Renewables are a nice sounding concept that has been turned into a crony-capitalist scam where insiders get free government money (ADM, Solyndra, Tesla) to produce things the government mandates them to produce (CAFE standards for instance).  When they go bankrupt, that cash is laundered back into democrat political campaigns to elect democrats who will write the next check.

If you want renewables here in AK, you should be in full throated roar for the Watana Dam and reactors, none of which I saw in your piece.

Final thought:  You are correct on the natural gas pipeline from the standpoint that it is not economic.  OTOH, synthetic diesel produced by GTL / CTL Fischer Tropsch can be batched down the existing TAPS.  We are going to be on carbon-based liquid fuels for hundreds of years.  Happily we have enough to supply thousands of years.  Cheers -