Draft Sixth Power Plan Comment

The draft Northwest Power and Conservation Council power and conservation plan is on target in its plan to meet our region’s rising electricity demand with efficiency standards and new clean energy, all without building new fossil-fueled power plants or increasing emissions. However, the plan needs to go farther. The million-ton elephant in the council’s room is coal, which produces 23 percent of the region’s electricity but spews out 87 percent of the region’s pollution. While commendable for its pursuit of energy efficiency and renewable-energy targets, the plan also should address our region’s coal use, by either advocating cap-and-trade (carbon tax) policies or CO2 reduction targets that are already on the books in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. There simply is no time for delay or equivocating on the planet's climate crisis. The evidence is staring us in the face: Look at the retreating glaciers on Mt. Hood.