Defense and federal AI in Alaska

Where this beat stands

Alaska AI tracks 8 decisions on this beat, each one with the documents it was verified against. 1 is open for public comment right now. The nearest date is Nov 2 on DeepGreen's underwater data center in Cook Inlet. The bodies deciding on this beat include Department of the Air Force, Enhanced Use Lease program, Alaska Department of Administration, Office of Procurement and Property Management and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Decisions on this beat

1. Air Force land leases for AI data centers at JBER, Eielson and Clear

   Pending decision · Department of the Air Force, Enhanced Use Lease program

   The Air Force offered about 4,700 acres across 12 parcels at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Eielson AFB and Clear Space Force Station for privately financed AI data centers. Residents near the five Eielson-area parcels raised noise, permafrost and grid concerns, including one parcel less than a mile from North Pole Middle School.

   13 sources on file · the full record

2. Alaska's statewide speech-to-text contract

   Pending decision · Alaska Department of Administration, Office of Procurement and Property Management

   Alaska is soliciting one statewide contract to convert speech, live or recorded, into written text for general, medical and legal records. The notice says every state governmental entity may use the resulting contract, naming the Legislative Branch, the Court System, the University of Alaska, boards and commissions, cities, boroughs, school districts and federally recognized tribes. The public notice does not use the terms artificial intelligence, machine learning or automated speech recognition.

   1 source on file · the full record

3. The Dixon Glacier diversion into Bradley Lake

   Pending decision · Federal Energy Regulatory Commission · Nov 30

   The Alaska Energy Authority has asked FERC to amend the license for the Bradley Lake Hydroelectric Project, the largest in Alaska, so it can build a new dam diverting meltwater and surface runoff from the Dixon Glacier into Bradley Lake, raise the lake's normal maximum operating pool by about 16 feet, and install a 0.3 megawatt micro-hydro turbine in one of the dam's fishwater release valves. The application projects about 38 percent more average annual generation while installed capacity rises from 119.7 to 120.0 megawatts, because the gain comes from water rather than from turbines. AEA estimates construction at about $400 million and about three years of study and permitting followed by three years of construction. FERC accepting the application for filing is a procedural step and not an approval.

   7 sources on file · the full record

4. The Air Force nuclear microreactor at Eielson

   Pending decision · Department of the Air Force with Defense Logistics Agency Energy, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the license

   The Air Force intends to award Oklo a 30 year fixed price power purchase agreement for a microreactor delivering up to 5 megawatts to Eielson Air Force Base outside Fairbanks. Oklo would build, own and operate it, and the contract is signed only after Oklo obtains a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

   8 sources on file · the full record

5. The executive order that lets big data centers skip the usual federal review

   Watching · The President, carried out by the Council on Environmental Quality and the Interior, Energy and Defense departments

   Executive Order 14318, Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure, directs federal agencies to speed approvals for data centers adding more than 100 megawatts of load or costing at least 500 million dollars. It tells agencies to find and create categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act, and directs Interior and Energy to offer federal sites while Defense may competitively lease military land.

   3 sources on file · the full record

6. An 89 million dollar federal grant for a coal plant in the Susitna watershed

   Pending decision · U.S. Department of Energy made the selection; the plant itself needs state and federal permits nobody has applied for yet

   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.

   4 sources on file · the full record

7. Alaska's bid to run its own carbon storage permits

   Pending decision · Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission applies; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decides

   The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is applying to the Environmental Protection Agency for primary enforcement authority over Class VI wells, the wells used to inject carbon dioxide for permanent underground storage. If the application succeeds the state, not the federal government, would permit and police every carbon storage well in Alaska.

   3 sources on file · the full record

8. DeepGreen's underwater data center in Cook Inlet

   Open for comment · Federal Energy Regulatory Commission · Nov 2

   DeepGreen Cook Inlet SPV LLC, a Delaware company whose parent formed in January 2026, applied to FERC in February for a preliminary permit over an initial operational envelope of 1,650 acres of Cook Inlet seabed west of Nikiski, proposing a 100 megawatt data center of 66 hives of AI servers powered and cooled by approximately 330 to 350 tidal turbines in water 45 to 166 feet deep. A preliminary permit authorizes study rather than construction, for up to four years, and FERC's Northwest branch found the application incomplete in a June 18th letter.

   15 sources on file · the full record

Every one of these is also in the full Alaska AI Docket, published as open data at /data/ under CC BY 4.0.

Articles on this beat

The State Flew the Kuskokwim. An AI Prospector Arrived.

OCTOBER 21ST · 9 SLIDES

Lines ran 400 meters apart and about 100 meters up.

Played Bethel's Yup'ik, the Model Answered Across the Sea

OCTOBER 20TH · 9 SLIDES

The model named KYUK's Yup'ik clips Central Siberian Yupik 111 times and Yup'ik 110.

A Year After Halong, the Map Under the AI Forecast

OCTOBER 17TH · 9 SLIDES

Climatologist Rick Thoman told KYUK it has happened at every airport in the region since April.

Software Can Read the Tape. The Camera Is the Cost.

