The Alaska Black Business Directory has published a directory including more than 200 black-owned businesses in Alaska. Per the organization’s website, the first “basic edition” of the directory was published in late July. Co-owners and operators Jasmin Smith and Shawn Idom plan to update the directory to include city organizations and contact information.
alaskablackbusinessdirectory.com

The US Army Corps of Engineers–Alaska District (USACE) published the final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Pebble Limited Partnership’s application to discharge fill material into US waters for the purpose of developing a copper-molybdenum-gold mine project in the Bristol Bay region. The final EIS isn’t a permit decision and doesn’t authorize operation of the mine. The Corps is responsible for making a permit decision under two authorities—Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act. The document is available electronically at the Pebble Project EIS website.
usace.army.mil | pebblepartnership.com

The US Department of Energy awarded the Municipality of Anchorage Department of Solid Waste Services (SWS) a nearly $690,000 grant to help fund the city’s first electric garbage truck and medium-duty box truck. The grant will also help pay for a battery charging system. SWS operates a fleet of seventy vehicles, including twenty-two garbage trucks. Diesel garbage trucks have a low average efficiency of 2 miles per gallon making them good candidates for electrification. Replacing a diesel garbage truck with an electric version reduces fuel and maintenance costs and improves air quality.
muni.org/Departments/SWS

Pacific Dataport is moving forward with the Aurora Project by acquiring a new earth station antenna and ground station from Kratos Defense & Security Solution. The new antenna—a 9-meter dish—will be built at LBiSat’s new gateway facility in Utah. The new ground station will communicate with the Aurora 4A GEO HTS satellite currently being built by Astranis in San Francisco. The Aurora 4A GEO HTS satellite, slated to begin service next summer, will triple Alaska’s satellite bandwidth.
auroraiv.com

The University of Alaska (UA) Board of Regents selected Pat Pitney to serve as the university’s interim president. “One of the reasons the board felt so strongly about Pat as interim president was because of her demonstrated commitment to a spirit of partnership with university leadership and the principles of shared governance. We are confident that she has the skills to address the range of issues facing UA. We also are confident that her many years of experience in leadership positions and state government will benefit and unify all of us,” says Board Chair Sheri Buretta. The vote to appoint Pitney was unanimous.
alaska.edu

The Implementation Committee (IC) of the Railbelt Reliability Council (RRC) named Chris Rose of Renewable Energy Alaska Project and Jerry Rust of Northwest Power Pool as the final two participants to the RRC’s unaffiliated seats. Now that the IC is fully seated, it will develop bylaws and other foundational documents to define and stand up the RRC. It is the goal of the RRC to then apply to become the Electric Reliability Organization for the Railbelt electric system as defined in Senate Bill 123.
alaskapower.org/rrc