There's a document in Southcentral Alaska that lists the order in which we stop delivering gas if there isn't enough.
Industrial users first. Businesses second. Churches, schools, hospitals and homes last.
I want to be fair about that list, because it's a good list. Whoever wrote it put families at the end on purpose, and put the hospital in the same protected tier as your house. That's the correct set of priorities and it reflects well on the people who drew it up.
Here's what I can't get past. The list exists.
Not as a doomsday binder in a drawer somewhere. As a working document, for this winter, in a state with roughly 35 trillion cubic feet of known gas sitting on the North Slope. We are rationing an abundance. That's not a natural disaster, it's an accounting entry, the compounded cost of fifty years of nearly finishing something.
Storage is the near-term version of it. A normal winter start wants around seven billion cubic feet banked; as of late July we were near four. When Enstar offered $17.50 per thousand cubic feet to anyone who would drill and produce new gas, no one took it. Not because sellers were holding out for more. Because, as Enstar's president put it, nobody has the gas right now that they're willing to sell.
And on the power side, Matanuska Electric's CEO has said plainly that he can't guarantee reliable service and may need rolling thirty-minute outages, possibly starting in November, so gas can be routed to heat.
We are rationingan abundance
None of these people are villains in this story. Every one of them is competently managing a shortage they inherited. The utilities didn't decide not to build the connection between the North Slope and the rest of us. That decision got made, and unmade, and remade, in rooms in Juneau and Washington for half a century, and the bill for it shows up in your mailbox now.
So when someone tells you Alaska has an energy problem, be precise with them. Alaska has more energy than almost anywhere on the planet. What Alaska has is a delivery problem, and delivery problems get solved by people who finish things.
I'd rather be the state that built the line late than the state that wrote a better list.
Sources and fact notes
Enstar pays Hilcorp $8.78 per thousand cubic feet under contract; Enstar's weighted average cost of gas is $10.80. Enstar is offering $17.50 per thousand cubic feet to anyone willing to drill and produce new gas, and has found no takers—Enstar president John Sims: “nobody has the gas right now that they're willing to sell.” (Alaska Public Media / Anchorage Daily News, “As winter approaches, Southcentral Alaska utilities are worried about running short of gas,” Jul 28–29, 2026.) Matanuska Electric CEO Tony Izzo, that for the first time in his career he cannot guarantee reliable power under normal operation, and that MEA may use rolling thirty-minute outages as a worst-case response to extreme cold (Anchorage Daily News, “Mayors warn of increased utility costs as Southcentral Alaska natural gas shortage becomes more ‘urgent’,” Jul 29, 2026; KTNA, Jul 2026). Enstar is separately seeking about 3 Bcf, and Cook Inlet storage stood near 4 Bcf against the ~7 a normal winter start wants, as of late July (Mat-Su Sentinel, Jul 29, 2026). North Slope known gas commonly cited at roughly 35 trillion cubic feet; note it is currently reinjected for reservoir pressure. Fairbanks saw roughly 60% increases in the cost of electricity last winter, per Sims.