OCTOBER 14TH · 9 SLIDES

On October 9th the Council backed a yearly test. A boat averaging under 3 trips a year over 3 years goes to observers from 2028 in NMFS's draft.

Fairbanks So Far. A 123-Vote Lead, 1,235 Ballots Out

OCTOBER 10TH · 9 SLIDES

How does Alexis Howell lead Miguel Ramirez by 123 in Seat D? Ramirez won Election Day by 639. Howell won early voting by 762. Seat H's lead came the same way.

Alaska's Second Wire Has a Passenger List

OCTOBER 7TH · 9 SLIDES

It would run about 223 miles from Beluga through West Susitna and Willow.

Of 150 Cited, 119 Used AI. The Rule Says Devices.

OCTOBER 6TH · 8 SLIDES

The Dean of Students Office report counted 150 students cited for academic misconduct. 119 used AI, 1.1 percent of the more than 10,500 who attended last semester.

Fairbanks Votes Tuesday. Six Voices on AI Data Centers

OCTOBER 3RD · 9 SLIDES

The October 6th vote doesn't decide whether data centers come. It picks who asks the borough's questions.

Alaska's SNAP Bill Reads a Year That Opened Thursday

OCTOBER 2ND · 9 SLIDES

All four clear 10 percent, where Public Law 119-21 has a state pay 15 percent of benefit costs. The 2025 rate was the nation's highest and pushed Alaska's share to fiscal 2029. Fiscal...

Three Yeas, Three Short, No Start Date

OCTOBER 1ST · 9 SLIDES

The U.S. House passed H.R. 9340, a grid cost standard for big computing sites, 417 to 3 on September 16th. Begich voted yea.

A Say on 5 Megawatts at Eielson, Until September 30th

SEPTEMBER 28TH · 9 SLIDES

What's the work? Clearing, digging, filling and grading near Spruce Lake. The wetlands are why federal law requires the ask.

A Bigger Tank, Not a Bigger Engine. Bradley Lake and 2030

SEPTEMBER 27TH · 9 SLIDES

On a relief map and a cutaway, a proposed 4.6-mile tunnel carries Dixon Glacier water to Bradley Lake for more energy, not more megawatts, ending on a 1991 to 2032 calendar that splits what...

Six Data Center Sites. Two Answer to Juneau.

SEPTEMBER 25TH · 9 SLIDES

At Milepost 390, DNR's preliminary decision describes a 1 to 3 GW gas plant that feeds its computers and no Alaska grid. Near Houston, DNR proposes conveying about 19,950 acres to AIDEA...

Priority, Not Permission

SEPTEMBER 21ST · 9 SLIDES

Nothing is being built on the floor of Cook Inlet.

Every Notice Went Up

SEPTEMBER 20TH · 9 SLIDES

On August 23rd, 19 flares put about 374 grams of silver iodide into the clouds. Federal law takes a filing at least 10 days out. Rainmaker asked Alaska DNR first and got a letter of no...

One Center, and the 17,210 Outside It

SEPTEMBER 15TH · 9 SLIDES

The clock runs out March 7th, 2027 over a queue of 661,395 pending claims in mid September. The clause asks for "a comprehensive single source". A single source is a center.

Update. The Plan Got 250,000. The Aircraft Got More

SEPTEMBER 14TH · 9 SLIDES

This page reported that planning year as the whole machine story. Three weeks later it is not.

Alaska's Half Vote and a Federal Bill

SEPTEMBER 13TH · 9 SLIDES

Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie said that when his committee advanced H.R. 9340 by 52 to 0. The bill never writes "data center". It describes one, a customer with 100 megawatts...

One Agenda. Two Items. One Vote.

SEPTEMBER 10TH · 9 SLIDES

$598,998 in federal asset forfeiture money for the Real Time Crime Center.

The Sentence That Isn't in Executive Order 14421

SEPTEMBER 9TH · 10 SLIDES

The order borrows the statute's definition of the bulk-power system almost word for word. It adds a threshold the statute never had at 69,000 volts. The Alaska Energy Authority puts the...

Alaska AI Contracts and the Comma That Hides One

SEPTEMBER 7TH · 9 SLIDES

Zero records in common. One contract ends September 10th, 2026. Leisnoi Professional Services, $20,632,119.41 obligated, 8(a) sole source.

One Race Late. The limit and the money it missed.

SEPTEMBER 5TH · 9 SLIDES

Six people who list Anthropic as their employer gave $372,000 between February 3rd and May 7th. The company gave nothing.

Five Turning, One Still, and a Load With No Number

SEPTEMBER 3RD · 9 SLIDES

Pillar Mountain supplies most of the rest. One of its six turbines is stopped. In March the peak hit just over 31 MW and the diesels nearly ran.

Fairbanks Wrote One Line Twice

SEPTEMBER 1ST · 9 SLIDES

Resolution 2026-25 sets 25 priorities, 21 state and 4 federal. One heading appears on both lists. It asks for a moratorium on new commercial data centers on state-owned or municipal lands.

The Unsewn Volume

AUGUST 31ST · 9 SLIDES

On August 31st an FCC notice asked whether AI tools should review applications, audits and appeals. Nine sentences in it name AI, all questions.

