Therriault joins AEA energy policy team

As it works to become the lead state agency for energy policy development, the Alaska Energy Authority has brought former state Sen. Gene Therriault into a managerial role.

As deputy director for statewide energy policy development, the former Interior lawmaker will become the “primary state coordinator for multi-agency energy policy development and program implementation,” according to the AEA announcement.

In the new position Therriault will focus on Interior issues such as bringing gas to Fairbanks, on energy efficiency and conservation and on rural energy policy issues. He will also join the team working on a hydroelectric dam at Watana on the Susitna River.

“AEA’s mission is to reduce the cost of energy in Alaska,” AEA Executive Director Sara Fisher-Goad said in a prepared statement. “We are happy to respond to the governor’s call to expand AEA’s role as lead on statewide energy policy, and we look forward to having Gene as part of the team as we work to fulfill our responsibility to Alaskans.”

In a statement, Gov. Sean Parnell called Therriault “a natural fit” for energy policy work at AEA, citing his “extensive background in energy issues and policy development.”

Therriault served in the state House of Representatives from 1993 to 2000, and in the state Senate from 2001 to 2009, including a stint as senate president from 2003 to 2004.

Therriault left the Alaska Legislature to take a newly created position as energy adviser in the first term of the Parnell administration, but stepped down in July 2010 amid questions about the legality of his hiring. While defending his hiring, he said the debate threatened to “divert Alaskans’ attention from the important matters we have been working on.”

Therriault, who will begin his AEA duties in August, is currently vice president of resource development and external affairs at Golden Valley Electric Association.

—Eric Lidji