FAIRBANKS Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Luke Hopkins and local business leaders detailed a $250 million project to truck natural gas from the North Slope to Fairbanks at public meetings Tuesday.

Under the plan, the port authority, which is made up of the North Star Borough, the North Slope Borough and Valdez would issue bonds to pay for the purchase of Fairbanks Natural Gas. The port authority, which includes Hopkins on its board of directors, would pay for construction of a natural gas plant on the North Slope and a storage facility in North Pole.

Golden Valley Electric Association would buy the port authority’s gas and reportedly lower its rates an estimated

6 percent. Some Fairbanks-area businesses and residents would have a cheaper source for heat.

“We still have an energy crisis on our hands,” Hopkins told a group of about 30 people who attended the later of two meetings at the Carlson Center. “We’ve been seeing the rising prices of fuel and electricity.”

The mayor touted natural gas as improving air quality since it burns cleaner than oil and helping the local economy since lower energy prices would likely spur consumer spending.

The project is expected to create 70-100 construction jobs and 45-50 long-term, well-paying jobs in Fairbanks and on the North Slope.

Under the proposed contract with AGPA, gas-fired electricity would be cheaper than oil-fired power whenever oil prices are above $55 per barrel, GVEA President and CEO Brian Newton said.

Prices today are at about $80 per barrel.

Savings to Fairbanks residents who heat with oil and switch to gas also would depend on the price of crude. At today's prices, trucking natural gas to Fairbanks could save the average Fairbanks family $800 per year, said Fairbanks Natural Gas President Dan Britton.

A family could save as much as $3,000 per year on energy if oil were to again hit record heights of $140 per barrel, Britton said.

Hopkins called the proposal a “bridge energy solution,” until a natural gas pipeline can hopefully be built from the North Slope.

“Some of us are pretty old and have heard there’s a pipeline coming for a long time,” he said.

Fairbanks Natural Gas President Dan Britton said that with construction of a pipeline at least a decade away, trucking gas could still be cheaper then with the initial costs of the project paid down.

“Hope is not a strategy,” Britton said of a possible pipeline.

Another presentation of the plan is scheduled for

6 p.m. tonight at the North Pole City Hall.

The plan is pending approval of the GVEA board of directors, which meets on March 29. The deal is subject to approval from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska as well as the Borough Assembly.