No, Juneau doesn't have permafrost. We're only a thousand air miles farther north than Seattle.

What about sub-marine lines, as Ted Merrell suggests above? The electric company already has power going to the inhabited island a half mile away, for instance.

"They" say that when Snettisham was being created 30 years ago, conduit was proposed to them. They said, I'm told, that it would have cost another 1.5 million dollars- too expensive. A few years back the subject came up and they said that nowadays the cost would be at least 4 million dollars. I don't know how much more it would cost these days but I do know that the 20 or 25 million it's going to cost the taxpayers today is a lot of money.

By the way we have been told that not only will the kwh cost be at least 50 cents but the subscribers will also have to bear the cost of the repairs itself. They have offered to spread the cost over the next 12 month period.

(Thank you, Beaubie!)