendment to provide credits for the installation of additional forms of hydroelectric power, including lake-taps of any size, small hydro projects defined as projects up to 50 megawatts in size (compared to the current 5 megawatts in existing federal law), and pumped storage projects (Amdt. 09994). The RES standard, as adopted by the committee, should also permit homeowners, firms or businesses that generate renewable energy in excess of their needs – distributive energy – to gain triple credits to sell to utilities elsewhere to help fund renewable energy projects. (2009)
• Renewable Energy Tax Credits/Alaska Energy Aid: Secured an extension for three years of the Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit through 2012 for wind and to 2013 for most other technologies, the ability for renewable energy developers to take a 30 percent investment tax credit instead of the Production Tax Credit over a 10-year period, a removal of limits on energy credits so that people can claim a 30 percent tax credit for qualified small wind, geothermal heat pump and solar water heating devices regardless of cost, and a new authorization to permit another $1.6 billion of Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) to be issued by states and local governments to provide tax-free bonds to pay for renewable energy projects.
• Secured $26 million for Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block grants, $18.1 million for weatherization, and $28.56 million for the state’s energy program in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (PL111-5, 2009).
• Renewable Energy Deployment Grant/ Geothermal Grant Programs: authored and won two provisions that provide federal matching grants of up to 50% of the cost of designing and constructing all types of renewable energy projects in Alaska from wind, geothermal, ocean (wave, tidal and current), biomass, solar, landfill gas and small hydroelectric projects up to 15 megawatts in size; The second grant focuses aid exclusively on geothermal projects in high-cost areas. Utilities that receive grants must pay Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wages to workers. (PL 110-140, 2007)
• Sponsored and won first OCS Revenue Sharing Program for Alaska as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (PL 109-58).  . The money must be used for projects and activities for the conservation, protection or restoration of coastal areas, including wetlands, for fishery projects, wildlife or natural resources, planning assistance and the administration costs of comprehensive conservation management plants, or the mitigation of the impact of the OCS activities through funding of onshore infrastructure projects and public service needs.
• Authored fuel conservation provisions in the Energy Independence and Security Act (PL 110-140):

1.    To require a study of the fuel savings that could result from CAFE standards for heavy commercial trucks;

2.    Provides tax breaks to companies that design, and individuals who buy, Energy Star devices for cold climates;

3.    Expand research for geothermal energy;

4.    Provide additional aid for ocean energy development and centers for research.

• Authored and won passage of loan and grant program for small (less than 5 megawatt) hydroelectric projects to replace expensive diesel fuel (2008 PL 110-246).
• Authored and won passage (2008, PL 110-229) of the Alaska Water Resources Act to study the availability of water supplies on the Kenai Peninsula, in Anchorage, Mat-Su, and Fairbanks to determine the quantity of available groundwater, survey water treatment needs, and propose future technology for potable water.  Also requires USGS to review need for streamflow gauging stations to improve flood forecasting.
• Authored and won passage of the Mercury Export Ban Bill (2008, PL 110-414) to prohibit the export of mercury from the US starting in 2013 so as to protect lakes, rivers, oceans, streams, fish, wildlife and people and to establish a secure storage reserve to protect air and groundwater.
• Reynolds Creek Hydroelectric License Extension (passed 2006, PL 109-297) to give developers more time to proceed with construction of the 5 megawatt hydroelectric project located near Hydaburg on Prince of Wales Island (construction scheduled to begin next year).
• Authored and won passage (2004, PL 108-325) of the Craig Land Exchange bill, under which the City of Craig exchanged to Sunnahae property and trail to the Forest Service for prime recreation and hiking trails for the site of the former Wards Cove Packing Company site, a prime location for economic development in Central Prince of Wales Island.
• Authored and won passage Amchitka Nuclear Workers Compensation Aid and pushed for final regulations to expand and improve provisions of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act for Alaskans affected by nuclear tests at Amchitka Island (2004).

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