Final appointments to the task force are now being made, which will allow the panel to get up and running. Murkowski appointed Wayne Carmony, general manager of Matanuska Electric Association and Rick Eckert Jr., interim general manager of Homer Electric Association, on Aug. 27.

Six earlier appointments were made by House Speaker Pete Kott and Senate President Gene Therriault. A final appointment by Therraiult is pending.

Others on the task force include Steve Haagenson, president and chief executive officer of Golden Valley Electric Association; Robert Wilkenson, chief executive of Copper Valley Electric Association; H.A. "Red" Boucher, a board member of Chugach Electric Association, Dave Carlson, intertie coordinator for the Southeast Conference; Mike Barry, chairman of the Alaska Energy Authority and Alaska Industrial Development of Export Authority board; and state Deputy Revenue Commissioner Tom Boutin.

A date for the first meeting of the task force will be set soon, according to Becky Gay, coordinator of the task force.

With many of the state's heavy-hitters on electricity policy named to the task force, legislators will look to it for recommendations on a hornet's nest of problems and controversies that involve state funding for energy projects, including squabbles among the state's electric utilities.

Rep. John Harris, R-Valdez, who sponsored House Concurrent Resolution 21, creating the task force, said its recommendations will be important to the Legislature, which must make decisions on state funding for power projects.

"These are major expenditures and they must be made as a part of a cohesive plan," Harris said.

Energy issues on the table include use of state funds on a controversial southern intertie project, which would add a second electrical transmission line connecting Anchorage with the Kenai Peninsula; squabbles between utilities over power sharing agreements and financial participation in upgrades; and an effort to provide power to the big Donlin Creek gold project being planned north of Bethel, along with communities in the region.

According to a staff report prepared for the new task force, one of the most pressing issues will be modernization of the railbelt's basic electrical generation and transmission system, much of which is 20 to 40 years old.

"The existing line between Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula was built in 1962. The existing line between Healy and Fairbanks was built in 1967," the staff report said. "Due to transmission constraints that limit power imports from Anchorage, 35 percent of Fairbanks' demand must now be supplied at high cost from local, oil-fired generators."

Disputes between the railbelt utilities sometimes get in the way of efforts to upgrade the grid, the staff report said. The state, through the Alaska Energy Authority, owns portions of the railbelt intertie system. "Inter-utility relationships occasionally result in disputes. These tend to spill over into the Alaska Energy Authority's renegotiation of agreements," regarding use of the intertie, the staff report said.

"The renegotiation of an AEA agreement provides an opportunity for one utility to apply leverage to another, with the authority stuck in the middle as the go-between," the staff report said.

"AEA's current involvement in upgrading the Alaska Intertie, and extending a wheeling (power sharing) agreement is impacted by inter-utility disputes," the report said.

Long-range plans for adding new electric generating plants in the railbelt regions of the state will also be on the table. Utilities have depended largely on natural gas as fuel for power plants, but gas reserves in Cook Inlet are declining and power plants built a quarter of a century ago are aging and will need replacing.

When new power plants are planned, local utilities and state officials will have to decide whether they should continue using natural gas or whether coal from large undeveloped coal fields near the railbelt should be used.

More gas is being found in the Cook Inlet basin, but it will be more expensive than gas previously purchased by the utilities. If gas is someday brought to Southcentral Alaska from the North Slope, it will also be more expensive than what is being paid today for gas.

Proponents of coal-fired generation say they can supply electricity for less than the cost of generating power with gas.

Golden Valley Electric Association now generates power with coal in a 25 Megwatt power plant at Healy, and GVEA and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority are discussing plans to restart a mothballed 50 Megawatt coal plant, also at Healy.

Usibelli Coal Mine, Inc., operator of the coal mine at Healy that supplies coal to the GVEA plant, is proposing a new 200 Megawatt plant at Emma Creek, a nearby location.

Near Anchorage, almost 1.5 billion tons of coal are proven and indicated through drilling in the Beluga coal fields west of Anchorage. A coal-fired power plant at Beluga is another option being considered for long-term railbelt power needs.