Upgrade to power grid wise investment

The Olympian • Published December 24, 2008

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President-elect Barack Obama has made it clear he will push hard for a new national green energy policy, one that weans the nation off its dependency on foreign oil while curbing greenhouse gas emissions at the same time.

To get the new energy policy ball rolling, energy efficiency and green energy projects must be included in whatever economy stimulus package winds its way through Congress early next year.

The Northwest has a project tailor-made for the green energy economy — expansion of the Bonneville Power Administration transmission system.

BPA is the federal power marketing agency born out of the federal government's response to the Great Depression, bringing hydroelectric power to the region 75 years ago. The construction of the dams and taming of the Columbia River was the largest public works project of the New Deal era, shaping a regional economy based on low-cost hydroelectric power.

As the region continues to grow and require more electricity, renewable energy from wind farms is playing an ever-increasing role. Therein lies the problem, and the opportunity.

The wind farms are in rural, remote areas of Oregon and Washington, east of the Cascade Mountains, in the Columbia River Gorge and far from the high-growth populations centers of Puget Sound and the Willamette Valley. BPA doesn't have the transmission capacity to deliver the green wind power to homes and businesses in the Interstate 5 corridor where 85 percent of the region's electricity demand resides.

But Bonneville has mapped out a plan to build about 600 miles of high voltage transmission lines at a cost of about $1.5 billion. Several of the projects are engineered and ready for construction. Others require more environmental review.

Now is the time for the region's members of Congress to make sure BPA transmission expansion projects are included in the president's economic recovery-green energy stimulus package.

The projects fit well with the incoming Obama administration's support for green energy and green jobs. By some accounts, an expanded BPA transmission grid would create 50,000 direct and indirect jobs, including 4,700 in construction and 5,000 in manufacturing.

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