Nineteen Flares Over the Kenai, and One Number

AUGUST 27TH · 9 SLIDES

Rainmaker's report puts the precipitation attributed to seeding at a mean of 57.62 acre feet, in a 5th to 95th percentile range of 41.70 to 89.35.

1,650 Acres of Priority to Study

AUGUST 21ST · 9 SLIDES

Checked August 21st, the Federal Register holds zero DeepGreen documents and seven for Cook Inlet hydrokinetic. FERC says comment comes after staff find a file complete.

Alaska Bought American. The Tariff Found a Seam.

AUGUST 20TH · 9 SLIDES

Ryan Marlow of Alaska DOT and PF calls the technology "crucial aerial support for search and rescue". Alaska's $12.4 million SOAR initiative funds drones and docking stations for rural...

A Poll Is Not a Ballot

AUGUST 19TH · 9 SLIDES

Data for Progress polled 605 likely voters from July 28th to August 4th. 63 percent of Republicans said pause too.

A Plan, a Study, and No Published Due Date

AUGUST 15TH · 9 SLIDES

The first federal answer to machines that talk to children is a plan and a study.

The Equal-Award Projection, 552 to 1

AUGUST 14TH · 9 SLIDES

NSF's new AI Infrastructure Hubs program caps both at one award.

Redoubt Weir. Lit To Install, Dark To Run

AUGUST 8TH · 9 SLIDES

Fish and Game put the Redoubt annual subsistence limit at 100 sockeye per household effective July 1st. Jeff Feldpausch of the Sitka Tribe told KCAW it was 50 before, and that the weir is...

The Land Is On Offer. The Power Is Not.

AUGUST 6TH · 9 SLIDES

What would run them? The lease solicitation says the JBER sites have "insufficient power" for a data center. AIDEA deputy director Brandon Brefczynski lists a power source among seven...

Both sides are printed on page 47241

AUGUST 5TH · 9 SLIDES

Your response to comments prints the objection. Commenters warned Alaska Tribes could face new barriers. The same pages answer that Alaska Native communities remain eligible across EAGLE.

Drawn to Scale, Except the Demand

AUGUST 4TH · 10 SLIDES

The megawatts are Bradley Lake. The Alaska Energy Authority has asked FERC to divert Dixon Glacier meltwater into the lake and add a 0.3 MW turbine. AEA projects about 38 percent more...

A Clause, and a Pit 1.1 Miles Wide

AUGUST 3RD · 9 SLIDES

Graphite One's July 22 release lists AI infrastructure among five end markets for natural graphite as a class. No customer, no offtake, no volume.

What the Notice Buys and What It Doesn't Print

AUGUST 2ND · 10 SLIDES

Vendors have 22 days to bid on one statewide contract to convert speech, live or recorded, into written or electronic text. It closes 9:30 A.M. on 24 August. Four days earlier the DMV's...

Where Are the 3,048? The Map Alaska Hasn't Drawn

AUGUST 1ST · 10 SLIDES

The machine here was two lists. Elections asked the DMV to compare them in March 2026.

Struck. And Still Printed. Alaska's $500 Cap

JULY 31ST · 10 SLIDES

The Ninth Circuit struck it on July 30, 2021, and nobody re-set the book.

Alaska's One Row on the Federal AI List

JULY 30TH · 9 SLIDES

Alaska's one federal AI award points at the grid, not at the new load.

One Line Out. Alaska's One Name on the AI Power Pledge

JULY 26TH · 9 SLIDES

Read on July 26, it is the only Alaska name on the White House pledge that AI load pays for its own power. Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed the governors addendum on July 23. It is non binding.

On File, Off Record. Alaska's AI Governor Race.

JULY 25TH · 10 SLIDES

Then Alaska's primary narrows a field of 17 who would write its AI rules. Reports made public this week show Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins with the largest reported haul, 1.8 million dollars...

Alaska's Critical Mineral Engine, and Its Unbuilt AI

JULY 15TH · 9 SLIDES

On July 14 the NSF named a University of Alaska Fairbanks coalition its Critical Mineral Accelerator Engine. It starts with 15 million dollars in hand, with up to 160 million over ten years...

The Anchorage Address

JULY 14TH · 8 SLIDES

ReconCraft is Alaska-incorporated, Anchorage-based, and Native-owned. On July 8 the Navy handed it $24,960,408, sole source, for autonomous low-profile vessels, boats that barely break the...

The Interior's Power Math

JULY 13TH · 9 SLIDES

The turbine would be firm, dated, gas-fired power. The AI data-center loads that make firm capacity feel urgent are still acreage and proposals on Air Force land. Meanwhile GVEA members...

Alaska's AI Land Rush, Four Rooms, One Open Door

JULY 8TH · 9 SLIDES

The state's comment window on Stak Energy's lease closes July 17. It is only one of four AI infrastructure decisions Alaska is making this month, and it is the only one that takes public...

Every beat

Data centers · Power and the grid · Land and permitting · Defense and federal · Research and science · Data sovereignty · State policy