Cynthia Henry didn’t mention how Trump raised energy prices in Fairbanks

Cynthia Henry, one of the leaders of the Republican Party in Alaska, has joined the “Build the Line!” cheerleading squad, now claiming that members of the Senate majority are the only thing standing between Alaskans and a blissful era of cheap energy.

The Republican National Committeewoman for Alaska, she put her name on a shameless Daily News-Miner letter to the editor that blames Sen. Scott Kawasaki for preventing the arrival of energy nirvana.

“Never have we experienced such high costs for electricity and heat. Golden Valley Electric Association bills are shocking!” says a shocked Henry.

“The state is on the brink of a solution to these high energy costs. The proposed gas line from the North Slope could bring affordable energy to the Interior. Fairbanks needs this more than any other part of the state. The gas line bill has been before the Legislature for months. Where is Sen. Scott Kawasaki?!?”

Here are a couple of things that Henry skipped over in her screed.

First, she didn’t mention that the steep increases this year in heating oil prices and the cost of electricity are a direct result of Donald Trump deciding to do to war with Iran.

Trump did not have and does not have a coherent strategy regarding Iran. In the Trump era, Henry and other Republican officials are forbidden from exercising independent thought or pointing out the obvious.

Henry did not behave in this way when she served on the school board, the assembly and the UA Board of Regents.

Second, the claim that we are on the brink of a solution to these high energy costs is absurd. The sooner people stop repeating this the better.

There is no coherent strategy to “Build the Line!” There is a bubble-headed slogan, along with billboards and bumper stickers, but no real plan for the largest infrastructure project in Alaska history.

Glenfarne, which claimed last fall that it was going to order pipe worth hundreds of millions early this year, has changed its story time and time again over the past year.

For a reasonable analysis, read this editorial by the Anchorage Daily News.

“It’s time to put the gas line negotiations on hold. Allow a new governor to take office in December, use the intervening months to do the financial and political groundwork necessary, and return to the issue with a fresh outlook and renewed vigor when the Legislature convenes in January,” the Daily News said.

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