NW Energy Coalition – For a clean and affordable energy future

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…

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.

Energy and conservation groups today filed court papers to defend Washington’s energy efficiency standards – standards that will save consumers millions of dollars and reduce harmful global warming pollution – against a lawsuit that aims to dismantle them.

Cal Shirley, Vice President of Energy Efficiency Services for Washington state-based Puget Sound Energy, recently received the NW Energy Coalition’s 2009 Headwaters award honoring his clean and affordable energy leadership.
With Shirley as head of Energy Efficiency Services, PSE has steadily ramped up its efficiency savings achievements and associated budgets. In 2002-2003, PSE spent about $24 [...]

The Washington State Building Code Council has acceded to Gov. Chris Gregoire’s request to delay economically beneficial improvements to the state’s energy code.

The actions – Gregoire’s request and the Council’s June 11 acquiescence – send the utterly false message that better energy efficiency is bad for homeowners. In fact, the code improvements now put on hold will save homeowners far more money than the improvements will cost, no matter what the Building Industry Association of Washington says.

State Rep. Christine Rolfes (D-Bainbridge Island) was honored by the NW Energy Coalition on Tuesday with a resolution praising her leadership in passing 2009’s Efficiency First legislative package, SB 5854, which will dramatically improve energy efficiency in buildings throughout Washington state.

The NW Energy Coalition Spring 2010 Conference in Missoula provided a forum for the message that energy efficiency is cheaper, faster to acquire and cleaner that any other resource that might meet new electricity demand in the coming decades. Fortunately, the Missoulian and other media outlets heard the message and delivered it to their readers/listeners/viewers…

The 2010 Washington state legislative session has finally ended. While results for environmental issues were mixed overall, defenders of the 2006 Clean Energy Initiative 937 were pleased that no changes were made to the law…

Clearing Up, the Northwest energy industry’s must-read weekly publication, last week published an opinion column in which longtime contributor Jude Noland lists many problems likely to derail any “nuclear renaissance” — including the high costs, waste-disposal problems and safety issues.

The 2010 legislative session has finally come to a close and it’s time to take inventory on how clean and affordable energy policies fared in Olympia. Read on to see where we stand…