The Energy News Digest for March 29, 2021

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HOT SHOTS – TODAY’S TOP FIVE STORIES

Other Utilities Cut Power to Reduce Labor Day Fire Risks. Pacific Power Did Not. Now It May Face the Consequences (Oregonian, Portland, OR)

https://www.oregonlive.com/wildfires/2021/03/other-utilities-cut-power-to-reduce-labor-day-fire-risks-pacific-power-did-not-now-it-may-face-the-consequences.html

Montana: Colstrip Bailout Bill Draws Critics, Hearing Tuesday (KPVI-TV, Pocatello, ID)

https://www.kpvi.com/news/national_news/colstrip-bill-draws-critics-hearing-tuesday/article_3826336c-816f-53f8-bcf8-3b3723ac99ec.html

Data Center: Microsoft’s $409 Million Arrival in East Wenatchee (Yakima Herald-Republic, WA)

https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/news_watch/microsofts-409-million-arrival-in-east-wenatchee/article_c94301e1-00e8-57e5-ab36-868a277365e8.html

Family of Chehalis Man Killed at Wind Farm Site Settles Wrongful Death Claim for $12 Million (The Chronicle, Centralia, WA)

https://www.chronline.com/stories/family-of-chehalis-man-killed-at-wind-farm-site-settles-wrongful-death-claim-for-12-million,261987

Some Green Groups Oppose Lower Snake River Dam Removal Plan (Associated Press)

https://apnews.com/article/mike-simpson-jeff-merkley-maria-cantwell-ron-wyden-dams-142b0704031f0fc82e416e6e59aa897c

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS (See Stories Below)

1.      Other Utilities Cut Power to Reduce Labor Day Fire Risks. Pacific Power Did Not. Now It May Face the Consequences

2.      Montana: Colstrip Bailout Bill Draws Critics, Hearing Tuesday

3.      Idaho Falls Power Starts Long-Delayed Powerline Project

4.      State Senator Sees Nevada’s Future as a Lucrative Energy Transmission Hub for Western U.S.

5.      Utilities Continue to Increase Spending on the Electric Transmission System

6.      Tacoma Power’s First Foray into Demand Response Could Support Green Fuels Production

7.      Oregon Approves Utility Programs to Assist Customers Affected by COVID-19

8.      WA State Utilities Commission OKs $40 Million for Customer Bill Relief

9.      Op/Ed: Bonneville Power Administration Administrator – Preserve Hydropower’s Role in Clean-Energy Future

10.   Four More Balancing Authority of Northern California Members Join CAISO Western Energy Imbalance Market

11.   Nuclear Power Continues to Break Records in Safety & Generation

12.   How Long Can a Nuclear Plant Run? Regulators Consider 100 Years

13.   Protests Arise as Warren Buffet Seeks to Profit from Recent Texas Power Blackouts

14.   Some Green Groups Oppose Lower Snake River Dam Removal Plan

15.   Tribes Call on President Biden, Congress to Remove Snake River Dams

16.   Critics Say Nuclear Not Needed in Snake River Replacement Plan

17.   Family of Chehalis Man Killed at Wind Farm Site Settles Wrongful Death Claim for $12 Million

18.   Is Tri-Cities Wind Farm Intrusive or a Lifesaver? WA State Wants to Hear from You

19.   Op/Ed: Wind Farm Will Harm Tri-City Tourism, Devalue Hydro

20.   Land Battle Brewing Over Wind Power Proposal & ‘World’s Largest Joshua Tree Forest’ in Southern Nevada

21.   California Duck Curve ‘Alive & Well’ As Renewable, Minimum Net Load Records Set

22.   Oregon: Portland’s Massive Clean Energy Fund Set to Bankroll First Projects for Communities of Color, Marginalized Residents

23.   As the Debate Over Removing the Snake River Dams Churns, Tribes Quietly Lead the Way in Reintroducing Salmon in the Upper Columbia River System

24.   Sea Lion-Salmon Cycle Starts Again in Columbia, This Time with Expanded Ability to Kill

25.   After 100 Years, California Condor Could Return to the Pacific Northwest

26.   California Water Shortages and Fires Loom After a Dry Winter

27.   City Leaders Agree Spokane Needs to Use Less Water. But How Can They Convince Residents & Businesses?

28.   Dueling Public Broadband Bills Make Their Way Through Washington State Legislature

29.   Tribal Broadband as a Cyber Superhighway to Sovereignty

30.   Data Center: Microsoft’s $409 Million Arrival in East Wenatchee

31.   With A New Data Center on the Horizon, A Debate Over Power Rates Returns

32.   These Are the Five Largest Data Centers in the World

33.   Sacramento Nabs $1.8 Million Grant for Zero-Emission Vehicle Program for Poor Neighborhoods

34.   Oregon: You Can Get There in an Electric Vehicle – EWEB Will Help

35.   On an Island North of Scotland, Tidal Power Is Providing Juice for Electric Vehicles

36.   Why There’s So Much Investigative Journalism About Utility Companies

37.   Suez Canal Reopens After Removal of Stranded Ship

38.   Utilities Improve Women’s Representation on Corporate Boards – Duke Energy Ranks in the Top 20

39.   Renewable-Energy Backers Want 10-Year Tax Credits in Biden Plan

WORD OF THE DAY – HORRIBLE HAIKU EDITION

Unctuous \UNK-chuh-wus\ Adjective – 1a: fatty, oily b: smooth and greasy in texture or appearance 2: plastic 3: insincerely smooth in speech and manner

