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.

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Idaho 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

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PSE, 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.

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ID Energy Update: A Win for Wind, A Loss for Efficiency

Read this and previous reports on Snake River Alliance’s website.   Idaho Energy Update October 4, 2012   The Snake River Alliance has a new home in Boise! The Alliance recently relocated from our former digs at 9th & Jefferson in downtown Boise to 6th & Idaho. We’ll have an office warming celebration from 5:30-7:30…

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Feds Maintain Status Quo as Salmon Numbers Struggle

Late last Friday, the federal “Action Agencies” (Bonneville Power Administration, Army Corps of Engineers, and Bureau of Reclamation) that run the federal dams on the Snake and Columbia Rivers, submitted their 2011 Annual Progress report to the U.S. district court in Portland, Oregon, that’s overseeing the ongoing litigation over the federal salmon plan (also known as a biological opinion). This annual self-assessment presents the agencies’ view of how well they are implementing a biological opinion (in this case, one that has already been ruled illegal in court). This morning, the main findings were presented to interested parties at NOAA’s offices in Portland….

Read the full article at Save our Wild Salmon

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Avista, Inland far surpass clean energy goals

Regional electricity providers Avista Utilities and Inland Power and Light recorded impressive accomplishments over the first reporting period for Washington’s clean energy law, Initiative 937.

Read and hear the exciting news about clean energy progress in the Spokane area ….

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Coalition Comments on the Draft Oregon 10-Year Energy Action Plan

July 31,2012 Governor John Kitzhaber 160 State Capitol 900 Court Street Salem, Oregon 97301-4047 RE: Comments on the Draft Oregon10- Year Energy Action Plan   Dear Governor Kitzhaber: The NW Energy Coalition (Coalition) is pleased to offer the following comments on the Draft 10- Year Energy Action Plan for Oregon (Draft Plan). Forging clean energy-focused…

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BPA Integrated Program Review comments

August 10, 2012 Claudia Andrews, Chief Financial Officer Bonneville Power Administration PO Box 14428 Portland, OR 97293 Via electronic submission at www.bpa.gov/publiccomments Dear Ms. Andrews: We appreciate the opportunities Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) provided for stakeholders to engage in discussion and comment on the Integrated Program Review (IPR). However, we are frustrated by what we…

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NWEC Ecology letter 7-20-12

Given the progress being made by Washington’s energy sector to reduce its carbon footprint, it is extraordinarily frustrating that the Department of Ecology intends to weaken clean air rules and avoid its duty to regulate greenhouse gases from industrial sources including oil refineries. The oil refineries account for six to eight percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions; the Department of Ecology has the duty and the obligation to enforce the law to bring these emissions under control.

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