Pacific Power Wants to Keep Coal in Your Christmas Stocking
Posted on December 19, 2014 by Jeff Bissonnette
Tags, Climate and Conservation, Public Involvement and Coalitions, Utility Regulation
A little more than 2 years ago, CUB wrote a blog post entitled, “Pacific Power Doesn’t Think Things Through” in which we talked about how Pacific Power seemed hell-bent on keeping coal plants running indefinitely. CUB was convinced that Pacific Power was investing millions of dollars to retrofit its coal plants without properly considering whether it would be cheaper to phase out the plant, like PGE is doing with Boardman. The Public Utility Commission (PUC) ended up convinced too, and penalized Pacific Power to the tune of $17 million. Fast forward to today: while Pacific Power might be talking a better game and has slowly begun to recognize that some coal plant investments do not make economic sense, they’re still not thinking things through very well.
On December 8th, the Oregon Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee held an informational hearing on the “Role of Coal in Oregon’s Electricity Mix.” As part of that hearing, advocates for cleaner energy outlined a potential path away from a future with coal in it. In addition to representatives from both CUB and Renewable NW, the author of a Sierra Club report that examined Pacific Power’s use of coal also spoke, noting that Pacific Power “can replace coal-fired electricity with clean energy and energy efficiency, avoiding pollution and increased costs and producing local jobs benefits.”
Pacific Power also testified at the hearing and presented a slide that was probably intended to show that they are thinking things through. But it ends up raising more questions than it answers.
The slide (shown at the top of this article) showed that by 2032, Pacific Power would get about 30 percent of their energy mix from coal resources. That’s what they want people to focus on. But what it really shows is that there little reduction in carbon emissions until a carbon tax is put in place, which they estimate to happen in 2022. Rather than working to reduce carbon emissions before the tax is in place in order to reduce the impact of a carbon tax, PacifiCorp’s approach would leave customers vulnerable to the impact of carbon tax. We should be working today to reduce our exposure to the risk of carbon regulation and carbon taxes, not wait until those policies are in place to begin dealing with the problem.
You can find Pacific Power’s entire presentation they gave at the hearing here.
That’s why CUB will be working with other groups to pass legislation in 2015 to reduce coal power in our energy mix. Pacific Power is already on record in the legislature saying they won’t take early action to prudently protect customers. So it’s going to be a big lift to pass a bill. We’ll be calling on you to contact your legislator to support the legislation we will ensure is introduced early in the 2015 session.
Until then, there is an action you can take right now to help grow the broader climate movement in Oregon. Public interest groups are encouraging Oregonians across the state to sign the Oregon Climate Declaration to show support for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building a cleaner future for our state. You can sign on as a CUB member here. Signing up will also help us keep you updated on legislative activity on coal once the legislature convenes next year.
Pacific Power is going to need a lot of help thinking through the path to a cleaner energy mix for its customers. CUB is going to need your help pushing Pacific Power. Sign the Oregon Climate Declaration today and stay tuned.
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04/24/17 | 0 Comments | Pacific Power Wants to Keep Coal in Your Christmas Stocking