See crocodile tears

Unctuous lizard response

Sorry to eat you

http://joelshorriblehaiku.blogspot.com/

ENERGY & UTILITY ISSUES

1.      Other Utilities Cut Power to Reduce Labor Day Fire Risks. Pacific Power Did Not. Now It May Face the Consequences (Oregonian, Portland, OR)

https://www.oregonlive.com/wildfires/2021/03/other-utilities-cut-power-to-reduce-labor-day-fire-risks-pacific-power-did-not-now-it-may-face-the-consequences.html

2.      Montana: Colstrip Bailout Bill Draws Critics, Hearing Tuesday (KPVI-TV, Pocatello, ID)

https://www.kpvi.com/news/national_news/colstrip-bill-draws-critics-hearing-tuesday/article_3826336c-816f-53f8-bcf8-3b3723ac99ec.html

3.      Idaho Falls Power Starts Long-Delayed Powerline Project (Idaho Falls Post-Register, ID)

https://www.postregister.com/news/local/idaho-falls-power-starts-long-delayed-powerline-project/article_26090c5f-3acf-54bc-8d7d-eee0bf47fb45.html

4.      State Senator Sees Nevada’s Future as a Lucrative Energy Transmission Hub for Western U.S. (Nevada Appeal, Carson City, NV)

https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2021/mar/28/senator-sees-nevadas-future-lucrative-energy-trans/

5.      Utilities Continue to Increase Spending on the Electric Transmission System (U.S. Energy Information Administration)

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=47316

6.      Tacoma Power’s First Foray into Demand Response Could Support Green Fuels Production (Utility Dive)

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/tacoma-powers-demand-response-could-support-green-fuels-hydrogen-constraints/597427/

7.      Oregon Approves Utility Programs to Assist Customers Affected by COVID-19 (KTVZ-TV, Bend, OR)

https://ktvz.com/community/community-billboard/2021/03/25/oregon-puc-approves-utility-programs-to-assist-customers-affected-by-covid-19/

8.      WA State Utilities Commission OKs $40 Million for Customer Bill Relief (Puget Sound Business Journal, Seattle, WA)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/wa-state-utilities-commission-oks-40.html

9.      Op/Ed: Bonneville Power Administration Administrator – Preserve Hydropower’s Role in Clean-Energy Future (Seattle Times, WA – Paywall Advisory)

https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/preserve-hydropowers-role-in-clean-energy-future/

10.   Four More Balancing Authority of Northern California Members Join CAISO Western Energy Imbalance Market (Western Area Power Administration)

https://www.wapa.gov/newsroom/NewsReleases/2021/Pages/sn-joins-caiso-eim.aspx

11.   Nuclear Power Continues to Break Records in Safety & Generation (Forbes Magazine)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2021/03/25/nuclear-power-continues-to-break-records-in-safety-and-generation/

12.   How Long Can a Nuclear Plant Run? Regulators Consider 100 Years (Utility Dive)

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/how-long-can-a-nuclear-plant-run-regulators-consider-100-years/597294/

13.   Protests Arise as Warren Buffet Seeks to Profit from Recent Texas Power Blackouts (Forbes Magazine)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2021/03/29/protests-arise-as-warren-buffet-seeks-to-profit-from-recent-texas-power-blackouts/?sh=19f814e61c20

DAM DRAMA ON THE SNAKE RIVER

14.   Some Green Groups Oppose Lower Snake River Dam Removal Plan (Associated Press)

https://apnews.com/article/mike-simpson-jeff-merkley-maria-cantwell-ron-wyden-dams-142b0704031f0fc82e416e6e59aa897c

15.   Tribes Call on President Biden, Congress to Remove Snake River Dams (Associated Press)

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/washington/articles/2021-03-25/tribes-call-on-biden-congress-to-remove-snake-river-dams

16.   Critics Say Nuclear Not Needed in Snake River Replacement Plan (Utah Public Radio)

https://www.upr.org/post/critics-say-nuclear-not-needed-snake-river-replacement-plan

RENEWABLE ENERGY & SELF STORAGE

17.   Family of Chehalis Man Killed at Wind Farm Site Settles Wrongful Death Claim for $12 Million (The Chronicle, Centralia, WA)

https://www.chronline.com/stories/family-of-chehalis-man-killed-at-wind-farm-site-settles-wrongful-death-claim-for-12-million,261987

18.   Is Tri-Cities Wind Farm Intrusive or a Lifesaver? WA State Wants to Hear from You (Tri-City Herald, WA)

https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article250233860.html

19.   Op/Ed: Wind Farm Will Harm Tri-City Tourism, Devalue Hydro (Tri-City Herald, WA)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/oped-wind-farm-will-harm-tri-city.html

20.   Land Battle Brewing Over Wind Power Proposal & ‘World’s Largest Joshua Tree Forest’ in Southern Nevada (KVVU-TV, Las Vegas, NV)

https://www.fox5vegas.com/news/land-battle-brewing-over-worlds-largest-joshua-tree-forest-in-southern-nevada/article_9516ce3a-8ea2-11eb-9014-53fc4f16e596.html

