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How the Pacific Northwest's dream of green energy fell apart
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MICHAEL DUNNE: Oregon and Washington are progressive states where legislators and the public in general believe in the importance of green energy. We've approved laws and ordinances that have put the implementation of renewable energy at the forefront of our climate policy, but somewhere along the way, much of it failed. Today on the show, you'll hear from my colleagues at Oregon Public Broadcasting, who've produced a series of stories about how the Pacific Northwest promise of a green energy revolution has largely fizzled, and the big reason isn't a lack of effort or desire, but the fault lies in trying to force new tech through old and decrepit infrastructure. That conversation is next on Oregon on the record.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Monica Samayoa and Tony Schick reporters for OPB. Thanks to you both for coming on and chatting with me.
MONICA SAMAYOA: Thank you. Thank you.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I Enjoyed your story that's titled How the Pacific Northwest's dream of green energy fell apart. Monica, I'm going to start with you. Can I talk about what that green energy revolution was supposed to be?
MONICA SAMAYOA: So, the green energy transition, or other terms have been used the renewable energy transitions, the ultimate goal is to move each state's dependence from fossil fuels like coal, oil, gas to renewable power sources like hydropower, wind and solar. And this is part of a larger global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which come from the burning of those fossil fuels that contribute to climate change or extreme weather events that we've experienced like heat waves and wildfires and in other regions, flooding and so in the Pacific Northwest, the renewable energy transition would essentially help each state reduce their contribution of greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from electricity sources or utilities that you know power our homes and businesses. And then that would help those same utilities generate energy from wind, solar and hydropower for that same reason,
MICHAEL DUNNE: Well, how did it miss the mark?
MONICA SAMAYOA: So right now, we found that Oregon and Washington are near the bottom in the nation of adding wind and solar power sources to the grid, and since both states are not adding enough renewable energy on the power grid, they're not on track to meet a midcentury goal of generating all electricity from these sources. And so, there are a few benchmark years between now and 2040 and 2050 and from what I heard from environmental advocates, is that we're definitely not meeting a 2030 benchmark, but it's possible that if each state ramps up adding renewable energy sources, we could potentially meet that 2035 and 2040 benchmark.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay, I think in any conversation about the environment and green power, it's important to talk about the reality of where the Trump administration is, even philosophically about green power and whatnot. Can you talk about how the Trump administration might be curtailing efforts here in the Pacific Northwest?
MONICA SAMAYOA: Definitely, and there are a few things that are impacting climate action just throughout the whole country, but the biggest is taking away federal funding that was awarded through the bipartisan infrastructure law and the inflation Reduction Act. So, both of those offer hundreds of billions. 10s of billions of dollars for climate action, and that could go towards adding more solar and wind to the grid, and go as far as providing or individual tax incentives for households that add solar panels on their roofs to, you know, purchasing an electric vehicle and so on day one of the Trump administration, he signed an executive order basically say no more, and has halted, or, you know, straight up canceled some of that funding that states are relying on to help with the transition. There's also another executive order he recently signed that would try to block any state law that focuses on climate action, and it's going to hurt not only our region, but across the nation in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping the renewable energy transition, and it'll definitely impact the state laws that are requiring electric utilities to get more electricity by 2050.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Tony, I'm going to move to you. You know, because in your reporting, an entity that you talked about a lot as being part of this problem is the Bonneville Power Administration. Can you talk about how they've perhaps gummed up the works of some clean energy projects?
TONY SCHICK: Yes, and this is where these problems predate the Trump administration. Well, the Trump administration has come in and made, as Monica discussed, many changes that are, you know, not conducive to renewable energy. Oregon and Washington were falling behind and not on track before, uh, Trump took the White House for a second term, and that is because there was just not enough electrical transmission available for these projects that want to plug into the grid generate power, and move power from, you know, the high deserts and windy areas where they're where it's generated, to the cities where people are using the electricity. And the reason Bonneville is at the center of this is because kind of as an artifact of the New Deal and the era of dam building in the northwest and harnessing the power of the Columbia Bonneville owns something like 75% of the high voltage transmission lines. They operate the vast majority of the grid, and so because of that, they're at the center of it, and 80% of all the new energy that's trying to come online is trying to do it through Bonneville, because they happen to own most of the grid. And so when the bottleneck happens, it's happening on Bonneville power lines.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I imagine when you were talking to folks about how Bonneville has been neglecting infrastructure improvements. What do they say about this?
