The Energy News Digest for March 22, 2021

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HOT SHOTS – TODAY’S TOP FIVE STORIES

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Affirms Special Grant PUD Power Rate for Cryptocurrency Miners (Lexology)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/ninth-circuit-court-of-appeals-affirms.html

Seattle City Light Told Public Their Dam Operations Increased Salmon Runs as Fish Numbers Declined (KING-TV, Seattle, WA)

https://www.king5.com/article/news/investigations/seattle-city-light-told-public-their-dam-operations-increased-salmon-runs-as-fish-numbers-declined/281-1e054962-327f-4ca1-bed0-2ab4f4445369

Coal Cuts: Aging Power Plants, Cheap Natural Gas Shutting Off Montana Coal (Billings Gazette, MT)

https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/coal-cuts-aging-power-plants-cheap-natural-gas-shutting-off-montana-coal/article_3e80da93-1441-5247-9711-82c149367948.html

Pacific Northwest Power Experts Talk Texas Outages, Washington State’s Electric Future (Star Local Media, Plano, TX)

https://starlocalmedia.com/news/state/pacific-northwest-power-experts-talk-texas-outages-washingtons-electric-future/article_b7e80387-3c65-5d87-84f1-761e9bfe75e4.html

WA State: Local Lawmakers Oppose Tri-Cities Area Wind Farm Project; Say Decision-Making Needs to Be Made Locally (KEPR-TV, Tri-Cities, WA)

https://keprtv.com/news/local/local-lawmakers-oppose-wind-farm-project-say-decision-making-needs-to-be-made-locally

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS (See Stories Below)

1.      Coal Cuts: Aging Power Plants, Cheap Natural Gas Shutting Off Montana Coal

2.      Nuclear, Gas-Generated Electricity Surpassed Coal for First Time in 2020

3.      Pacific Northwest Power Experts Talk Texas Outages, Washington State’s Electric Future

4.      Idaho’s Speaker of the House, Scott Bedke Remains Opposed to Removal of Dams

5.      Editorial: Snake River Dams Plan Warrants Consideration

6.      Clark Public Utilities to Return $20 Million to Customers

7.      Pacific Gas & Electric Is Changing How Your Electricity Bill Works - Here’s Everything You Need to Know

8.      Bipartisan House Lawmakers to Reintroduce Grid Security Bill after Texas Outages, SolarWinds Attack

9.      Montana: Local Engineer Climbs to Top of Male-Dominated Field

10.   Electric Generators at Grand Coulee Dam Go Online for the First Time on March 22, 1941

11.   California Opens Rulemaking on Provider of Last Resort, as Customers Move Away from Utilities (

12.   Oregon: Umatilla Electric Coop Granted Certificate for Boardman Transmission Line

13.   WA State: Local Lawmakers Oppose Tri-Cities Area Wind Farm Project; Say Decision-Making Needs to Be Made Locally

14.   Editorial: Will WA Governor Inslee Sacrifice Tri-Cities Skyline for Clean Energy? Wind Project Will Tell

15.   Oregon Legislator Introduces Bill for 3 GW of Floating Wind

16.   Why Covering Canals with Solar Panels Is a Power Move

17.   County Planners Face Permit Backlog After Developers Rush to Beat New WA State Energy Code Deadline

18.   Microsoft’s New Redmond Utility Plant to Use Earth’s Heat to Slash Energy Use

19.   Rolling Blackouts, Angry Customers, & $17,000 Bills: Why Real-Time Energy Management Is About to Have Its Moment

20.   When One Fridge Is Not Enough

21.   Seattle City Light Told Public Their Dam Operations Increased Salmon Runs as Fish Numbers Declined

22.   Op/Ed: A Way to End Litigation Around Salmon & Dams

23.   Fish Factor: 2021 Alaska Salmon Season Projected to Be a Big Haul

24.   The Pacific Northwest Snowpack Trend of the Past Fifty Years: The Truth May Surprise You

25.   NOAA Warns of Water Use Cutbacks, Fires & Low Levels in Reservoirs Amid Significant Drought

26.   WA State: After Recommendations Delayed, Decisions Around Proposed Chehalis River Dam Are ‘A Ways Away’

27.   Amid Climate Crisis, A Proposal to Save Washington State Forests for Carbon Storage, Not Logging

28.   Some WA State Stakeholders Mixed on Senate Broadband Bill

29.   Stimulus Money Could Fuel Massive Montana Broadband Effort

30.   Op/Ed: Senator Ron Wyden – Spanning the Digital Divide

31.   ‘There Has to Be an Accounting’: Former AT&T Lawyer Says Company Systemically Overcharged Neediest Schools

