Washington's Initiative 937, which appears on the statewide ballot this November, would impose new restrictions on the state's utilities in an effort to reach targets of specifically selected energy types, says Todd Meyers of the Washington Policy Center.

A clean-energy initiative on the November ballot promises to reduce the state’s dependence on fossil fuels, combat global warming and cut the cost of electricity. Backers of the measure, Initiative 937, also say new wind farms would generate millions in tax dollars for struggling rural communities. Can the initiative deliver on all those promises? It’s unclear.

In a state where environmental issues often find ample support, an initiative to compel utilities to use cleaner energy should be the least controversial of the three measures on the statewide ballot in November. But after months of little to no debate over the measure — which would require the state’s large utilities to increase renewable energy sources to 15 percent of their supply by 2020 — opponents have started speaking out, arguing that Initiative 937 would raise customers’ rates. “It’s a feel-good initiative,” said Chris McCabe, spokesman for the Association of Washington Business, which is opposed to the measure. “Everyone wants a cleaner environment. It’s easy for people to buy into that. It’s one of those things where the devil is in the details.”

“Your plan is not based on fees,” said Tom Bangasser to Rita Schenck as the two debated the merits of a Public Utility District. They were formally con and pro speakers invited to the Sept. 21 meeting of the League of Women Voters. Schenck replied, “It is based only on fees. If we can conserve appropriately, we won’t need renewable energy.”

That relationship will begin to change after the BPA's current contracts with public utilities expire in 2011. In that year, BPA projects that the output from the 31 dams and one nuclear plant that make up the Federal Columbia River Power System will be roughly equal to the demands of the utilities. Under BPA's proposal for new 20-year contracts, the agency would continue supplying low-cost power in the amounts and roughly the same rates as it does now. But as the region's population and economy grows, BPA will have to acquire more power from somewhere elsewhere to supplement a tapped-out hydroelectric system that's under pressure to remove, rather than build, dams.

KENNEWICK, Wash. - Energy Northwest plans to add 14 wind turbines to their wind farm south of Kennewick.

In a give-and-take Monday, a Cowlitz PUD commissioner complained that a statewide renewable energy initiative would wrest control from local decision-makers and warned that wind power has shortcomings. “If wind were a perfect resource, it would blow all the time. It doesn’t. That’s one of the principal flaws of this initiative,” Commissioner Buz Ketcham said.

Power company Avista Corp. (AVA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it opposes an initiative in Washington state requiring 15 percent of power supply to come from renewable sources, saying the measure would boost prices and that it fails to count existing hydropower.

At the halfway point between the West Coast energy crisis of 2001 and the next major electricity contract renewal year of 2011, a federal power marketing agency is proposing a policy change that could affect rates in the Pacific Northwest for generations and become a national model for energy development. Northwest hydropower is one of the cheapest energy resources in the nation - about half the current market rate for electricity. The Bonneville Power Administration - which sells power in all of Washington, Oregon and Idaho and parts of California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Montana - announced this summer it wants to change the way it charges utilities for its wholesale power, to keep rates low.

Voters have a voice in the state’s energy future when they cast their ballots in the Nov. 7 general election. Initiative 937 would require the state’s 17 largest utilities to invest in all cost-effective energy-conservation projects at their disposal and obtain 15 percent of their electricity from new renewable energy resources, including wind and solar, by 2020. Supporters insist the goals can be achieved without taking a big bite out of ratepayer pocketbooks, while building on a regional legacy of clean hydropower and energy independence. “We have a choice of charting a path toward a cleaner energy future,” said initiative backer K.C. Golden, a former state energy policy director and policy director for Climate Solutions. Critics fear passage would drive up energy customers’ costs from $185 million to $370 million a year and create an artificial economy around new energy resources.

Tempers reached a boiling point at Thursday night’s third and final Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council public commentary session at the Kittitas County Fairgrounds. Speaking out in favor of the proposed Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project and alternative energy, Ellensburg resident James Markret incited the ire of several veterans in attendance after likening the war in Iraq to Vietnam, saying that both happened “for no reason.” The comment drew loud vocal protests from several audience members and Administrative Judge Adam Torem threatened to throw out the objectors. Several audience members walked out of the meeting amidst Markret’s speech, one of whom yelled an expletive at Markret as he left.

After sitting through more than 27 hours of hearings this week, listening to or reading testimony from 35 witnesses and cross examining some of those labeled as expert witnesses, the jury is finally out on the controversial Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project. The “jury” - the 7-member state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council - may decide by late December what to recommend to Gov. Chris Gregoire on the 65-turbine wind farm proposed for 12 miles northwest of Ellensburg.

The site in Kittitas County has all the attributes the Whisky Dick Mountain site has – a steady supply of wind and nearby high power transmission lines. But it also has something the Whiskey Dick site doesn’t have – a loud group of opponents. “It’s location. Wild Horse Project was never affected because there wasn’t many people around,” said Sandy Sandall, a neighbor who opposed the project. Sandy Sandall and his neighbors worry the project would block their panoramic valley views and lower property values. But the owners of the land where the farm would be built are all for it.

VANCOUVER, Wash. - The Port of Vancouver has unveiled a new $3.3 million mobile harbor crane. The crane is capable of lifting 140 metric tons. Port officials say it was purchased in part to unload the blades and hubs of giant wind turbines for Pacific Northwest wind farms.

Energy Northwest this week submitted an application to build a $1 billion coal gasification power plant at the Port of Kalama, kicking off a review by state regulators that could take more than a year. "This is a new technology," Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council manager Allen Fiksdal said Wednesday. "It's a big project, and it's complex." The 600-megawatt Pacific Mountain Energy Center would be the first power plant of its kind in Washington and the first required to comply with a state law that calls on new power plants that use fossil fuels to curb greenhouse gases.

SEATTLE — Voices from both sides of the Cascade mountains were heard Tuesday night at South Seattle Community College on a controversial wind farm proposal to the east in Kittitas County — the 65-turbine Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project. The hearing was the first in a series of sessions by the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, or EFSEC, that will continue next week, beginning Monday in Ellensburg.

The major sticking point surrounding Horizon Wind Energy’s planned wind farm northwest of Ellensburg comes to this: should state government override Kittitas County’s rejection of the Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project and consider approving it? The wind farm developer and project supporters say yes; Kittitas County officials and opponents of the site 12 miles northwest of Ellensburg say no.

RICHLAND, Wash. Energy Northwest plans to add up to 25 more wind turbines to its Nine Canyon Wind Project in southeast Washington.

Denver-based Invenergy Wind LLC has options to lease or buy land 20 to 25 miles east of Ellensburg for a wind farm project, located between Vantage Highway and Interstate 90. The company, part of the larger Chicago-based power-generation company Invenergy, has environmental, wind, habitat and wildlife studies under way at this time at the site, according to Doug Carter, vice president of development for the company's western region. “We have, so far, viewed the location as a good site for wind-power generation,” Carter said. “We intend to keep developing the site.”

Vashon Island isn't the best place to harness wind energy. The wind just doesn't blow as hard in Puget Sound as it does in parts of the state where wind farms have been built. Even so, there's enough breeze to make wind turbines a good investment, says a group of islanders who want to make Vashon "energy independent."