News
The Energy Activist – Spring 2012
The founders of the NW Energy Coalition recognized a painful truth: that the bountiful cheap electricity produced by the Northwest’s system of federally financed hydropower dams came at the cost of the incredible wild salmon runs that once defined our watershed and supported myriad cultures and communities. So they made sure the 1980 Northwest Power and Conservation Act required equitable use of Columbia Basin waters for power and fish.
Since then, this Coalition and our partners have had to fight tooth and nail to realize even minimal progress on that mandate. To this day, the federal agencies that run the dams and market their power have failed to offer any legally valid or scientifically defensible plan for recovering the iconic and economically crucial salmon stocks.
The Spring 2012 edition of The Energy Activist looks at the exciting potential to escape that quicksand…
Idaho Statesman: Fisheries scientists redefine the salmon debate by trumpeting more ‘spill’
Increasing the amount of water spilled over eight Snake and Columbia river dams to keep juvenile fish away from hydroelectric turbines might be enough to recover most of Idaho’s endangered salmon populations without breaching dams, new studies suggest.
A state, tribal and federal science team that has been working since 1996 is urging federal fish and wildlife officials and dam managers to change their management to test the theory, which is based on a dramatic increase in data collected over the past decade.
Montana conservationists say water quality near coal mines needs protection
Two conservation groups representing citizens and landowners in southeastern Montana filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that the state Department of Environmental Quality is not doing enough to protect streams from coal mining.
Attorneys for Coalition Members Montana Environmental Information Center and the Sierra Club sued in U.S. District Court in Helena over Colorado-based Westmoreland Coal Co. plans to expand the Rosebud mine near Colstrip…
Read the full article at GreatFallsTribune.com
Save Our Wild Salmon celebrates biggest achievement so far
This week, for the seventh straight year, comprehensive spring and summer spill begins on the Snake and Columbia Rivers. Since it began in 2006 due to a court injunction, spill has produced tens of thousands more salmon and steelhead. Measured in fish, it is member organization Save Our Wild Salmon’s biggest achievement in 20 years.
Read the full article on their webpage at Wildsalmon.org
Seattle City Light's Carrasco appointed to national energy efficiency commission
Seattle City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco has been selected to serve on a national commission led by U.S. Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., and Tom King, National Grid USA president.
The Alliance Commission on National Energy Efficiency Policy will develop and issue a new set of national energy efficiency policies that could make the United States one of the world’s most energy-efficient economies by 2030.
Energy Efficiency Brownbag Lunch- A special presentation on residential energy efficiency
The Coalition convened a panel of experts to update us on their energy efficiency programs in the Puget Sound area. What’s working? What motivates people to be interested in energy efficiency? What are the barriers to investing in efficiency retrofits? How does alternative financing play a role? Hear from panelists on these and many other topics…
Coalition honors energy efficiency leadership of Terry Morlan and Regional Technical Forum
Northwest Power and Conservation Council power planning director Terry Morlan and the Regional Technical Forum (RTF), which is charged with verifying conservation savings, have been honored for their stellar efforts to maximize energy efficiency investments across the region…
Energy conservation editorial from the Oregonian
The Oregonian got it right Sunday with the editorial saying
energy conservation holds the greatest promise for our state’s
energy future (“Finding an energy game plan,” March 11). Oregon
can build on its tradition of clean energy leadership by making
energy efficiency the priority resource in Gov. Kitzhaber’s
energy plan…
West Coast leaders launch plan to create a million new jobs by 2020
Gathering on the eve of the GLOBE Conference on Business and the Environment, leaders from British Columbia, California, Oregon and Washington today endorsed a bold new action agenda to grow the clean economy along the West Coast.
To guide the 2012 West Coast Action Plan on Jobs, Pacific Coast Collaborative Leaders commissioned an economic analysis of the clean economy to identify the most promising markets for job creation, including energy-efficient buildings and advanced transportation.
Appliance savings just get better and better
A new report issued by the Appliance Awareness Standards Project (ASAP)
shows how important efficiency standards are to a clean energy economy.
Existing efficiency standards from their inception through 2035 will net
consumers and businesses more than $1.1 trillion in savings cumulatively.
And by 2035, cumulative energy savings will reach an amount equal to about
two years of total U.S. energy consumption. New standards set to be
adopted in the next four years will produce even more savings. The report
also includes a state-by-state analysis.