Posts by Sean O'Leary
Ask your Oregon legislator to support home energy efficiency tax credits
OREGON NEEDS ENERGY EFFICIENCY. CALL OR EMAIL YOUR LEGISLATORS TODAY! Key House bill includes Home Solar incentives, but Energy Efficiency still needs to be added We have a new and perhaps final chance in this legislative session to assure that Oregon will continue to offer home energy efficiency tax credits to go along with home solar incentives.…
Read MoreDebunking the myth of "Baseload Power"
The anachronism behind the upcoming DOE grid study When Energy secretary, Rick Perry, issued a memo last April instructing his department to study “how certain policies are affecting, and potentially putting at risk, energy security and reliability”, he flatly stated that “baseload power” provided by coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydroelectric generation, “is necessary…
Read MoreNW Energy Coalition hopes BPA will reverse intertie rate recommendation
Montana intertie rate is a barrier to renewable energy, growth, and jobs Seattle, Washington — Yesterday, as part of its 2018 rate recommendation, the Bonneville Power Administration announced its desire to retain the Montana Intertie transmission rate. The $2 per MWh charge, which applies to a 90-mile section of power lines between Townsend and Garrison, Montana,…
Read MoreNW Energy Coalition regrets US withdrawal from Paris Agreement
Today, the NW Energy Coalition released the following statement on President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. Benefits of leaving are illusory, costs of climate change are already being felt. Seattle, Wa. — President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement is regrettable because climate change matters in the…
Read MoreState releases Deep Decarbonization Analysis for Washington State
The Spring 2017 Energy Activist included a feature previewing the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Analysis for Washington State, a new study that identifies specific strategies to help Washington achieve its statewide goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the global goal of limiting climate warming to two degrees Celsius. The report is now available and…
Read MoreThe Trump budget’s misguided energy policy
A harmful abdication of federal responsibility. Clean, reliable, and affordable energy isn’t just an economic imperative, it’s an environmental and human imperative as well. That’s why the deep and far-reaching cuts announced yesterday in the Trump administration’s expanded federal budget proposal would be, if enacted, unusually destructive. A list of just some of the cuts…
Read MoreNWEC condemns BPA divestiture proposal
Trump Budget calls for sale of BPA transmission assets Seattle, Wa. — According to a report published by E&E News, the Trump administration’s expanded budget request, due to be released today, will call for extensive budget cuts for the U.S. EPA, the Interior Department, and the Energy Department. Prominent among those cuts is a proposal…
Read MoreBPA announces a better solution for I-5 corridor congestion
Seattle, Wa. — The NW Energy Coalition applauds today’s announcement by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) that it will not move forward with construction of a proposed 80-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line between Castle Rock, Washington and Troutdale Oregon. The I-5 Corridor Reinforcement Project was originally proposed in 2008 as a means of addressing growing demand…
Read MoreA region finding its way to a clean energy future
Dispatch from the NW Energy Coalition Spring 2017 Clean & Affordable Energy Conference At a time when the federal government seems poised to reverse policies designed to reduce pollution, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and encourage renewable energy, the responsibility for achieving those goals is falling to states, regions, cities, and towns. The Spring 2017 Clean & Affordable…
Read MoreSettlement achieved in Microsoft bid to buy energy directly
For the last several months, the Coalition has been involved in a case at the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) under which Puget Sound Energy (PSE), in response to a request from Microsoft, proposed to establish a tariff under which large customers would be eligible to purchase electricity directly from the market while relying…
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