32.   Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Affirms Special Grant PUD Power Rate for Cryptocurrency Miners

33.   Oregon: Facebook Will Add Two More Data Centers at $2 Billion Prineville Complex

34.   How Facebook Says Oregon Is Jeopardizing Its Goal of 100% Green Energy

35.   Eyeing Electric Vehicle Future, Snohomish PUD Offers Incentives

36.   Douglas Adams’ Note to Self Reveals Author Found Writing Torture

37.   What Testing 17 Butter Brands Told Us About the Science Behind ‘Buttergate’

38.   Congressional Op/Ed: Securing Cleaner American Energy

39.   Environmental Group Asks Energy Regulators to Block Use of Utility Customers’ Money for Lobbying

WORD OF THE DAY

Funner \FUNN-err \ Noun – 1: providing more entertainment, amusement, or enjoyment 2: full of fun: more pleasant

The scraping of sharpening stone against metal, the twanging of new strings being tested on yew-wood bows, the barking of captains and generals drifted over the field of battle at Lexicographer’s Pass. The battle would be joined under dark, looming clouds over whether the armed forces would have more fun in their fierce vocation…or if the coming clash would be funner for them all. Let the carnage begin.

ENERGY & UTILITY ISSUES

1.      Coal Cuts: Aging Power Plants, Cheap Natural Gas Shutting Off Montana Coal (Billings Gazette, MT)

https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/coal-cuts-aging-power-plants-cheap-natural-gas-shutting-off-montana-coal/article_3e80da93-1441-5247-9711-82c149367948.html

2.      Nuclear, Gas-Generated Electricity Surpassed Coal for First Time in 2020 (The Hill, Washington, DC)

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/544085-nuclear-gas-generated-electricity-surpassed-coal-for-first-time-on

3.      Pacific Northwest Power Experts Talk Texas Outages, Washington State’s Electric Future (Star Local Media, Plano, TX)

https://starlocalmedia.com/news/state/pacific-northwest-power-experts-talk-texas-outages-washingtons-electric-future/article_b7e80387-3c65-5d87-84f1-761e9bfe75e4.html

4.      Idaho’s Speaker of the House, Scott Bedke Remains Opposed to Removal of Dams (KLIX Radio, Twin Falls, ID)

https://newsradio1310.com/idahos-scott-bedke-remains-opposed-to-removal-of-dams/

5.      Editorial: Snake River Dams Plan Warrants Consideration (Vancouver Columbian, WA)

https://www.columbian.com/news/2021/mar/21/in-our-view-snake-river-dams-plan-warrants-consideration/

6.      Clark Public Utilities to Return $20 Million to Customers (Vancouver Columbian, WA)

https://www.columbian.com/news/2021/mar/17/clark-public-utilities-to-return-20m-to-customers/

7.      Pacific Gas & Electric Is Changing How Your Electricity Bill Works - Here’s Everything You Need to Know (San Francisco Chronicle, CA – Paywall Advisory)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/pacific-gas-electric-is-changing-how.html

8.      Bipartisan House Lawmakers to Reintroduce Grid Security Bill after Texas Outages, SolarWinds Attack (Utility Dive)

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/bipartisan-house-lawmakers-to-reintroduce-grid-security-bill-after-texas-ou/597022/

9.      Montana: Local Engineer Climbs to Top of Male-Dominated Field (The Daily Interlake, Kalispell, MT)

https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2021/mar/22/local-engineer-climbs-top-male-dominated-field/

10.   Electric Generators at Grand Coulee Dam Go Online for the First Time on March 22, 1941 (History Link)

https://www.historylink.org/File/9798

11.   California Opens Rulemaking on Provider of Last Resort, as Customers Move Away from Utilities (Utility Dive)

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/california-rulemaking-provider-of-last-resort/597012/

12.   Oregon: Umatilla Electric Coop Granted Certificate for Boardman Transmission Line (The Hermiston Herald, OR)

https://www.hermistonherald.com/news/local/uec-granted-certificate-for-boardman-transmission-line/article_8f9750da-85e5-11eb-9bda-bb3478c1b866.html

