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[CU 1456 / August 30, 2010]
Power Players: BPA's Wright on Priorities, Reflections: Part I
Steve Wright has a lengthy list of priorities to address in his continuing tenure as BPA administrator, including climate change, rate-setting, implementing new wholesale contracts, wind integration, building new transmission, energy efficiency and more. In a recent interview with Clearing Up, Wright also looked back at his nearly 10-year tenure leading BPA and expressed "a bit" of surprise that the Obama administration asked him to stay.
Plaintiffs Dust Off Old Arguments to Go After New Salmon Plan
The next round in the battle over the region's salmon plan is about to begin, and judging from the first volley, most of the legal ammo has been recycled from the last skirmish. The state of Oregon filed a memo Aug. 20 that spends most of its pages reminding BiOp Judge James Redden why the older 2008 plan, which is still on hold, is deeply flawed. But the memo also has plenty of unkind words for the Obama administration's additions to the 2008 plan.
CPUC Resurrects TRECs; Feed-In Tariff For Renewables Advances
A draft California PUC decision would lift the freeze on tradable renewable-energy credits and raise the percentage that IOUs can count toward the state's RPS from 25 percent to 40 percent. A ratepayer group has called the ruling a negotiating tactic by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pressure lawmakers to codify a 33-percent RPS and set the amount of in-state and out-of-state generation allowed. Meanwhile, a separate CPUC decision aims to launch a feed-in-tariff effort for 1000 MW of renewables, using a market-based auction tool with non-negotiable bids that require utilities to take the lowest-cost offers.
Idaho Dairy to Install New Solar-Thermal Water Heating SystemA Rupert, Idaho dairy will be one of the first in the Pacific Northwest to install a solar-thermal system that uses vacuum tubes to heat water. Whitesides Dairy will install 30 of Silk Road Solar's vacuum tube panels that will heat 1,000 gallons of water each day to 165 degrees. Whitesides now spends about $30,000 per year for propane to heat the water; the Silk Road Solar system will cost about $40,000, but a USDA grant will reduce that cost and cut the payback time to about six months.
Also In Clearing Up This Week . . .
- Biomass Plant Planned For Port Angeles; ODEQ Holds Hearing on Lakeview Project
- Northwest States Can Quit Coal Most Easily, Report Says
- POTOMAC: Senate Energy Committee's Top Republican Endangered in Election
- PPL Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Montana Riverbed Appeal
...And Much More!
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