21.   California Duck Curve ‘Alive & Well’ As Renewable, Minimum Net Load Records Set (S&P Global)

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/electric-power/032621-california-duck-curve-alive-and-well-as-renewable-min-net-load-records-set

CONSERVATION & EFFICIENCY

22.   Oregon: Portland’s Massive Clean Energy Fund Set to Bankroll First Projects for Communities of Color, Marginalized Residents (Oregonian, Portland, OR)

https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2021/03/portlands-massive-clean-energy-fund-set-to-bankroll-first-projects-for-communities-of-color-marginalized-residents.html

FISH & WILDLIFE

23.   As the Debate Over Removing the Snake River Dams Churns, Tribes Quietly Lead the Way in Reintroducing Salmon in the Upper Columbia River System (Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/as-debate-over-removing-snake-river.html

24.   Sea Lion-Salmon Cycle Starts Again in Columbia, This Time with Expanded Ability to Kill (Courthouse News Service)

https://www.courthousenews.com/sea-lion-salmon-cycle-starts-again-in-columbia-this-time-with-expanded-ability-to-kill/

25.   After 100 Years, California Condor Could Return to the Pacific Northwest (Associated Press)

https://tucson.com/news/state-and-regional/after-100-years-california-condor-could-return-to-northwest/article_4977e135-c553-517f-aaeb-6cf71e00051b.html

WATER, WATER, ANYWHERE?

26.   California Water Shortages and Fires Loom After a Dry Winter (NY Times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/29/us/california-water.html

27.   City Leaders Agree Spokane Needs to Use Less Water. But How Can They Convince Residents & Businesses? (Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/city-leaders-agree-spokane-needs-to-use.html

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

28.   Dueling Public Broadband Bills Make Their Way Through Washington State Legislature (GeekWire)

https://www.geekwire.com/2021/dueling-public-broadband-bills-make-way-washington-state-legislature/

29.   Tribal Broadband as a Cyber Superhighway to Sovereignty (Native News Online)

https://nativenewsonline.net/business/tribal-broadband-as-a-cyber-superhighway-to-sovereignty

THE WIZARDING WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY

30.   Data Center: Microsoft’s $409 Million Arrival in East Wenatchee (Yakima Herald-Republic, WA)

https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/news_watch/microsofts-409-million-arrival-in-east-wenatchee/article_c94301e1-00e8-57e5-ab36-868a277365e8.html

31.   With A New Data Center on the Horizon, A Debate Over Power Rates Returns (Wenatchee World, WA – Paywall Advisory)

https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/business/with-a-new-data-center-on-the-horizon-a-debate-over-power-rates-returns/article_ae89c534-8cfe-11eb-a57c-136350141101.html

32.   These Are the Five Largest Data Centers in the World (Explica)

https://www.explica.co/these-are-the-five-largest-data-centers-in-the-world.html

I SING THE CAR ELECTRIC

33.   Sacramento Nabs $1.8 Million Grant for Zero-Emission Vehicle Program for Poor Neighborhoods (Sacramento Business Journal, CA)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/sacramento-nabs-18m-grant-for-zero.html

34.   Oregon: You Can Get There in an Electric Vehicle – EWEB Will Help (Eugene Weekly, OR)

http://www.eugeneweekly.com/promotion/you-can-get-there-in-an-electric-vehicle-and-eweb-will-help/

35.   On an Island North of Scotland, Tidal Power Is Providing Juice for Electric Vehicles (CNBC)

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/23/tidal-power-is-providing-juice-for-electric-vehicles-on-an-island-.html

PUBLIC RELATIONS, MARKETING & MEDIA

36.   Why There’s So Much Investigative Journalism About Utility Companies (ProPublica)

https://www.propublica.org/article/why-theres-so-much-investigative-journalism-about-utility-companies

GOVERNANCE, BUSINESS, & MANAGEMENT

37.   Suez Canal Reopens After Removal of Stranded Ship (Courthouse News Service)

https://www.courthousenews.com/suez-canal-reopens-after-removal-of-stranded-ship/

38.   Utilities Improve Women’s Representation on Corporate Boards – Duke Energy Ranks in the Top 20 (Charlotte Business Journal, NC)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/utilities-improve-womens-representation.html

39.   Renewable-Energy Backers Want 10-Year Tax Credits in Biden Plan (Bloomberg News)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-25/renewable-energy-backers-want-10-year-tax-credits-in-biden-plan

ALLIGATORS IN THE SEWER – DIVERSIONS

Website Offers $1,000 to Binge-Watch All 24 James Bond Films

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/03/24/Nerd-Bear-James-Bond-007-films-job/7031616607458/

Penny Dreadful: Georgia Man Receives Final Paycheck in Coins

https://apnews.com/article/georgia-man-final-paycheck-915-coins-0fe966a8ea0fbd1a9559d1222081aa5f

Some Alaska Costco Shoppers Say Ravens Steal Their Groceries

https://www.usnews.com/news/offbeat/articles/2021-03-27/some-alaska-costco-shoppers-say-ravens-steal-their-groceries

NASA Gives All Clear: Earth Safe from Particular Asteroid for 100 Years

https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/weird_news/nasa-gives-all-clear-earth-safe-from-asteroid-for-100-years/article_60775fc3-a047-5720-add2-479b2e0f1062.html

SONG OF THE DAY

BBC Proms 2011 – James Bond Medley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4jdUhxOz0M

LINKS & PAYWALL ADVISORY

Links in The Energy News Digest lead to current stories. Media organizations update their websites regularly, which may result in broken links. Media attribution includes information about possible paywall restrictions.

