Homepage Banner
Coalition study finds negligible cost for effective salmon recovery action
Nearly 35 years after the Northwest Power Act mandated equal treatment for fish and power generation in the Columbia-Snake system, 13 of the basin’s wild salmon and steelhead stocks are still listed under the Endangered Species Act. Recovery will require, among other measures, changes in hydropower system operations that will reduce electricity generation, such as dam removal or greatly increased spill over the dams. What would replacing the power cost Northwest energy consumers and how does it compare to escalating costs of maintaining aging power system infrastructure?
Northwest Power and Conservation Council and other planners systematically underestimate efficiency savings from new products
Regional energy efficiency achievements have far exceeded power planners’ expectations for the past 15 years. Better-than-expected savings sound great for consumers and the environment … and they are. But underestimating future efficiency savings can lead to false conclusions about the need for new power plants, resulting in unnecessary expenses that raise consumers’ bills.
Coalition analysis: 7th Power Plan model minimizes looming coal plant costs, ignores out-of-region generators
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s 7th Plan will serve as a guide for choosing the best resources to meet electric needs over the next 20 years. A NW Energy Coalition issue paper, The True Cost of Coal: Fully accounting for coal-fired electricity use in the 7th Northwest Power and Conservation Plan, bares two shortcomings in the Council’s resource modeling that makes these polluting coal plants look cheaper than they are as a resource to meet the region’s needs.
Road to the 7th Plan
Every five years, the Northwest’s official power planning agency – the Northwest Power and Conservation Council – conducts a fresh assessment of the region’s long-term electricity needs and issues a blueprint for meeting them. Click here for the latest information on the Council’s regional planning process.
- « Previous
- 1
- …
- 21
- 22
- 23