TONY SCHICK: Well, Bonneville used to build a lot newer transmission lines than they do now, or that they have in recent years. And that is what a lot of people point to. They say that Bonneville has access to very cheap capital from the treasury, low interest loans that they could use to build transmission lines, you know, cheaper than most anyone else has access to, and that they should be doing more of that. And, you know, Bonneville, meanwhile, is saying, Well, we have announced, you know, some projects in recent years. We've announced $5 billion worth of projects in the past two years. And for the people who are wanting to see more transmission built, that is very welcome, but not enough and is coming after, you know, years and years of calling for more. And so, for the people who want more transmission and say that we need more to bring projects online, what's been announced is long overdue and not going to get us where they think we need to be in terms of available transmission lines.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Monica, I'm going to switch to you. You know, imagine there are elected leaders federally and in the state, you know, what are they saying? Saying about this bottleneck at Bonneville, or just generally speaking, how do you know Oregon and Washington are falling behind?
MONICA SAMAYOA: Well, some Oregon lawmakers have mentioned that they lament not making the law pass to transition electric utilities to renewable energy stronger, and what I've been told that that could have looked like holding utilities accountable for not meeting those benchmark goals, or even, you know, setting requirements to have these electric utilities acquire a certain amount of solar or wind power by these benchmark years that I've been talking about. But we also heard that Bonneville wasn't at the top of mind when they were, you know, drafting this legislation, and they were more focused on getting this passed, rather than thinking about what would it take to get there, which is this conversation about transmission. And so right now, we are hearing from some lawmakers that this really needs a lot more attention, a lot more thought, and that if lawmakers don't take action now, nothing will change.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You also wrote a great piece and great reporting on the on the impacts of this situation, with Oregon and Washington falling behind. Tony. Talk a little bit about the lack of attention at Bonneville and investment. You know, what are some of the things that we here in Oregon and Washington might experience because of this?
TONY SCHICK: Well, lawmakers in the Northwest said we have to be using only renewable power. At a certain point, you need to be scaling back your use of fossil fuels. Meanwhile, demand for energy is going through the roof in the Northwest because of electrification of vehicles, homes and buildings and data centers and AI that use tremendous amounts of power, and so the electricity demand in the Northwest is expected to double, essentially over the next 20 years and increase by 30% over just the next 10 years. So, we're looking at huge increases in demand with not a lot of increase in supply so far. And people have been telling us that that could result in the risk of brown on some blackouts, just basically the risk of periods of time when there is not enough energy to meet the demand in the Northwest, and some difficult choices will have to be made about power availability.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Monica, as we've learned in our state, you know, oftentimes aging infrastructure can fail and have massive impacts for people when the power goes out. I'm thinking about the big ice storm that we had over a year ago. And then, of course, you know, looking at California and also Oregon, when transmission lines are damaged by fire that can, that can lead, or, you know, can lead to wildfires. Talk a little bit about sort of this whole stew of real problems that could be, you know, exacerbated by what you've uncovered.