RENEWABLE ENERGY & SELF STORAGE

13.   WA State: Local Lawmakers Oppose Tri-Cities Area Wind Farm Project; Say Decision-Making Needs to Be Made Locally (KEPR-TV, Tri-Cities, WA)

https://keprtv.com/news/local/local-lawmakers-oppose-wind-farm-project-say-decision-making-needs-to-be-made-locally

14.   Editorial: Will WA Governor Inslee Sacrifice Tri-Cities Skyline for Clean Energy? Wind Project Will Tell (Tri-City Herald, WA)

https://www.tri-cityherald.com/opinion/editorials/article250063544.html

15.   Oregon Legislator Introduces Bill for 3 GW of Floating Wind (Rivera)

https://www.rivieramm.com/news-content-hub/oregon-legislator-introduces-bill-for-3-gw-of-floating-wind-64417

16.   Why Covering Canals with Solar Panels Is a Power Move (Wired Magazine)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/why-covering-canals-with-solar-panels.html

CONSERVATION & EFFICIENCY

17.   County Planners Face Permit Backlog After Developers Rush to Beat New WA State Energy Code Deadline (Kitsap Sun, Bremerton, WA – Paywall Advisory)

https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/2021/03/19/new-state-energy-rules-cause-building-permit-backup-kitsap-county/4756683001/

18.   Microsoft’s New Redmond Utility Plant to Use Earth’s Heat to Slash Energy Use (Puget Sound Business Journal, Seattle, WA)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/microsofts-new-redmond-utility-plant-to.html

 

19.   Rolling Blackouts, Angry Customers, & $17,000 Bills: Why Real-Time Energy Management Is About to Have Its Moment (Utility Dive)

https://www.utilitydive.com/spons/rolling-blackouts-angry-customers-and-17000-bills/597011/

20.   When One Fridge Is Not Enough (NY Times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/dining/two-refrigerators.html

FISH & WILDLIFE

21.   Seattle City Light Told Public Their Dam Operations Increased Salmon Runs as Fish Numbers Declined (KING-TV, Seattle, WA)

https://www.king5.com/article/news/investigations/seattle-city-light-told-public-their-dam-operations-increased-salmon-runs-as-fish-numbers-declined/281-1e054962-327f-4ca1-bed0-2ab4f4445369

22.   Op/Ed: A Way to End Litigation Around Salmon & Dams (Portland Business Journal, OR)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/oped-way-to-end-litigation-around.html

23.   Fish Factor: 2021 Alaska Salmon Season Projected to Be a Big Haul (The Cordoba Times, AJ)

https://www.thecordovatimes.com/2021/03/19/fish-factor-salmon-season-2021-projected-to-be-a-big-haul/

WATER, WATER, ANYWHERE?

24.   The Pacific Northwest Snowpack Trend of the Past Fifty Years: The Truth May Surprise You (Cliff Mass Weather Blog)

https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-northwest-snowpack-trend-of-past.html

25.   NOAA Warns of Water Use Cutbacks, Fires & Low Levels in Reservoirs Amid Significant Drought (The Hill, Washington, DC)

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/544020-weather-service-warns-of-water-use-cutbacks-increased-fires-and-low

26.   WA State: After Recommendations Delayed, Decisions Around Proposed Chehalis River Dam Are ‘A Ways Away’ (The Chronicle, Centralia, WA)

https://www.thedailyworld.com/northwest/after-recommendations-delayed-decisions-around-proposed-dam-are-a-ways-away/

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

27.   Amid Climate Crisis, A Proposal to Save Washington State Forests for Carbon Storage, Not Logging (Seattle Times, WA – Paywall Advisory)

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/amid-climate-crisis-a-proposal-to-save-washington-state-forests-for-carbon-storage-not-logging/

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

28.   Some WA State Stakeholders Mixed on Senate Broadband Bill (Business Institute of Washington)

https://thelens.news/2021/03/18/some-stakeholders-mixed-on-senate-broadband-bill/

29.   Stimulus Money Could Fuel Massive Montana Broadband Effort (Bozeman Daily Chronicle, MT)

https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/state/stimulus-money-could-fuel-massive-montana-broadband-effort/article_56049e23-ec7f-5494-9d16-97e5dedffc2d.html

30.   Op/Ed: Senator Ron Wyden – Spanning the Digital Divide (The Daily Astorian, OR)

https://www.dailyastorian.com/opinion/columns/guest-column-spanning-the-digital-divide/article_cce60850-85c2-11eb-b4bc-7f54304fa2aa.html

