MEA board of directors president Lee Jordan of Birchwood leads the annual meeting of MEA members in the Pledge of Allegiance during Saturday's meeting at Colony High School in Palmer. Star Photo By DARRELL L. BREESE

Borrowed from Gov. Sarah Palin's campaign, who was also the meeting's guest speaker, everyone was talking about new energy.

After calling the meeting to order, MEA board of directors president Lee Jordan said the board had worked hard to keep the lights on and the bills low. He went on to highlight the potential of MEA building two new power-generating plants in the near future.

“Together we will take MEA out of the dark ages and into a bright future,” Jordan proclaimed.

MEA general manager Wayne Carmony followed, reporting that MEA represents an annual revenue stream of $55 million to Chugach Electric for the purchase of wholesale electricity.

“That is the reason we're moving away from Chugach and into the power generation business,” Carmony said. “Besides, MEA is the only electric utility along the railbelt that doesn't produce a portion of its own electricity.”

Gov. Palin then drew a parallel between Alaska developing the gas line and the potential for having energy independence with MEA moving in the same direction in developing power plants.

“The state and MEA are at a crossroads,” Palin said. “We need to seize this time to harness our energy resources, including renewable sources of energy.”

Amidst all the talk of new energy, the MEA members voted to replace incumbents with new faces during the board of directors election.

Current board of directors member Larry DeVilbiss retained his seat representing the Palmer district, and former Matanuska Telephone Association board of directors member Katie Hurley won the seat for the Wasilla district.

David Glines won a close four-candidate race for the seat being left vacant by the resignation of Linda Shattock from the board. Glines received 791 of the 2,280 votes from Eagle River District members, just beating Will Alteneder, who received 731 votes.

“This means I will be attending a lot more meetings,” Glines said after the election results were announced. “If the results stand, I'm not going on the board with any preconceived notion or opinion about what needs to be done. I know there are some things that need to be looked at, and I'm going to try and get a handle on what is and is not going on at the board level.”

The MEA board of directors meet Monday to certify the election results.

In addition to electing new board members, MEA held the annual drawing for a beater truck, which was won by John and Delores Brass of Wasilla.

They also announced the 34 finalists for MEA's scholarships, including Chugiak High School senior Michael DeTerra, who was awarded a $2,000 scholarship.

Reach the reporter at darrell.breese@alaskastar.com.

This article published in The Alaska Star on Thursday, March 22, 2007.