Feb. 2025 Newsletter – Save the date for our spring conference, updates from NW Energy Coalition
Spring 2025 Clean & Affordable Energy Conference: Missoula, May 7
Join the NW Energy Coalition this spring in Missoula for our Clean & Affordable Energy Conference! We’ll have three panel discussions throughout the day featuring dialogue from experts in Montana on moving a clean energy transition forward.
Panelists will talk about how Tribal communities are developing new energy resources while also managing existing resources, how new transmission can help with unlocking the development and availability of responsibly sited new renewables, and about the challenges communities face in implementing energy efficiency programs while also meeting the needs of affordable housing.
We’ll also have an interactive table top discussion where attendees can discuss shared goals in building a clean, affordable, and equitable energy system in the Northwest.
Thank you to our sponsors:
Regional spring conferences
Efficiency Exchange (EFX) is a networking and learning conference for energy efficiency professionals from across the Northwest put on by Bonneville Power Administration, Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance and the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. Regional and national attendees from public and private utilities, consulting and research firms, and government and non-profit organizations come together to learn and connect to help the region more effectively achieve its energy efficiency goals. This event is in person and virtual. More information here.
OSSIA Solar + Storage Conference: The Oregon Solar + Storage Conference is scheduled for May 13 -15 at the Crowne Plaza Portland. Participate in interactive sessions such as Technical Training, Business Development, Solar Policy, Utility Scale PV, Storage and more. Most sessions will provide you with the opportunity to earn the CEUs necessary for professional licenses and NABCEP certification, ensuring a valuable return on your investment. More information here.
State and regional updates
Regional
Day-Ahead Energy Market related legislation (SB 540) was introduced in California on February 20, 2025. This bill is an outgrowth of the Pathways Initiative where western stakeholders took a new approach to creating a regional governance entity for the Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) and Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM). Pathways proposed a new Regional Organization (RO), a truly independent entity created by western stakeholders with specific protections for individual state policies and the public interest. For the Northwest, creating a west-wide energy market is the best way to meet growing energy needs, keep energy bills affordable, and prepare for extreme weather events. Read more on NWEC’s position on SB 540.
Here in the Northwest, Bonneville Power Administration will issue a Draft Letter to the Region stating its market direction on March 6. BPA’s options include: (1) no market choice at this time; (2) to join Markets+; or (3) to join the Extended Day Ahead Market (EDAM). NWEC recommends that BPA should choose no market direction at this time, step back from a premature and costly financial commitment to Markets+, and consider joining EDAM at a later time. Read more on our position in a recent NWEC press release here.
Idaho
NWEC and our allies at Renewable Northwest are tracking a few bills that will impact wind development in Idaho. The vast majority of existing and proposed clean energy projects in Idaho are on private lands. And without clear land use rules in place, these bills are seeking to provide neighbors the ability to stop proposed development in their communities. NWEC believes that communities deserve a role in planning for development in their area. We hope the proposed bills evolve towards a more proactive solution than currently proposed.
Oregon
On Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, in the Oregon legislature, NWEC testified in support of HB 3179, the FAIR Energy Act, which works to hold utilities accountable to their customers for ongoing rate increases. Oregon utility customers continue to struggle to pay their bills as the state’s largest utilities have raised billing rates by nearly 50% since 2021, creating an energy affordability crisis for many across the state.
The utility ratemaking process has historically prioritized cost recovery for utilities and financial returns for investors while lacking a meaningful framework for assessing the impact on ratepayers. The Public Utility Commission (PUC) is required to ensure rates are “just and reasonable,” but there is currently no clear definition of what “reasonable” is for households already struggling to pay their bills.
HB 3179 would strengthen protections for residential ratepayers by ensuring that affordability is a central factor in ratemaking, requiring accountability, preventing frequent and compounding rate increases, prohibiting winter rate hikes, and increasing transparency in utility spending.
NWEC is working with a coalition of consumer advocates, community-based organizations and others to hold utilities accountable for the rising costs. We expect a vote in the House Commerce and Consumer Protections Committee in the coming weeks of March.
Montana
NWEC is working in Montana to try and stop legislation aimed at restricting wind energy development across the state.
Montana—particularly the two-thirds of the state that lies east of the Continental Divide—experiences a high amount of wind over the course of a year. In fact, Montana has long-been recognized as one of the top five states in the U.S. for potential wind energy generation.
Yet a handful of lawmakers, county officials and landowners have voiced opposition to wind energy development, raising concerns about impacts to view-sheds, noise from turbines, and public safety in the event of turbine collapse (in spite of the fact that such occurrences are extremely rare.) The result has been the introduction of several bills designed to thwart wind energy development. These bills contain provisions that include unreasonable bonding requirements, extraordinary setbacks (from roads and property lines), as well as unworkable height restrictions for turbines. NWEC staff have participated in developing strategy, and we have also presented testimony in legislative committee hearings in opposition to several of these bills. We hope to see these bills defeated or reasonably amended.
Wind energy is the cheapest source of new electricity in the U.S.—and that has been true for the past decade. The development of wind in Montana presents important opportunities for bringing renewable energy onto the Western transmission system, while providing opportunities for landowners to supplement their income, and generating new tax revenue for cash-strapped county governments. Furthermore, as one of the lowest-cost energy resources available, wind can play an important moderating factor in electric rates paid by customers throughout the region.
Washington
Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) rulemaking on gas decarbonization: HB 1589, in conjunction with the effects of I-2066, initiated its rulemaking process at the UTC last summer (Filing U-240281). It requires Puget Sound Energy (PSE) to develop integrated system plans for cost-effective “voluntary electrification” of customer end uses currently powered by gas, and it requires PSE to assess a range of solutions, such as non-pipeline alternatives (NPAs), that could reduce the reliance and expansion of its gas system.
NWEC, Climate Solutions, Renewable Northwest and Rewiring America submitted joint comments with multiple recommendations, including defining voluntary electrification, refining the analysis and action planning for emission reductions to comply with all relevant state emission reduction limits, and continuing to develop meaningful public participation and strengthen advisory groups. We believe the UTC’s second draft rules are an improvement upon the first. There have been several improvements to the integrated system planning rules that will better position PSE to develop a lowest reasonable cost plan for providing service to its customers and meeting state goals. There will be a UTC workshop held in Q2 of 2025, and the final rules are set to be developed by summer 2025.
NWEC receives Gold Seal of Transparency from Candid
We’re excited to have received the Gold Seal of Transparency from Candid (formerly GuideStar). NWEC met the following criteria in order to receive the status: we’ve made our financials transparent and public on our website and we’ve provided organization leadership demographics. You can find our profile on Candid’s website.
NWEC is on BlueSky
NWEC is on the social media platform BlueSky! Look us up by our handle @nwenergy.bsky.social or our name. See you there!