31.   ‘There Has to Be an Accounting’: Former AT&T Lawyer Says Company Systemically Overcharged Neediest Schools (Washington Post)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/03/18/att-school-internet-pricing/

THE WIZARDING WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY

32.   Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Affirms Special Grant PUD Power Rate for Cryptocurrency Miners (Lexology)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/ninth-circuit-court-of-appeals-affirms.htm

33.   Oregon: Facebook Will Add Two More Data Centers Billion Prineville Complex (Oregonian, Portland, OR)

https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2021/03/facebook-will-add-two-more-data-centers-at-2-billion-prineville-complex.html

34.   How Facebook Says Oregon Is Jeopardizing Its Goal of 100% Green Energy (Portland Business Journal, OR)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/how-facebook-says-oregon-is.html

I SING THE CAR ELECTRIC

35.   Eyeing Electric Vehicle Future, Snohomish PUD Offers Incentives (Everett Herald – Paywall Advisory)

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/eyeing-electric-vehicle-future-county-pud-offers-incentives/

PUBLIC RELATIONS, MARKETING & MEDIA

36.   Douglas Adams’ Note to Self Reveals Author Found Writing Torture (The Guardian, UK)

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/22/douglas-adams-note-to-self-reveals-author-found-writing-torture

BARREL O’ GREEN POTPOURRI – SEETHING STEW OF SCIENCE

37.   What Testing 17 Butter Brands Told Us About the Science Behind ‘Buttergate’ (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/butter-tests-marketplace-1.5954569?cmp=rss

GOVERNANCE & MANAGEMENT

38.   Congressional Op/Ed: Securing Cleaner American Energy (Utility Dive)

https://morningconsult.com/opinions/securing-cleaner-american-energy/

39.   Environmental Group Asks Energy Regulators to Block Use of Utility Customers’ Money for Lobbying (The Hill, Washington, DC)

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/543646-environmental-group-asks-energy-regulators-to-prevent-use-of

ALLIGATORS IN THE SEWER – DIVERSIONS

Taiwan Official Urges People to Stop Changing Their Name to ‘Salmon’

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/18/taiwan-official-urges-people-to-stop-changing-their-name-to-salmon

15th Century Bowl Found at Yard Sale Sells for $722,000

https://apnews.com/article/15th-century-bowl-found-at-yard-sale-sells-722k-4d10ed571aa5835f8086cc1be23a2979

Scottish Island for Sale with Opening Bid of $111,700

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/03/19/scotland-Deer-Island-Scotland-auction/7221616180104/

24-Year-Old Photos Found in Antique Camera Returned to Family

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/03/19/antique-camera-eBay-Adam-Wilson-Bartoletti-family/1591616185075/

SONG OF THE DAY

Jim Croce: I Got a Name

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG6ZlCpfVvU

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.

Why Covering Canals With Solar Panels Is a Power Move (Wired Magazine)

Covering waterways would, in a sense, make solar panels water-cooled, boosting their efficiency.

PEANUT BUTTER AND jelly. Hall & Oates. Now there’s a duo that could literally and figuratively be even more powerful: solar panels and canals. What if instead of leaving canals open, letting the sun evaporate the water away, we covered them with panels that would both shade the precious liquid and hoover up solar energy? Maybe humanity can go for that.

Scientists in California just ran the numbers on what would happen if their state slapped solar panels on 4,000 miles of its canals, including the major California Aqueduct, and the results point to a potentially beautiful partnership. Their feasibility study, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, finds that if applied statewide, the panels would save 63 billion gallons of water from evaporating each year. At the same time, solar panels across California’s exposed canals would provide 13 gigawatts of renewable power annually, about half of the new capacity the state needs to meet its decarbonization goals by the year 2030.

California’s water conveyance system is the world’s largest, serving 35 million people and 5.7 million acres of farmland. Seventy-five percent of available water is in the northern third of the state, while the bottom two-thirds of the state accounts for 80 percent of urban and agricultural demand. Shuttling all that water around requires pumps to make it flow uphill; accordingly, the water system is the state’s largest single consumer of electricity.

Solar-paneling canals would not only produce renewable energy for use across the state, it would run the water system itself. “By covering canals with solar panels, we can reduce evaporation and avoid disturbing natural and working lands, while providing renewable energy and other co-benefits,” says environmental engineer Brandi McKuin of the University of California, Merced, and the University of California, Santa Cruz, lead author on the paper.