Op/Ed: Wind Farm Will Harm Tri-City Tourism, Devalue Hydro (Tri-City Herald, WA)

Gov. Jay Inslee will soon decide if the relatively new wine country of Horse Heaven Hills is a good fit for a 24-mile swath of wind turbines ranging from 500 to 670 feet high. Power from these goliaths of new wind tech will meet his clean energy goals for western Washington.

It will also cause irreparable environmental and economic harm to our community for the next half century.

So why here? Because they don’t want it there.

Case in point: In 2011 Energy Northwest pursued a wind project on the west side, for the west side.

Their site centered on a former gravel quarry in Pacific County, right alongside communication towers and commercial logging operations. The location offered advantages of high winter winds and readily accessible transmission lines.

Ecological studies, however, estimated the proposed 27 wind turbines would kill one marbled murrelet, an environmentally threatened bird, every two years, or five murrelets each decade. It was the leverage opponents needed. Political strings were pulled, and working closely with the state Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service effectively killed the project by requiring cost prohibitive mitigation strategies.

Colorado-based Scout Clean Energy is taking lessons from that failed attempt. There will be no effort to stake turbines – some 65 feet taller than Seattle’s Space Needle – along the I-5 corridor where they are needed. As a rule, the taller the turbine the deadlier to wildlife, and 150 to 245 of these massive machines will take out their fair share of birds. Statistically, deaths will mainly be songbirds, followed by day-hunters such as hawks, eagles and peregrine falcons.

Efforts to win local hearts – a webinar, a chat on KONA radio, and local ads extolling the project’s tax benefit – have been minimal. Scout instead made an end-run on the county by applying directly to the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council in Olympia, where the final decision will rest with the governor. To be fair, in January a Scout representative said the project could be fully permitted through Benton County, but that would prove “burdensome” on local agencies. The kindness of this gesture appears lost on 90% of residents who spoke out at the county’s recent town meeting.

During that meeting, a Scout spokesperson said the project “needs to be close to a power market with a developing need.”

The reference was to investor-owned utilities, such as Puget Sound Energy in Bellevue and Pacific Power in Portland, which must bolster their clean-energy portfolios to meet state carbon-reduction mandates. Our local utilities already meet these mandates – we’re flush with hydro and nuclear. Southeastern Washington won’t need additional energy until at least 2030, and by then advanced nuclear should be in construction. Cheap natural gas can readily serve as a stop-gap if needed.

We could certainly use millions of dollars in annual tax payments, a short-term construction boon and 45 long-term maintenance jobs.

But the wind farm will take far more than it gives.

It will slice through the view shed of wine country, and skirt along miles of urban growth boundaries specifically designed to preserve and protect natural and agricultural lands. Property and home values along the boundaries will plummet. Destroying the scenic vistas of these high, rolling hills (and a bald eagle here and there) will sacrifice tens of millions of dollars in community growth and tourism potential.

Market competition from this government-subsidized power will also devalue our local hydro assets, which already take a market beating from cheap natural gas. The impact will be higher-cost electric bills.

This competitive bite will hit us each spring, when wind tends to blow and is needed least. Excess energy from Scout’s project will be available to the market at the same time our public utility districts are selling surplus hydro to help sustain our low residential energy costs. Plus, there are no transmission lines in place to move the power – another cost recouped through our electric bills.

This project, as Richland’s Dr. Jim Conca recently wrote, “will make someone out of state a lot of money.”

The instate value will be passed to west-side utility customers, and we will pay for it all.

The state council’s public hearing on Tuesday, March 30, is our last best chance to tell Olympia, and the governor, what we think of this scheme. Benton and Franklin residents need to participate in that meeting – we won’t get another shot.

Let’s tell state leaders we will not support a venture in our backyard designed to solve a problem in their backyard; we do not accept the notion that sending energy value to our west-side neighbors is worth forfeiting the economic and environmental health of our own community.

Mike Paoli is a graduate of the University of Idaho’s utility executive course, and was Chief Communication Officer for Energy Northwest. He owns Tri-Cities Public Relations in Kennewick.

City Leaders Agree Spokane Needs to Use Less Water. But How Can They Convince Residents & Businesses? (Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA)

Spokane leaders are contemplating how to encourage conservation in a city that uses more water per capita than 98% of the United States.

On Thursday, the city’s Water Resource Collaboration Group outlined an ambitious plan to cut water use by 25%, a goal described as “both ambitious and achievable” by Kara Odegard, the city’s manager of sustainable initiatives.

Even if that goal is met, Spokanites already use so much water that the plan would still leave the city in the 96th percentile nationally, based on 2015 United States Geological Survey data.

It’s with that in mind that the group set a 25% conservation target, which is a notable increase from the more modest 5% reduction target for the next decade laid out in a conservation plan adopted by the City Council last year.

Just a 5% cut would save 500 million gallons of water in Spokane over the next decade.

City leaders agree Spokane needs to conserve water but face a conundrum in how best to do so. The city could incentivize reductions with rewards, like a rebate on utility bills. Or, it could take a firmer approach by raising rates on prodigious water users and implementing mandatory irrigation standards on new development.

