Ben Otto reviews this year’s Idaho climate change summit

“Safeguarding Idaho’s Economy in a Changing Climate” is a wide-ranging two-day summit, that took place on November 16th and 17th in four cities around the state.  The conference is designed to explore market-based solutions for safeguarding Idaho’s economy, health, landscape and lifestyle.  The themes discussed at this year’s conference included: Economic Cost of Climate Change…

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Coalition members offer weatherization and bill assistance services

Community service and advocacy organizations make up a vital segment of the Coalition’s membership.  At a time when many state and local policies to support renewable energy are criticized as being “welfare for the rich”, these organizations help make sure that the benefits of clean energy and energy efficiency reach those who need it most.…

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Spencer Reeder to keynote Clean & Affordable Energy Conference

Spencer Reeder, the executive in charge of climate and energy programs at Vulcan, Inc., will deliver the keynote speech at the NW Energy Coalition Clean & Affordable Energy Conference on November 2nd at the Seattle Hilton. Reeder will explore how innovation in all its forms – technological, organizational, social, and political – is shaping the…

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Proposed Puget Sound Energy Rate Case Provides Funds for Colstrip Transition

(The NW Energy Coalition along with Renewable Northwest released the following statement today in response to the filing of a proposed settlement in the Puget Sound Energy rate case at the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.)  SEATTLE, Wash. — A diverse group of parties has reached a proposed settlement in the Puget Sound Energy (PSE) rate…

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Rocky II: What are we doing to our salmon?

“Everything we’re doing to replace vanishing salmon might be killing them off faster” In this installment in his series of the challenge of restoring fish populations in the Columbia and Snake Rivers, Idaho Statesman reporter, Rocky Barker, explores the many ways in which the US Army Corps of Engineers has tried to bring salmon back.…

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Without the dams would salmon populations recover?

“Remove 4 dams, leave these fish alone, and they may be able to replenish themselves” Idaho Statesman reporter, Rocky Barker, continues his series on the question of how salmon and steelhead populations can be restored and the energy generation, economic, cultural, and agricultural implications of various proposed solutions, including the removal of the four lower…

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EarthFix/OPB video, “Dams or Salmon?”, never gives fish a chance

“Explainer” video doesn’t explain, it distorts. We love short, animated explainer videos. They entertainingly and quickly reduce complex issues to their simplest possible terms. The problem is they sometimes overshoot the mark and, instead of the simplest possible terms, they instead present issues in ways that are something less than simple. That’s what we get…

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The 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…

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Bozeman Daily Chronicle guest column: Building on 10 years of renewable energy

Last month, Montana celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). Jeff Fox of Renewable Northwest lauds the legislation as a success because major utilities have met the 15 percent renewable energy requirement, compliance has not increased costs to consumers and new renewable energy development has created more than 1,500 jobs in the state. Fox says, “We must stay focused on our opportunities and challenges in order to ensure that the next 10 years of renewable energy in Montana are an even bigger success.”

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