Ironically enough, the performance of solar panels falls as temperatures rise. In a solar cell, photons from the sun knock electrons out of atoms, producing an electric current. When a panel gets too hot, that puts electrons into an already excited state, so they don’t create as much energy when dislodged by photons. Spanning panels over canals would, in a sense, make them water-cooled, boosting their efficiency. “And additionally,” McKuin adds, “shade from the panels mitigates aquatic weed growth, which is a major canal maintenance issue.”

The engineering wouldn’t be all that complicated, either. You could throw a steel truss over a canal and cover it with panels. India has actually been experimenting with solar canals like this, and it has commissioned one 25-mile-long stretch for an estimated cost of $14 million.

To be clear, this new paper is not a full-throated pitch to state officials to immediately cover all canals with solar panels. “Our paper is not a detailed engineering design or conceptual design—it's a feasibility study, a proof of concept for taking it to the next phase of investing in a demonstration project,” says engineer Roger Bales of the University of California, Merced. “But I think the amount of electricity could be significant, both statewide and locally.”

Bales and McKuin calculated all of this by incorporating a variety of models. Evaporation rates, for instance, came from hydrological models. They folded in climate models, too, to predict how the state will warm over the coming years. They got so granular that they also calculated how the cooling effect of the canal water would improve the panels’ generating efficiency.

Ultimately, they landed on a potential annual savings of 63 billion gallons of water across California. But they also took into account the human benefits of such a project, which are more nebulous. For example, many farmers pump their water with diesel generators. If solar panels provided that energy instead, that could cut local emissions, thus improving air quality. “You can look at the economic costs, but you can also look at the social benefit,” says Bales.

An added social benefit could be that by situating the panels over canals, the state wouldn’t have to convert croplands or disrupt natural habitats to set up sprawling solar farms—a canal is already on long-disturbed land. Think about how you’d install a solar array in your own home. “I can put it on my roof, rather than mowing down the yard next to my house and putting panels there,” says Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute at the UC Berkeley School of Law. “You're taking something that's already been altered by human activity and doubling up on the benefits it provides. That's the profound piece.”

Solar-paneling California's canals could also prepare the state for the widespread adoption of electric cars. The California Aqueduct runs right along Interstate 5, the major artery carrying traffic between the northern and southern halves of the state. Where there are now gas stations dotted along the way, in the future there might be car-charging stations that draw power from the nearby aqueduct.

The plan could also help California prepare for future climate change. “Droughts are part of our history and part of our future,” says Kiparsky. “It's just that under climate change, they're projected to become both more frequent and more severe.” As the state gets hotter, more and more water will evaporate away from its canals, which the panels can help attenuate.

While the researchers focused on California in this study, this kind of modeling “could easily be applied to other locations,” McKuin says. “In water-stressed regions of the world with open canals, it makes a lot of sense to consider this.” For instance, that might include California’s neighbors, like the increasingly molten-hot southwestern states and Texas, which just showed it needs to overhaul its energy system anyway.

There are, of course, some challenges when mulling such a large infrastructure project. For instance, these researchers didn’t take into account the potential effects on wildlife—covering canals might cut off access for waterbirds who depend on it for habitat, especially considering that California has lost more than 90 percent of its wetlands. Also, situating solar panels and their trusses over water could lead to rusting of equipment, raising maintenance costs. And then there’s the cost of solar-paneling canals on a wide scale. (The study didn’t suggest an overall price tag. McKuin says it will be hard to estimate without a demonstration project first, and it would depend on variables like which sites are chosen for development.)

But then again, this isn’t an all-or-nothing idea: Some canals here and there could be converted, while others remain open. While that might not provide the full boost of saving 63 billion gallons of water each year, it would still provide power to water pumps and local car-charging stations, all while reducing evaporation at a smaller scale. “With or without climate change, the supply of water in California is tightening, and the demand for water in California is increasing,” says Kiparsky. “And those two facts together mean that, indeed, any water savings is good, and it's welcome.”

Op/Ed: A Way to End Litigation Around Salmon & Dams (Portland Business Journal, OR)

More than 40 years ago Congress passed what seemed like a meaningful commitment to restoring the Columbia and Snake River salmon runs that had been devastated by the vast system of federal dams.