The city could also aim for a blend of both: the proverbial carrot and the stick.

The Water Resource Collaboration Group introduced its first set of recommendations to the Spokane City Council during a study session on Thursday.

The recommendations include a prohibition on watering lawns during the daytime through summer and potentially requiring the city’s highest water users to participate in a free audit. The city could also set environmentally friendlier standards for irrigation systems installed in new developments or during substantial renovations.

“There have been plenty of reports out there that show voluntary measures don’t work very well, and they cause a lot of confusion when we actually go into droughts,” Odegard said.

The recommendations focused on limiting water use not just by city residents but businesses as well.

The Water Resource Collaboration Group was formed following the city’s adoption of its new water conservation plan in 2020. That plan only called for a water use reduction of 5%, but the collaboration group is dreaming bigger.

A study conducted by the city last year found that a majority of Spokane residents were willing to take measures like limiting water use during the daytime in the summer months.

The group hopes to encourage water conservation through myriad measures.

The city could provide free audits to high-using businesses and homeowners. It could designate funds to a program to help low-income residents fix leaks.

“Some folks can’t afford to fix plumbing in their home, so additional research and attention to low-income programs would be helpful,” Odegard said.

Education efforts about conservation aren’t getting through to every resident, according to Odegard. The group is also recommending that the city make water use more clear on ratepayers’ utility bills, particularly those who receive them electronically. The city could take steps to allow ratepayers to download data about their water use.

Giacobbe Byrd, a member of the group and City Councilwoman Lori Kinnear’s legislative assistant, said the city should also focus its efforts on informing people about water waste.

“We use a lot of water that is unnecessary and might take a long time to get back into our ecosystem, into our aquifer,” Byrd said.

The city should also increase staffing dedicated to water conservation, Odegard argued. The city currently has two such full-time employees, but two additional efficiency technicians could help with on-site assessments, and an education and outreach specialist would help the city with messaging.

Kinnear sought to “dispel the myth” that Spokane sits atop an unlimited water supply in the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer.

“It would take just a couple of drought years and we would be really in a bad way,” Kinnear said.

Kinnear argued that water is cheap – “probably too cheap” – but it is not plentiful.

Councilman Michael Cathcart argued the best way to get residents to reduce water consumption is to provide incentives and even “gamify” the effort by allowing neighborhoods to compare their water savings against one another.

“I don’t know how you would enforce no daytime use. Would you send enforcement out and look for sprinklers that are active and give people fines? There’s a point where it’s not necessarily so practical,” Cathcart said.

Council President Breean Beggs said it’s important to implement real-time water meters, which would enable the city to calculate the real cost of providing water to different areas of the city at different times of day. The city could “charge people accordingly and then give people incentives if they water overnight and things like that.”

When the city pumps water out of the aquifer during peak summer months, it’s drawing water that would normally be returned to the Spokane River and impacting the ecosystem, Odegard said.

“This is part of the problem. We’ve been under the impression that we have unlimited water supply, and with a changing climate and our growing community that is no longer really the case,” Odegard said.

 

Sacramento Nabs $1.8M Grant for Zero-Emission Vehicle Program for Poor Neighborhoods (Sacramento Business Journal, CA)

Sacramento will install free electric vehicle chargers and other zero-carbon transportation technologies in underserved areas of the city, helped by a $1.8 million grant from the state.

The city was awarded the grant by the California Energy Commission this month to advance the transition to zero-emission vehicles.

Sacramento is installing chargers and will be placing electric bikes in neighborhoods that have limited access to transportation “so that these existing communities are not left behind,” said Jennifer Venema, interim climate action lead for the city. “We want to bring more options to these communities and solve transportation problems with new options.”

The city will be installing Level 2 electric vehicle charging stations in 13 locations around the city at either branch libraries or community centers. The charging will be free to start with, though the city eventually will make the chargers pay for themselves.

The chargers will go into areas that have more limited access to public chargers than the core areas of Downtown and Midtown, she said. Some of the targeted neighborhoods include North Sacramento, Del Paso Heights, South Natomas, Oak Park, Meadowview and Lemon Hill.

The city is also developing an electric bike lending program through the library, but the details of how that will work have yet to be determined, Venema said. It will most likely be a checkout program and not a smartphone distributed network like Lime.

Even the shared bike and scooter programs tend to be concentrated in Downtown, Midtown and East Sacramento.

In 2019, Sacramento won a $200,000 grant to plan and prepare for the transition. This grant will be used to implement the plan and also for public outreach and education about zero-emission vehicles, Venema said. “We’re more focused on the people than the technology.”

This grant is in addition to the electric vehicle hub that is being developed on city property by a nonprofit group, Green Tech Education & Employment.

Utilities Improve Women's Representation on Corporate Boards – Duke Energy Ranks in the Top 20 (Charlotte Business Journal, NC)

Duke Energy Corp. is tied for 18th nationwide among 45 electric and gas utilities ranked by Moody’s Investors Service for the percentage of women on their boards of directors.

Though Charlotte-based Duke (NYSE: DUK) is squarely in the top half of the utilities, its 31% total — four women directors out of 13 people on the board — is right at the national average.

Moody’s sees such diversity as a good thing.

“Although the data falls short of demonstrating direct causation, we consider the presence of women on boards — and the potential diversity of opinion they bring — as being supportive of good corporate governance,” Moody’s analyst Ana Rayes writes in a report issued Friday.

