Draft Sixth Power Plan Comment

Hello, Thanks for the opportunity to comment on our future energy plans. As a concerned consumer, former journalist, social studies teacher and parent, I urge you to take a long view on developing power generation with an eye toward sustainability. Sustainability means eliminating any further investment or development of oil, coal, hydroelectric or particularly nuclear energy. The Pacific Northwest has learned hard lessons from each of these, the Nuclear debacle of WPPSS, Trojan's misguided economic and environmental challenges, salmon losses due to hydropower and the pure magnitude of pollutants and their disposal costs for coal, oil and nuclear use. Not to be negative, the simple, obvious solutions include investments in renewable resources such as wind, solar, cogeneration and biodiesel to name a few. These are already making strong inroads and with conservation measures, we can buy the time to make these more affordable. I know consumers have become increasingly more energy and resource conscious and are willing to recycle and buy green energy even at a higher cost. Let's tap and encourage our regions willingness to do the right things. At first, many things we take for granted today, like the Television and walkman began as expensive items, but as investments, research and use became the standard, their affordability soon followed. We cannot literally remain in the stone age or devastate future generations with our poisons. Let's begin the bright future we all know is within our grasp today. Thanks! John Kersting