Unfortunately, the Northwest Power Act failed to give the interstate council it created sufficient authority to substantially change dam operations.

The upshot: decades of legal uncertainty for utilities across our region, and salmon runs that have continued to fall toward extinction.

For most of the last 30 years, the operation of these dams has been overseen by federal judges. Although they have consistently ruled in favor of salmon and have ordered relief like spilling more water over dams to facilitate salmon passage, these are just stop-gap measures.

More court oversight appears to be on the way: fishing and conservation groups, the State of Oregon, and others like the Nez Perce Tribe are back in court challenging the most recent federal dam plan because the agencies that operate the dams have shown they are incapable of implementing the kind of major dam overhaul to restore salmon the courts have called for repeatedly over the last three decades.

This time, the plaintiffs are almost certain to ask the courts for a significant increase in the amount of water spilled over the dams, and some may ask for reservoirs to be drawn down during critical salmon migration months to reduce lethal (and illegal) water temperatures and speed baby salmon migrating to the ocean.

If they succeed, the effects on other river users would be much more significant than in the past. And succeed they may, since the Supreme Court has made it clear for 40 years that the law requires protecting endangered species “whatever the cost.”

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

In fact, we have an alternative to continuing the cycle of litigation: Congressman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) has proposed a comprehensive package of infrastructure investments for the region that would simultaneously address energy, agriculture, and salmon challenges. His proposal includes funding to remove the four lower Snake River dams, which scientists have identified as the single biggest step to restore healthy and abundant salmon runs in the Snake River basin.

As important, his concept would invest more in commodity transportation and irrigation for farming and shipping businesses, as well as clean energy to power our region for decades to come.

This is a bold proposal that seeks to bring the region together for a prosperous future, with the surety utilities and businesses have lacked.

But it is only a framework. It needs other leaders to develop it into legislation that will pass Congress.

That must happen now — while the Biden administration is planning a major national infrastructure investment push, and Washington and Oregon have members of Congress in key leadership positions.

These leaders, working together, can develop and pass the kind of visionary legislation that would secure healthy salmon for the Northwest economy, support the region’s important agriculture sector, and develop and fortify a clean energy future. In doing so, we would also be living up to our legal and moral obligations to Tribes throughout the region whose livelihoods, health, and culture depend on abundant, harvestable salmon.

If these leaders think inaction or additional study is the way to go, they should ask themselves: how will their inaction look if the courts in a few months order higher levels of spill that drive up utility rates, or order reservoirs operated at lower levels that limit river navigation or irrigation?

Will they be hailed as effective leaders, or be called to account for missing the best opportunity in decades to end the cycle of litigation over salmon and dams?

We have a rare opportunity to put the Northwest and salmon on a path to a more secure and resilient future. The time to act is now.

Michael C. Blumm is the is Jeffrey Bain Faculty Scholar and professor of law at Lewis & Clark Law School.

 

How Facebook Says Oregon Is Jeopardizing Its Goal of 100% Green Energy (Portland Business Journal, OR)

The problem: A Public Utility Commission order late last year putting limits on Schedule 272, an obscure PacifiCorp rate schedule that Facebook has used to claim its large and growing Central Oregon operations are as green as can be.

In a recent PUC filing, Vitesse, Facebook’s subsidiary for its Prineville data center, said the stakes were high.

The Prineville data center is one of the social media giant's largest (on Thursday, the company said the facility would add two more buildings, bringing it to 11 buildings and nearly 4.6 million square feet).

“Vitesse is planning to use Schedule 272 in 2021 to support 100% of its Oregon data center load with renewable energy,” the company said. But the PUC order, it continued, “could significantly disrupt those efforts,” rendering Prineville “Facebook’s only data center in the country without a viable tariff to maintain its commitment to supporting its operations with 100% renewable energy.”

The situation highlights the complex regulatory landscape that companies face in Oregon in pursuing aggressive sustainability goals. Those goals are vital to tech giants, burnishing their public image, helping them retain employees and boosting their standing in the environmental, social and corporate-governance ratings that are increasingly important to investors.

BloombergNEF recently listed Facebook as the world’s third-leading corporate clean energy buyer, trailing only Amazon and Google. But it’s been a struggle in Oregon.

PacifiCorp, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is the PUC-regulated power provider in the Prineville area. The utility is making hefty investments in renewable energy, but about three-quarters of the electricity supplied to its Pacific Power customers in Oregon in 2019 came from fossil fuels, mostly coal.