Duke is one of just eight large utility companies with a woman as CEO.

“The utilities with the most gender-diverse boards are ALLETE Inc. and Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., with women occupying 55% and 50% of the irrespective board seats,” Rayes writes. “Companies led by women tend to have more female board members than those led by men.

“This holds true in the regulated utility sector,” Rayes continues. “ALLETE CEO Bethany Owen and HEI CEO Constance Lau are among eight female CEOs who lead companies in our cohort. The others are Lynn Good of Duke Energy Corporation, Lisa Grow of IDACORP Inc., Patricia Poppe of PG&E Corporation, Pat Vincent-Collawn of PNM Resources Inc., Maria Pope of Portland General Electric Company and Suzanne Sitherwood of Spire Inc.”

Among the companies headed by women, Duke ranks near the bottom of the list. Portland General Electric, with 29% women directors (four of 14 on the board), is the only one with a lower percentage. The eight woman-led utility companies averaged 39% female members on their boards.

The industry overall has seen an improvement in the number of women on boards in the last two years. Rayes says that, when Moody’s looked at gas and electric utilities in 2019, the national average was 25%.

Moody’s did not break that figure out by individual utilities in their 2019 report. Duke would have ranked well then also, as that year it had boosted the number of women on the board to the four at which it stands now. As now, that was 31% of the board and above the national average.

Duke does well among Southern utilities. Of six electric and gas utilities in the region, only AES Corp. (NYSE: AES) of Virginia and Entergy Corp. (NYSE: ETR) of Louisiana rank higher, with 40% and 36%, respectively, women on their boards.

ALLETE (NYSE: ALE) is based in Michigan. HEI (NYSE: HE) is based in Hawaii. IDACORP (NYSE: IDA) is based in Idaho, PG&E (NYSE: PCG) in California and PNM Resources (NYSE: PNM) in New Mexico. Portland General (NYSE: POR) is based in Oregon, and Spire (NYSE: SR) is based in Missouri.

 

WA State Utilities Commission OKs $40 Million for Customer Bill Relief (Puget Sound Business Journal, Seattle, WA)

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission has approved $40 million in new energy bill assistance for people struggling financially due to the pandemic, including Puget Sound Energy gas and electricity customers.

Electricity and natural gas customers of four of the state’s investor-owned utilities — Avista, Cascade Natural Gas, PacifiCorp, and Puget Sound Energy — will be eligible starting this week for bill assistance.

Members of the three-member state commission, appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee, previously ordered each utility to create temporary Covid-19 bill relief programs using 1% of their Washington retail revenue, among other customer protections.

The commission said customers are eligible for the help if they earn no more than 200% of the federal poverty level. Individual customers can get up to $2,500 per year in additional help with bills.

The programs approved by the state agency last week include customers of the following four utilities:

Puget Sound Energy: Crisis Affected Customer Assistance Program, $27.7 million

Avista: Debt Relief Program, $6.5 million

Cascade Natural Gas: Big Hearts Program, $2.5 million

PacifiCorp: Residential Covid-19 Bill Payment Assistance Program, $3.1 million

The customer assistance funds are available in addition to federal Low Income Home Energy Assistant Program (LIHEAP) grants or other existing bill assistance programs and long-term payment plan arrangements, UTC said.

The commission said customers who've received energy assistance in the past may automatically get a grant to forgive past balances due, up to a $2,500 annual limit.

Eligible customers who have not received energy assistance before should reach out directly to their utility for details.

Gov. Inslee prohibited Washington state energy, telecommunications and water companies from charging late fees, disconnecting customers due to nonpayment, or refusing to reconnect customers with unpaid bills until July 31.

The UTC will hold a public meeting in May to assess utilities' responses in the state during the pandemic.

As the Debate Over Removing the Snake River Dams Churns, Tribes Quietly Lead the Way in Reintroducing Salmon in the Upper Columbia River System (Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA)

It was raining when Casey Flanagan netted history. For the second time in as many months, no less.

Flanagan, a Spokane Tribal fish biologist, was bent over a large stainless-steel cone floating on two pontoons anchored by steel wires to trees onshore on Wednesday when she made the discovery.

The device, called a screw trap, was bobbing in the frothy spring-runoff waters of Tshimakain Creek, also spelled Chamokane Creek, on the eastern edge of the Spokane Indian Reservation. A hundred yards away, the creek flowed into the Spokane River, just downstream of Long Lake Dam.

The creek poured through the cone, spinning fins like a large cake mixer. But instead of mixing dough, the device shunts any fish, insects or debris into an underwater holding tank.

“Oh, there is a redband right there,” Flanagan said, netting a small native trout from the murky trap and expertly putting the fish into a waiting bucket of water.

Another redband trout and several aquatic stoneflies loitered in the bucket.

Then she swept the bottom of the trap again and raised the net up. Small sticks and other detritus lined the bottom.

Sifting through the debris, she gasped. We just found one, she said, the excitement infectious. The two other biologists with her – Calvin Fisher and Tamara Knudson – crowded in.

In the net was a small, knuckle-length fish. Other than a salmon-pink sack attached to its belly, it was pale and translucent.

“Get him in the bucket, make sure he survives,” Fisher said.