MONICA SAMAYOA: I mean, those examples are perfect to talk about. And I'd add one more on the 2021 heat dome, where I think the whole state was experiencing just record number temperatures. And at the time, I remember reading about, you know, transmission lines or power lines just melting. And so, when these types of extreme weather events occur, whether it be extreme heat, wildfires or, you know, the ice storms, we're using a lot more electricity. We need to use a lot more electricity to keep cool from extreme heat. We're indoors because of wildfire smoke, and then, you know, trying to keep warm during these very cold snaps. And so, when we have this infrastructure that's being damaged because of these extreme weather events like it's going to make it that much more difficult to solve this problem of trying to add more power to our grid while trying to build transmission that might not be, you know, in the way of you. Are transmission lines that have already been damaged by wildfires. And so, it's going to be very difficult to try to manage this problem. And we've heard that from some lawmakers that are trying to put more attention into well, how do we remain safe during wildfire season, which I'm hearing it's, at least in California. It's just year-round now, and it won't be long until Oregon is also kind of experiencing this season that lasts a little bit longer, so there's going to have to be more conversation on how to solve this issue.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Maybe I'll shift to you Tony, you know, I think a lot of people who don't delve into it as deeply and as thoroughly as you two did, would make an assumption. Oh, you know, Oregon, Washington, very blue states, very touting of green energy and environmental sustainability. Were you surprised at how much the Pacific Northwest is lagging other states in green energy?
TONY SCHICK: It was surprising. And you know, keep in mind, we're talking about green energy growth. So if you're looking just at carbon emissions, the Northwest has, for a long time, had cheaper and more carbon free energy than many parts of the country because of hydroelectricity. But what we found is that the Northwest is region has kind of been, you know, resting on its laurels, a little bit in terms of relying on that, you know, hydro power and being able to claim, you know, so much renewable energy, and in terms of actual new growth, very little has happened, and there are a few reasons for that. One is we haven't invested in the grid the way that some other regions have had to. We have land use availability laws in terms of permitting can be an onerous process, and all of those things can kind of add up to make it a difficult place for developers to bring energy online. Even though there are resources available, we have available wind power in Oregon, offshore wind power in Oregon, geothermal potential. There are different potential resources available. So, it was surprising to see how little, how little growth there was when we ran the numbers and sorted the numbers, I was surprised to see Oregon and Washington so near the bottom.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Monica, so what can we do? How do you think that lawmakers, policymakers, the general public, can coalesce around this idea that we need to make up ground, and we have a, we have a, you know, a delta in terms of infrastructure investment and application? What can we do?
MONICA SAMAYOA: I think one of the things that Oregonians can do is just talk to their lawmakers, let them know, like, I don't want to pay 50% or more on my utility bills, my electricity, my electricity bills, and want that to continue to rise. I think that there needs to be more conversation on how the Oregon Public Utility Commission is regulating these utilities, and that could be, maybe what one lawmaker suggested, if asking these utilities to acquire a certain amount of wind or solar power by these benchmark years. I think that could be a potential solution. There was a bill in both Washington and Oregon that would have created a regional transmission, like an authority to kind of start pulling together. Okay, let's all try to figure out a way how we can just pull power in the region together. But both of those bills weren't successful. They didn't pass, and so that could have been a potential solution in joining forces either with California in well, when our hydropower is not as strong as it used to be, or, you know, when the wind isn't blowing enough and the sun's not shining a lot, you know, in the Pacific Northwest, at least we can, you know, look at other states and other utilities that can kind of share some of that power with us. That. Could be a solution, but overall, I think that the conversations just need to start. One of the things that I think about when I was covering the floating offshore wind in Southern Oregon is there is a lack of education for local residents to really understand the benefits as well as the impacts, and I think that the state needs to work on educating people about what these resources could mean for us and what really are the those benefits and what the consequences can be, but ultimately letting people know, like we do need to figure out a way to just get more power onto the grid that will help us, you know, keep the lights on well.
MICHAEL DUNNE: And hopefully reporting that the two of you have done and continue to do will help educate the public About this Issue. Monica Samayoa and Tony Schick, reporters for OPB, really appreciate you coming on and talking and really appreciate your work on these two stories.
TONY SCHICK: Thank you. Thank you for having us.
MICHAEL DUNNE: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon on the record are available as a podcast at klcc.org On Monday, we're going to re-air a show from November about the importance and ease of blood donations. Summer is often the most critical time for blood transfusions, as more people are going outside and participating in activities that can lead to serious accidents. With Monday being Memorial Day and the official start of summer, it's a good reminder that blood donation is one of the most important community support actions a person can take. I'm Michael Dunne, and this has been Oregon on the record from KLCC. Thanks for listening.