Four years ago, Facebook’s green-conscious Prineville neighbor Apple went to the extraordinary lengths of ditching its PacifiCorp service, paying hefty exit fees to buy power from new solar and wind power plants developed in Oregon by Avangrid Renewables.

Facebook, meanwhile, agitated for regulatory changes that would give it greater access to renewable energy. It failed in several instances, but finally appeared to get what it needed with Schedule 272, which PacifiCorp calls “Blue Sky Select.”

Schedule 272 had been around since 2004, but in 2017, the PUC accepted an important change, allowing PacifiCorp to say that under the rate schedule, big customers could buy renewable energy certificates from specific power plants.

RECs, in the simplest terms, are evidence that renewable energy has been produced — one is awarded for each megawatt-hour of electricity generated by a renewable power plant. RECs give electricity users a way to claim the “green energy” that flows onto the grid, where its source is indistinguishable.

But among tech’s green leaders, and the organizations that critique their efforts, buying random RECs on the open market is frowned upon. These companies aim to get as close to the source of renewable energy as possible, spurring grid additions — as Apple did in its Avangrid Renewables deals, contracting for RECs “bundled” with energy produced at the newly built Gala solar plant and Montague wind farm.

Facebook didn’t go that far, but has made the case, with PacifiCorp’s support, that its REC purchases were vital to the utility doing power purchase agreements with developers of new solar power plants in Oregon.

s a claim that BloombergNEF, which tracks corporate green energy purchases, accepts.

“The thinking is that the utility wouldn't sign the clean energy contract without the demand from Facebook,” Kyle Harrison, a BNEF senior associate, said. “As a result, these are additional contracts, even if they’re structured slightly differently from a traditional virtual PPA.”

But now Oregon regulators are having second thoughts about how PacifiCorp has used Schedule 272.

In that 2017 interpretation of Schedule 272, the commission accepted that PacifiCorp’s use of the rate schedule didn’t constitute selling bundled energy to customers. That was crucial, because the PUC has ruled such products can only be offered under what’s known as a voluntary renewable energy tariff, or VRET.

VRETs have to adhere to extensive guidelines to ensure costs aren’t shifted to other ratepayers, and that the utility doesn’t gain competitive advantages over independent power producers.

Portland General Electric proposed a VRET in 2018. After it was approved, PGE signed up dozens of green-hungry customers to the program, which it calls “Green Future Impact.” One customer is Intel, which is set to buy energy and RECs from a 138-megawatt solar plant that Avangrid Renewables is developing.

But putting together an acceptable VRET is a complex regulatory undertaking, and space quickly filled up in PGE’s program, forcing it back to the commission to seek permission to expand it.

PacifiCorp has chosen not to propose a VRET.

“We haven’t seen an advantage to a VRET offering as compared to Blue Sky Select,” Etta Lockey, the company’s vice president for regulation, said.

It might need to reconsider that in order to keep Facebook a satisfied customer.

The PUC’s order placing limits on Schedule 272 use came in a PacifiCorp rate case. The commission was prompted by requests from PUC staff and Calpine Energy Solutions, an independent energy provider. They were particularly aggrieved that PacifiCorp had acquired a Montana wind farm specifically to supply Facebook with more Schedule 272 RECs.

In its order, the commission wrote:

The potential for future acquisition of resources … in order to provide Schedule 272 customers with RECs raises concerns regarding both adequacy of protections for non-participating cost-of-service customers and fairness to those who have relied on our VRET conditions to guide utility-offered customer choice programs. Unlike Schedule 272, VRET programs are subject to guidelines designed to address these concerns, including a program cap. We share staff’s concerns regarding transparency into the procurement decisions and the allocation of costs, risks, and benefits between non-participating cost of service customers and those customers that elect the voluntary product under Schedule 272.

Yet the commission quickly followed that statement with an acknowledgement “that customers and communities have expressed a desire for access to large-scale green products … and Schedule 272 has provided a simple outlet for some customers.”

Balancing those priorities, the commission allowed PacifiCorp to continue to use Schedule 272, but under a cap that PacifiCorp would face were the program considered a VRET. And it told PacifiCorp “not to consider Schedule 272 an appropriate mechanism to provide community-wide green tariffs.”

Meanwhile, commissioners gave PUC staff permission to look further into Schedule 272 and possibly suggest changes.