“We’ll give him a minute,” added Knudson. To which, Fisher responded, “It’s a good day!”

The fish darting at the bottom of that 10-gallon bucket represents a biological and cultural victory. It’s most likely a young chinook salmon (a chinook alevin) taking its first steps in a multiyear journey to the ocean.

Likely, it hatched just upstream of the floating fish mixer, one of the first offspring from 20 salmon nesting spots tribal biologists found last year after they’d released 750 yearling chinook in Tshimakain Creek in 2020.

But more importantly, it’s the second naturally spawned chinook alevin found in this stretch of dam-blocked river in more than 100 years, proving yet again that salmon can survive in the Upper Columbia River system. Tshimakain Creek was once an important salmon fishing spot for the Spokane Tribe. When Little Falls Dam was built in 1911, it blocked the migratory chinook salmon from returning to their birth stream to spawn.

No one cried as this little miracle swam around at the bottom of the bucket Wednesday.

But the rain pouring down made it hard to tell for sure.

‘A sexy concept’

A month ago, Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson announced a $33 billion proposal that would breach the four Lower Snake River dams and flood the region with cash, all in an effort to save salmon.

Since then, his idea has been praised and attacked by both farmers and environmentalists. It has raised questions about power, clean energy and reliability, and faces an uncertain political future.

All that noise – as understandable as it is – has underscored the quiet and slow work that Spokane-area tribes have done to reintroduce salmon into the Upper Columbia River, a region rich with potential salmon habitat but long blocked by two of America’s largest dams: Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph.

Unlike the restoration efforts on the Snake River, the five tribes that are working to reintroduce salmon in the Upper Columbia are sidestepping the dam issue.

“We’re not asking for operational changes,” said Brent Nichols, fisheries manager of the Spokane Tribe of Indians. “That’s one of the big messages we are trying to get out there. We’re not asking Grand Coulee to change how they operate Grand Coulee … Grand Coulee is the lynchpin of the Columbia River system. We recognize its importance in the hydropower system. We also recognize that there are technologies and ways to move salmon and fish around the dam, and get them back up here to the blocked area.”

Instead, the tribes are showing, steadily, scientifically and systematically, that salmon can live and spawn in these upper waters. That work has often flown under the radar.

“The Snake River and the dam removal is certainly a very charismatic and, for lack of a better word, a sexy concept,” said Conor Giorgi, the anadromous program manager for the Spokane Tribe of Indians. “And for whatever reason, reintroduction upstream of Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee hasn’t received the attention.”

Attention or not, the Upper Columbia United Tribes – which include Coeur d’Alene Tribe of Indians, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Kalispel Tribe of Indians, Kootenai Tribe of Idaho and the Spokane Tribe of Indians – started this work in 2015. That’s the year they published a paper outlining a phased approach to reintroduction of salmon upstream of the two dams.

Phase 1 of that work wrapped up in 2019 and found, among other things, that there is still suitable habitat for salmon.

Quite a bit, in fact.

Once awash with fish

The Upper Columbia system has 711 miles of possible habitat for spring chinook and 1,610 miles for summer steelhead, according to a 2019 study. Of that spring chinook habitat, 80% was deemed to be highly productive while 53% of the steelhead habitat was judged to be highly productive.

The good news continues, a drumbeat of hopeful projections:

• Currently accessible tributary habitats could produce 2,300 adult steelhead and 600 spring chinook, and 8,500 summer and fall chinook.

• The Rufus Woods Lake and the Transboundary reach, along the Canada-U.S. border, could support between 800 to 15,000 and 5,000 to 61,000 adult spawners, respectively.

• The Sanpoil River and nearby tributaries could produce between 34,000 to 216,000 Sockeye, tribal research indicates.

• Sockeye smolt capacity for Lake Roosevelt ranges from 12 million to 49 million.

All of which makes sense, Flanagan said, if you consider the history.

The Spokane River, and the Upper Columbia River system in general, was awash with salmon. Researchers estimate Upper Columbia River tribes caught 644,469 fish a year. All those fish weighed, roughly, 6.8 million pounds, which was good because Native people ate 948 pounds of salmon per capita..

That litany of good news was one of the big takeaways from Phase 1 of the reintroduction study.

Now, the tribes are entering Phase 2, which will introduce tagged salmon into the system to test the habitat and survivability estimates developed in Phase 1. Phase 2 will also focus on figuring out the best method for getting fish up and over Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams. All of that, Giorgi said, should take at least five years.

A key step in that process will be the release of 750 yearling chinook in 2022. Each will be tagged with a passive acoustic tracker that pings stationary receivers as the fish make their way downstream. That data will allow the Spokane Tribe and others to see how many fish survive going through, or over, each dam, as well as how many survive passage through the reservoirs, Giorgi said.

The tribe also plans to release tens of thousands of tagged yearling chinook to assess survival through the main stem of the Columbia River downstream of Chief Joseph Dam.

Phase 3 of the plan is to construct permanent passage facilities for fish coming up and down the river, Giorgi said.

At the same time, the tribes have had several cultural releases. The Spokane Tribe released 750 yearling chinook in 2019 and 2020. The Colville Tribe released about 60 salmon above Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee in 2019.

The chinook alevin found on Tshimakain Creek Wednesday is most likely a descendant of one of these released fish.

Challenges remain

While that is all good news, the challenges remain substantial.

