🇺🇸 Why Launch Alaska Cares About Public Policy, and Why It Matters for Alaska
By Penny Gage, Launch Alaska
At Launch Alaska, our ambitious goal to support the deployment of $1 billion in climate tech projects across our state by 2030 requires big thinking and bold action. Increasingly we are focusing on the public policy levers that can make or break this deployment and lead Alaska in the energy transition away from high carbon sources of energy to a regenerative future for all.
Our public policy positions are formed by a few core beliefs and lessons.
-
We believe the technologies, business models, and investments to solve some of Alaska’s most challenging problems are ready to go today – but their successful deployment and subsequent economic impact depend on our policy and regulatory frameworks.
-
We have learned that bringing climate tech companies to Alaska and connecting them to customers through our accelerator program only solves some of the challenges faced by our communities. Public policy plays a critical role in the widespread rollout and adoption of these technologies.
-
As a nonprofit organization with a mission to decarbonize Alaska, we are advocating for systemic change. Our mission can only be realized when leaders hear our voices, understand our arguments, and see our cause as worthy of action. It’s our duty to be strong advocates and connect policymakers to ideas that can move our state forward.
Over the past several months, we have been working to empower and support entrepreneurial climate technology leaders and their deployment in Alaska through political advocacy and active engagement around the policies that affect this work the most. Over the coming months and years, we will be acting much like the startup companies we work with – ideating, testing, failing, learning, and growing in this work. We hope you will join us on this journey.
SHAPING POLICY PRIORITIES
We base our policy priorities around issues raised by our local partners and companies in the Launch Alaska Portfolio. In order to understand the opportunities and challenges that our 32 portfolio companies are facing in our state and around the world, we survey them twice a year, recently asking specific questions on public policy. Their answers point to specific ways the government can support the growing climate tech sector.
Last summer, when asked how companies saw public policy accelerating their business, overwhelmingly responses focused on opportunities in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The majority of our portfolio companies also noted they saw the government as an important source of contracts, grants, and incentives – important tools for attracting and leveraging additional private capital and compounding impact. In our most recent survey in early 2023, again the IIJA loomed large, as well as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which had passed in the months since the prior survey. These federal bills have important implications for Alaska project deployment and our portfolio companies’ bottom lines as the grant programs and tax credits therein can help make or break a project.
Another takeaway from the survey was that most of our portfolio companies currently focus their efforts on tracking items at the US federal level and they expressed a desire to learn more about state-level issues in Alaska. We work with growing startups that are still building out their teams and capabilities, and the vast majority have told us they don’t have staff dedicated to government affairs.
When asked what would be the most helpful public policy support Launch Alaska could provide, companies’ top three responses were state-level legislative tracking, education about Alaska policies, and educating Alaska policymakers and community officials. One entrepreneur wrote, “Educating policymakers about technologies that exist to solve the (climate) problem is extremely important.” Another entrepreneur requested networking events that would bring “tech, investors, and policymakers together.”
We asked portfolio companies about the barriers they saw to doing business in Alaska. Top answers included:
-
Identification of funding sources
-
Lack of clarity from state agencies
-
Knowing or understanding current or upcoming policies, such as the Power Cost Equalization program
-
Connecting with stakeholders
-
Incentives for legacy industries
We also asked about success stories in Alaska. There were several:
-
The IRA reducing costs of microgrid systems.
-
Success working with particular state agencies like the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities or the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
-
Success working with boroughs and municipalities like the Northwest Arctic Borough and with federal agency staff in Alaska, such as the Arctic Energy Office.
Our goal now is to help overcome the barriers and build on these successes.
IT STARTS WITH RELATIONSHIPS
Creating strong public policy for the energy transition starts with education. Over the last several months, we’ve spent significant time educating and engaging elected officials and policy leaders around topics of climate innovation. This work is powered by relationships – already a critical part of our mission, especially in a tight-knit place like Alaska.
To strengthen existing relationships and build new ones, this year Launch Alaska CEO Isaac Vanderburg and I have taken two trips to our state capital, Juneau. We met with 19 legislators and the Governor’s staff to communicate Launch Alaska’s work and goals, and present our organization and our Portfolio companies as resources to policymakers who want to learn more. Alongside partners, we gave informational presentations to the House Transportation Committee and the House Energy Special Committee, focused on clean hydrogen and local solar farm project development, respectively. And Isaac was recently appointed to the Governor’s Energy Security Task Force, which will be coming up with strategies to lower the cost of electricity statewide and think comprehensively about our energy plan. Launch Alaska also engages closely with Alaska’s congressional delegation and international partners as appropriate, sharing with the German Ambassador to the U.S. some of Alaska’s clean energy success stories on her recent trip to Anchorage.
We are also working to provide more information to Launch Alaska Portfolio companies about 2023 state legislative activities and bills that would impact their companies – everything from proposed carbon offsets to a statewide green bank, to a Renewable Portfolio Standard which would compel the state’s five urban utilities to source 80% of their energy from renewable sources by 2040.
NEXT STEPS
Alaska’s energy transition path depends on three things: technology, capital, and public policy. As an organization, if we don’t focus on public policy, we miss the opportunity for impact and to meet our mission.
As requested by both our Portfolio companies and legislators, we are planning educational events later this year to show policymakers and their staff the success stories in climate tech in Alaska and answer their questions about these new projects. We want the excitement we feel for the deployment of climate tech to be shared with elected officials.
We want to make sure that Alaska is open for business. Climate tech can support our communities and economy as we electrify and decarbonize. And when a project succeeds or fails, we want to make sure that policymakers know why and how. We hope that entrepreneurs can be engaged early on in the public process to weigh in on policies and regulations that can open up opportunities for Alaska.
Most of all, we want to help Alaska to lead in the global energy transition.
