News
WA environmental community announces its 2013 legislative priorities
Clean energy, toxic-free couches and kids’ products, and more funding for projects that protect the environment will be on legislators’ agendas for the 2013 legislative session in Olympia as Washington State’s Environmental Priorities Coalition announced its 2013 Priorities. These three Priorities are critical in protecting the state’s quality of life, creating Washington grown jobs, and preserving a better future for our children.
Read MoreCoalition lauds new federal approach to recovering endangered Columbia Basin salmon
Today the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sent a letter to hundreds of stakeholders in the ongoing struggle to restore several wild salmon stocks endangered by the federal hydropower system in the Northwest.
The letter heralds a new approach by federal agencies to the myriad issues involved in Columbia Basin salmon recovery…
Read MoreCoalition-presented energy efficiency and renewable energy events highlight where we are and where we’re going
Dec. 4, 2012, was a busy day for Seattle-area clean energy advocates. In two packed events co-hosted by the NW Energy Coalition, community members came together to delve deeply into critical energy efficiency and new clean renewable energy topics.
Read MoreNWEC adds four new member organizations at Portland conference
NWEC is proud to welcome four new member organizations that were approved at the Coalition’s Fall 2012 NW Clean & Affordable Energy Conference in Portland.
The board unanimously accepted the addition of four new members: Sustainable Connections, Sea Breeze Power Corp., Washington Chapter of Sierra Club, and City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment. These new members bring a wealth of expertise in sustainable economic development, environmental advocacy, energy efficiency and renewable energy to the Coalition’s work.
Read MoreOver 140 clean energy experts and advocates flock to Portland
Some 140 clean energy experts and advocates from across the region flocked to Portland Nov. 9-10 for the highly successful Fall 2012 NW Clean & Affordable Energy Conference in Portland. Those attending the NW Energy Coalition’s twice-yearly conference and board meeting were treated to a stirring keynote address and several challenging and meaty panel discussions.
Read MoreNW Energy Coalition receives Seattle Business magazine’s Legacy Award
The NW Energy Coalition took home the Legacy Award from the Seattle Business magazine’s Green Washington Awards dinner Nov. 1 in Seattle. Executive director Sara Patton accepted the honor on behalf of the Coalition and its more than 110 organizational members…
Read MoreIdaho Statesman: Energy-efficiency success stories
J.R. Simplot Co. has embraced energy efficiency as a core business value. The Idaho food, fertilizer and chemical company has dramatically reduced its use of electricity and natural gas, saving millions of dollars annually.
The company says energy-efficiency improvements since 2009 have yielded natural gas savings of 1.3 trillion British thermal units and 390,821,028 kilowatt-hours of electricity. The electricity reduction is equivalent to taking 35,400 homes off the grid. The reduction also saved 95,056 tons of greenhouse-gas emissions, like taking 29,929 cars of the road.
Here are three other successes…Read more at the Idaho Statesman
Read MoreEnergy Efficiency Already Provides More than "All of the Above" Energy Strategy
Throughout a long presidential election season in which both sides constantly invoke “all of the above” as the energy policy of choice, neither campaign has paid much — if any — attention to our fastest, cheapest and cleanest source of new energy supply: energy efficiency, a term encompassing all the ways to get more work out of less energy…
Read MorePPL Montana to mothball coal-fired plant in 2015
Market forces and environmental regulations that are driving a steady decline in coal-fired power generation across the U.S. have prompted PPL Montana to mothball a 154-megawatt coal plant in Billings, company officials said. Read the full article at GreatFallsTribune.com
Read MorePSE, Mason, Lewis and Grays Harbor reach clean energy benchmarks
Regional electricity providers from Puget Sound Energy to Grays Harbor County Public Utility District recorded impressive accomplishments over the first reporting period for Washington’s clean energy law, Initiative 937. “These utilities should be commended for their energy efficiency achievements, which will save money for their customers,” said Nancy Hirsh, policy director for the Coalition.
Read More