our gas is running short

Enstar, the utility that heats roughly 150,000 homes across Anchorage, the Mat-Su Valley, and the Kenai Peninsula, says it may not have enough natural gas supply to get Southcentral Alaska through the coming winter. The company's president said conditions heading into the cold season are not looking good and that more gas needs to be produced to meet demand.

The warning comes after state regulators rejected a plan that would have let Enstar store a large reserve of natural gas in a depleted reservoir near Kenai. The storage project carried a $240 million price tag and would have raised monthly customer bills by an estimated ten to twelve dollars.

Enstar has not abandoned the storage proposal. The company is asking regulators to reconsider the plan this month. If regulators do not reverse course, Enstar has warned it may ask Southcentral customers to turn down their thermostats this winter to stretch the gas supply already in the pipeline.

The utility's longer-term backup option is importing liquefied natural gas from outside Alaska. Imported gas typically costs more than gas produced locally, meaning the fallback plan could raise costs for households and businesses across Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley that heat with gas.