An 89 million dollar federal grant for a coal plant in the Susitna watershed
The Department of Energy selected Terra Energy Center Corporation of Anchorage, an affiliate of Flatlands Energy, for an 89 million dollar grant to study a 1,250 megawatt coal fired power plant west of Skwentna, with a 60 mile pipeline carrying its carbon dioxide to Beluga for injection into a depleted gas reservoir. The money funds a viability assessment rather than construction, and Terra must match it.
How the public reaches this
The grant selection carried no public comment period. Comment rooms open later, when the mine, the plant, the pipeline and the injection well each need their own permits.
Timeline
Sources
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How this decision moved
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2026-08-06 Tracked, with two figures corrected against the reporting. A reader described this as an 89 million dollar grant to Flatlands Energy for a 400 megawatt plant. The recipient named is Terra Energy Center Corporation, an affiliate of Flatlands, and the plant described is 1,250 megawatts. It belongs on this docket because Railbelt power is what the region's data center proposals are competing for, and because of how far it is from being real. There is no finalized design, no permitted coal mine and no signed power purchase agreement with any utility, and the site sits more than 60 miles from the nearest transmission line. It also depends on the West Susitna Access Road, put at over a billion dollars and not counted in the project's costs. The Susitna River Coalition and the Alaska chapter of the Sierra Club have both objected.
Cite this
Alaska AI Docket, An 89 million dollar federal grant for a coal plant in the Susitna watershed.
Tracked since August 6, 2026, last verified
August 6, 2026. https://alaskaaihq.com/docket/terra-energy-center-doe-grant/ · Reuse permitted under
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