The Northwest is blessed with bountiful energy efficiency and renewable resources - enough to meet all projected increases in electricity needs several times over. Despite this, coal plants are being proposed across the Northwest. In this section you'll find information and the newest updates on this issue.
The Snake River Alliance has released the first of two reports on the use of coal-fired generation by Idaho’s three electric utilities.
The report, “Idaho’s Dangerous Dalliance with King Coal,” notes that the utilities own or have a stake in no fewer than 29 out-of-state coal plants, the bulk of which are owned or partly owned by PacifiCorp, which does business in eastern Idaho as Rocky Mountain Power.
Another step toward finalizing the Boardman, Ore., plant’s transition off of coal was taken early this week. The Sierra Club and its co-plaintiffs (NW Energy Coalition was not a plaintiff) settled their Clean Air Act suit with plant owner Portland General Electric.
Today, the Washington State Legislature put its final stamp of approval on a plan to responsibly transition TransAlta Corp.’s Centralia, Wash., power plant off of coal. The state Senate approved technical changes made in the House and sent the Coal-Free Future for Washington bill to Gov. Chris Gregoire for her much-anticipated signature.
On March 5th, Organized Labor and major environmental organizations in Washington reached an historic agreement with the TransAlta Corporation and Gov. Chris Gregoire to phase out coal-fired power generation in Washington. The agreement reflects all parties’ shared vision of a Washington powered by clean energy and will provide a model for the nation of how investing in transition to a clean-energy future can create good jobs and a healthy economy.
The state Senate on Saturday approved a bill that would eventually shut down Washington’s only coal-fired power plant, a move that could help the state meet climate change goals set in 2008.
The measure, Senate Bill 5769, was part of a deal negotiated among plant owner TransAlta, state officials and environmental groups (including the NW Energy Coalition and several member organizations). It would shut down one of the plant’s two boilers by 2020 and phase out coal-burning by 2025.
Read the full Associated Press article online at The Olympian.
From this Sunday’s Columbian – “Coal-fired plant is not in our state’s future, and Senate bill offers best compromise”
Both the Seattle Times and Seattle PI.com are running an Associated Press story on Tuesdays packed House hearing on HB 1825 – which would transition the Centrailia Coal Plant off of coal power by 2020 and provide economic development for Lewis County. Nancy Hirsh, Policy Director for NW Energy Coalition testified at the hearing and LeeAnne Beres, Excutive Director of Earth Ministy and member of the Coalition’s Executive Board is quoted.
A chorus of calls for TransAlta to reduce emissions increased in volume this morning as a Seattle-based coalition released a report detailing what it called an “extremely dangerous” level of mercury roughly one month before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to propose new mercury emission requirements.
A new article by the Sightline Institute debunks the notion that the Centralia Coal plant is needed to provide 10 percent of Washington state’s energy needs.
A state judge on Monday gave environmentalists a green light to press forward with their challenge of Montana’s lease of 587 million tons of state-owned coal to a St. Louis company.
Read the full story at ABCNews.com
The NW Energy Coalition is an alliance of more than 110 environmental, civic and human service organizations, progressive utilities, and businesses in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia. We promote development of renewable energy and energy efficiency, consumer protection, low-income energy assistance, and fish and wildlife restoration on the Columbia and Snake rivers.
