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Washington Legislature Considers Hydropower in Renewable Energy Standards
The Washington state legislature continues to discuss the role of hydropwer in the state's
renewable energy portfolio and the Senate recently passed ESSB 5840 which will
roll back key provisions of the voter-approved initiative (I-937) that were designed to encourage
new investment in renewable energy.
Of particular concern to river advocates the legislation as passed would count all hydropower
projects of 30 megawatts or less as renewable energy with no qualifications on the impacts these
project may have on the environment or recreational resources. To provide some perspective, this
would include projects comparable in size to those on the Elwha and White Salmon Rivers which are
in the 10-20 MW range. For the past two decades American Whitewater has been an active
participant in negotiations over the future of our region's dams. Some have been in place for
over a century and need to be retired while others can be economically updated to more
efficiently produce power with improved mitigation measures to address resource impacts. We are
strongly opposed to any size-based criteria for counting hydropower as renewable that does not
factor in any of the environmental impacts these projects often have.
Another concern with the legislation is that it does nothing to move us forward in investing in
new renewable energy by counting existing facilities that were developed decades ago. "We're in
danger of making Washington the first state in the country to go backward on clean energy," said
Joan Crooks, executive director of Washington Environmental Council. "Our community is united in
support of continued state leadership in building a clean-energy future. We cannot sit by as that
future is eroded."
AW has testified on this issue before both House and Senate committees and we will continue our
outreach and education efforts as the House takes up the Senate bill for consideration. We
encourage members of the paddling community to reach out to members of the House (find your legislator) to express the
following points:
- ESSB 5840 as passed by the Senate will significantly weaken Washington's renewable energy
standards, making us the first state in the nation to do so.
- Hydropower of 30 MW or less should not count as renewable. Small hydropower can have high
resource impacts relative to the amount of energy produced. No blanket incentives for hydropower
should ignore the need for a realistic assessment of impacts these projects have.
If your representative is a member of the House Technology, Energy and Communications Committe your input would be especially helpful as the committee will be taking up the Senate version of the bill over the next week.
Recent opinions published in the Seattle newspapers provide further perspective on the
issue:
Protect Initiative 937's incentives for renewable power (Commentary by Jay Inslee)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008837346_opinb11inslee.html
Washington Century: Too Many Posers (Seattle PI Editorial Board)
http://www.seattlepi.com/opinion/403723_captraded.html