Resources & Publications
New project spotlights Snake River salmon’s "one of a kind" status
Coalition partner Save Our Wild Salmon has begun the “One of a Kind” project to reveal the astonishing story of endangered Snake River salmon and the race to save them.
Montana: NorthWestern rate case features decoupling, inverted block rates
Coalition member groups are butting heads with the state Consumer Counsel and others over rate cases and the viability of new wind development.
Solving the Energy Efficiency Puzzle: Achieving Bigger Savings in the Pacific Northwest
You have a stake in making our region even more energy efficient than it is. Energy efficiency is the cleanest and cheapest way to meet most of our region’s new energy needs and our goals to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. Many organizations throughout the Northwest are already hard at work saving energy. But more can be done. That’s what this paper is about: getting over the hurdles to increased energy efficiency and getting to solutions. We have a lot to lose if we wait and a lot to gain if we act.
Plugging People Into Power
This document was published in 1993 by the Northwest Conservation Act Coalition, now known as the NW Energy Coalition. While dated, the vast majority of the content remains relevant for consumer and environmental participants in the utility regulatory process. Read online or download as a PDF
The Transformer – August 18, 2010
How green is my electron? Overcoming the smart grid’s color blindness
Energy journals and, increasingly, the popular media now teem with updates and predictions on developing “smart grid” technologies … how they will help smooth power demand, greatly improve efficiency and outage/service response, and reward consumers with lower bills.
This issue of The Transformer tackles the question of why the smart grid isn’t necessarily a green grid and, in fact, could actually foster greater demand for power from coal-fueled or nuclear baseload plants. It also presents one proposed means of dealing with the problem: buying green electrons…
Portland getting solarized
Several companies have been working with the Energy Trust of Oregon and the city of Portland to solarize the city. The project goes from neighborhood to neighborhood, with hundreds of customers signing for installation of photovoltaic cells. So Portland is experiencing a huge penetration of solar power at very reasonable costs thanks to economies of scale…
Avista reaches settlement with stakeholders in latest rate case
Spokane-based Avista Corp., which provides electric and natural gas service to much of northern Idaho, has joined the staff of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in asking the Commission to approve a rate case settlement agreement that could mean higher rates – though not as high as the utility first sought.
More woes for MSTI transmission line
NorthWestern Energy’s application to construct the Mountain States Transmission Intertie has encountered another in a long line of difficulties.
Commissioner Ken Toole Keynote Address
Commissioner Ken Toole of the Montana Public Service Commission gives the Keynote Address at the 2010 Spring conference in Missoula, MT.
Regulators weigh utilities’ efficiency targets in Washington state
Following a lengthy process, the Washington’s Utilities and Transportation Commission approved PacifiCorp’s and Avista Utilities’ targets for meeting the energy efficiency provisions of the state’s clean energy law. Initiative 937 requires the state’s major electric utilities to capture all of the cost-effective conservation in their service territories beginning in 2010.