Sure, there is good habitat for salmon in the upper reaches, but getting to it remains impossible. Since the Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams were built (without fish passage) in the 1930s and 1950s, respectively, salmon have been blocked from returning to spawning beds in the upper Columbia River. And that’s not to mention the various dams up and down the Spokane River – five up to the Spokane Falls – none of which have fish passages.

The tribe will look at a variety of ways to get fish up and downstream of the dams. Current options include the Salmon Cannon, a flexible pneumatic tube that shoots salmon over dams and other obstacles, trucking, helicopters or even fish ladders. The Phase 2 study will help determine which is the best option and where.

Even if passage up and down the dams is solved, plenty of dangers remain for a young juvenile salmon trying to make it to the ocean. Reservoirs like Lake Roosevelt are difficult to navigate, as salmon smolts in particular depend on the downstream current to pull them along. Plus, predatory fish like walleye, bass and increasingly Northern Pike can decimate native fish populations.

And even then, making the transition from the reservoir into suitable spawning habitat can be difficult.

A good example is Blue Creek and its confluence with the Spokane Arm of Lake Roosevelt. The reservoir can fluctuate up to 80 feet. That back-and-forth erodes soil and washes away the small gravel and pebbles that salmon need to build the nests in which they spawn. It also removes still water, which salmon and other fish species need to rest in.

“What you really need for salmon and steelhead and trout is, you need resting habitat as you’re going upstream,” Flanagan said. “And that is what is eliminated by a drawdown time.”

That’s not to mention the as-yet unconfirmed effects of a changing climate. One early indicator Flanagan has seen is a proliferation of nonnative crayfish in Columbia River tributaries. While checking a trap Wednesday on Blue Creek’s confluence with the Spokane arm of Lake Roosevelt, she found 10 crayfish and no fish.

And of course, funding for the work remains an issue.

“Right now, that’s the biggest obstacle for reintroduction, finding the funding to do the studies and the subsequent work,” Giorgi said. “It already has been a largely tribally funded effort.”

Still, Brent Nichols, the Spokane Tribe’s fisheries manager, is confident.

“The biggest pushback we’ve been hearing from folks is that juveniles won’t be able to navigate through Lake Roosevelt,” he said. “And we’ve already dismissed that concern twice now with our small test releases.”

The best example?

In 2017, 752 yearling summer chinook were released into Tshimakain Creek, all tagged and tracked. They headed downstream, passing either through the dams’ turbines or over spillways. In 2019, one of the released fish made its way back upstream, in a doomed effort to return to its birthplace. In July 2019, the intrepid fish made it up the final fish ladder on the Columbia River at Wells Dam. Chief Joseph Hatchery workers caught the adult chinook and returned it the Spokane Tribe, where it is now mounted in the tribes fishery office – a reminder of the work they’ve done and the work that remains.

‘A conceptual idea’

How Simpson’s proposal would impact tribal work along the Upper Columbia and Spokane Rivers is yet to be seen.

Many of the individual regional tribes involved in the salmon reintroduction work declined to comment on Simpson’s proposal. The Colville Tribes declined, although they did write a letter of support when the proposal was first announced. A spokeswoman for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe said that “at this time the Tribal council has not taken a position on the dam matter proposed by Simpson.”

As for the Spokane Tribe, chairwoman Carol Evans said in an email that the tribe is “heartened by Congressman Simpson’s courage to recognize the continued flawed approach the Federal Government has used in addressing the negative impacts of the Federal Columbia River Power System to date.”

She added, “This system that has produced immense wealth for the Columbia River Region at the expense of the salmon, steelhead, and lamprey that the Spokane Tribe and many other Tribes in the Columbia River Region relied upon until the construction of Grand Coulee Dam. Although, the proposal headlines with the removal of the four Snake River Dams, Congressman Simpson’s concept could speed the implementation of returning salmon, steelhead, and lamprey to the Upper Columbia River.”

In a news release, Simpson pointed out that “states will have a larger say moving forward in setting water policy and allocating federal funding in the future. These provisions are crucial to the balance that must be found in any workable solution to this long-standing problem.”

For his part, Nichols said he’d be interested in reading whatever legislation comes out of the proposal, noting that right now it’s still just a concept.

‘Go, baby fish, go’

Back at Tshimakain Creek on Wednesday, Flanagan and the other biologists took photos and videos of the small chinook alevin and then released it.

Unlike the first chinook alevin that she caught, Flanagan could let this one go. She kept the first one because the only way to 100% positively identify the species is to count its anal fin rays, a process that kills the fish.

“It broke my heart,” Flanagan said of that necessity. “It broke my heart.”

But science can be brutal, and it was worth knowing for sure that it was a chinook. And she is confident that this second alevin is a chinook as well. It’s the right size, the right time of year and it’s only 100 yards downstream from a documented salmon nesting spot, known as a redd.

And so, they found a calm patch of water and released the tiny fish with a hope and prayer. The creature will grow larger, until it has used up all the nutrients held in the salmon-pink sack on its belly. Then, once it can eat on its own, it will head toward the ocean, navigating reservoirs, predators and dams.

It’s still raining when the chinook alevin hits the water and, as if aware of the many dangers ahead, darts into the shadows, disappearing into the murk.

“Go, baby fish, go,” said Tamara Knudson. “All right, fishy. Survive. Do it.”