PacifiCorp and Facebook (through Vitesse) have both asked the PUC to clarify and reconsider the order, which apparently jeopardizes Facebook’s access to more RECs needed to keep Prineville green.

“Vitesse’s Prineville Data Center campus is growing, and the campus expansion construction efforts are underway,” it said. “Accordingly, Vitesse plans to execute additional Schedule 272 transactions with PacifiCorp in 2021 to maintain its commitment to support its operations with 100% renewable energy.”

PacifiCorp argued, as it has always has, that Schedule 272 isn’t a VRET because it doesn’t offer RECs bundled with energy. Therefore, it shouldn’t face the VRET cap, certainly not without a full investigation.

Lockey also emphasized, in an interview, that Schedule 272 customers continue to receive PacifiCorp’s standard energy mix, paying “all the normal costs, plus incremental costs” associated with sourcing the renewable energy that produces the RECs.

“That's the primary way we ensure there isn't any cost-shifting” to other ratepayers, she said.

In its filing, the utility didn’t broach the possibility of creating a VRET, though Lockey said PacifiCorp “continues to engage with customers” and “wouldn’t rule it out.”

Facebook certainly seems to be expecting one. Even as it asked the PUC not to cut it off from Schedule 272 for now, the company suggested that one solution to its dilemma could be “not implementing the cap until 2022 or until PacifiCorp is further along in implementing its VRET.”

Microsoft's New Redmond Utility Plant to Use Earth's Heat to Slash Energy Use (Puget Sound Business Journal, Seattle, WA)

Microsoft has pledged to make its operations carbon negative by 2030.

For a company the size of Microsoft, that’s no small feat. The company employs more than 168,000 people across the globe, with operations from Serbia to Mozambique, and it’s going to have to buy a lot of carbon credits and come up with some novel ways to power its buildings to meet its goal.

On Tuesday, Microsoft offered a glimpse of one of the ways it will cut emissions at its Redmond headquarters: A new Thermal Energy Center as part of the multibillion-dollar overhaul of its east Redmond campus.

The center, a three-story building that will provide energy to the new buildings, is “almost entirely carbon-free,” Microsoft said in a recent blog post.

The company has torn down several of the Redmond headquarters’ original buildings — many 34 years old — to make way for 18 new buildings, totaling 2.5 million square feet with room for up to 8,000 new employees.

The Thermal Energy Center that’s part of the project includes 2.5 acres containing 875 geowells, a system of pipes that transfer the earth’s relatively warmer or cooler temperatures to structures depending on the season.

Three hundred thousand gallons of water will flow through more than 220 miles of pipe to exchange heat across the wells and the new campus in what Microsoft described as a closed-loop system.

Microsoft said the system is expected to cut energy consumption on the newly refurbished portion of its Redmond campus by more than 50% compared with a typical utility plant.

Here’s how it works: Geoexchange systems use the difference in temperature between soil below the ground and ambient air. The soil remains a constant temperature of about 55 degrees throughout the year while the ambient air temperature changes.

During winter, fluid will flow through looped pipes, transferring heat from the ground to Microsoft’s new buildings. In the summer, the reverse will happen: The pipes will transfer cool temperatures of the subsurface soil to the buildings, where the air is relatively warm.

Microsoft says it will reduce its carbon footprint, not just through new infrastructure like what it’s building in Redmond, but by expanding its internal carbon fee, which has been in place since 2012 and is paid by each business division based on its emissions, to include its entire supply chain.

Tech companies like Microsoft have increasingly mounted public campaigns to curb Earth-warming emissions and demonstrate that green infrastructure can cut costs and forge new industries.

Amazon, which has ambitions to cut its carbon emissions to net-zero by 2040, has pledged to build a fleet of 100,000 electric delivery vans, with 10,000 of them on the road by next year.

Late last year, Amazon said it plans to add 26 giant wind and solar projects to its infrastructure, making it the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in the world. In all, the company said the renewable energy projects that power its operations generate enough electricity to power 1.7 million homes for a year.

The Thermal Energy Center will run on renewable energy that Microsoft buys from a regional utility, the company said.

In addition, the system is expected to enable Microsoft to use 8 million fewer gallons a year, which amounts to the volume of about a dozen Olympic swimming pools.

Building the plant in time for the first new campus office building to open next year will be tricky. Microsoft said the Energy Center, which was not initially part of the plans for the campus refurbishing project, was the last building to begin construction, but it must be the first to be completed.