Big investments in renewable energy could mean higher electric bills, hitting households and businesses during high unemployment and a weak economy. Oregon's biggest electric companies, PacifiCorp and Portland General Electric, filed for rate increases last week with state utility regulators. Both cited renewable energy projects as the reason.

For decades, most of the nation's renewable power has come from dams, which supplied cheap electricity without requiring fossil fuels. But the federal agencies running the dams often compiled woeful track records on other environmental issues. ...Yet the shift of emphasis at the dam agencies is proving far from simple. It could end up pitting one environmental goal against another.

When the government's $787 billion economic stimulus package became law last month, the Bonneville Power Administration was one of the many beneficiaries. The federal utility wasted no time making use of its share, rolling out plans for a major transmission project ...The project now aims to provide service for 873 megawatts of energy - about 700 megawatts of that from wind power. That wouldn't have been the case seven years ago, he said.

California's push to supersize its renewable energy standards could drive electricity rates higher for Northwest consumers, strain the west's transmission and hydroelectric systems, and create a host of thorny policy issues. The California Assembly passed a pair of bills Friday to create the nation's most aggressive renewable energy mandate. It would require utilities to meet one third of their customers' needs with green energy such as wind, solar and geothermal by 2020.

California is the big dog in the fight, reaching into the Northwest to buy large amounts of wind power from Columbia Gorge projects. Los Angeles Department of Water & Power and San Francisco's Pacific Gas & Electric are among those securing long-term contracts for hundreds of megawatts of wind power in Oregon and Washington. "They're certainly trying to grab it everywhere they can," said Lee Beyer, chairman of the Oregon Public Utility Commission, which regulates the state's large utilities. The motivation behind California's quest? A rigorous law that says renewable energy must account for 20 percent of electricity sales by 2010.

Rows of tall turbines have already remade the landscape on wheat farms and ridgelines on private land around the region. But so far there have been no wind farms built on public land in the Northwest. That's about to change. In 2006 the BLM received six right-of-way applications for wind testing in Oregon and Washington. The number last year was four times that -- 24. Wind farms in relatively untrammeled public lands present a number of potential problems while pitting two environmental concerns ...against each other.

The city of Portland could become part owner of a wind farm east of The Dalles if a deal now in the works with Sherman County and the farmers who live there takes hold. Portland officials are pursuing the idea as a means of offsetting the city government's own energy consumption, which is about 50 megawatts a year. ...Commissioner Dan Saltzman, whose office is leading the negotiations, said while green power generally costs more, the plan ideally would enable the city to meet its renewable energy goal without increasing its energy bill. He expects the investment to pay for itself in about 10 years and that the city ultimately could draw revenue from the project.

A controversial renewable energy bill blew away the opposition Wednesday with a 41 to 18 House vote that saw many Republicans join the majority Democrats in landing Gov. Ted Kulongoski a big environmental win. Kulongoski, a second-term Democrat, had made Senate Bill 838 the centerpiece of his energy agenda, touting it as a way to green-up Oregon's image and make the state a leader in clean-energy technologies, such as wind and solar power.

A proposal to keep wind turbines out of the Blue Mountains and foothills will go before the Umatilla County Planning Commission Thursday. Richard Jolly of Milton-Freewater submitted a Goal 5 amendment to the county's comprehensive plan, which aims to set aside an area as a wind turbine-free zone. ...It seeks to designate the area as a viewshed, or a visual resource, which needs to be protected by the county.

California, whose laws require it to get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010, has its eyes on Oregon's growing wind power industry. "They're certainly trying to grab it everywhere they can," said Lee Beyer, chairman of the Oregon Public Utility Commission. ...California already imports hydropower in the summer; Oregon and Washington take deliveries from California generators in cold winter months. But Oregon and Washington also face clean energy laws and want the energy too.

Along the northern border of Umatilla County, at about the center of the county, the state drew a 400,000 acre box and called it an energy generation area. It includes Milton-Freewater, some of Pendleton, Adams, Athena and Weston. This week the Umatilla County Commissioners decided they want to ask the Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council to get rid of it. ..."It creates a disadvantage in the marketplace when the state leads instead of the county," Mabbott said.

Umatilla County is again asking the Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council to do away with a 400,000 acre box designated as an energy generation area. The box sits along the north border of the county, in about the center. It includes Milton-Freewater, Adams, Athena, Weston and some of Pendleton. In 1999 the siting council designated the EGA in response to a legislative mandate. The Oregon Department of Energy has been unclear on the EGA's original purpose, but some have said it was meant to analyze cumulative effects of many small wind farms in a given area.

Looking east into Gilliam County and north into Washington, turbines are strung over ridgelines as far as the eye can see. And there are nowhere near enough of them. ...West Coast utilities and independent power producers are locked in a land rush to secure the best wind sites and the power they produce. Coupled with a worldwide shortage of turbines and a falling dollar, the resulting scarcity is driving up the cost of wind power, a burden electricity ratepayers will shoulder.

Congress' failure to include a renewable energy tax credit in the much-touted energy bill passed late last year could chill wind-farm development in the Columbia River Gorge and elsewhere, industry and utility leaders say. For several years, wind developers have taken advantage of a tax credit based on the amount of energy a project generates. That incentive is to expire at the end of this year. "Manufacturers need to plan far beyond that," said Ditlev Engel, chief executive of the world's largest wind turbine supplier, Vestas Wind Systems of Denmark. Engel was in Portland Wednesday to address the Portland Business Alliance. The production tax credit has helped fuel three record-breaking years of wind-farm development. The American Wind Energy Association says 5,244 megawatts of wind energy were installed last year, more than double the previous two years combined.

Environmentalists statewide released their agenda for the 2007 legislative session Wednesday, saying they want to expand renewable-energy sources and electronic-recycling programs, promote biodiesel and other local fuels and create stricter standards for industrial water pollution. "We are working with both sides of the aisle to make sure these priorities are high on the list," said Sybil Ackerman, the legislative-affairs director for the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. The Oregon Conservation Network, a coalition of more than 40 environmental groups, unveiled its legislative goals at a Capitol news conference.

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s eyes light up when he starts talking about the benefits that windmills, solar panels and biofuels could bring his state. Though the $30 million that Kulongoski allotted in his two-year budget proposal for green energy is dwarfed by the billions he wants to spend on education and health care, the governor thinks it’s the first step in freeing the country from its dependence on fossil fuels. “I think Oregon can be … this national crucible for the development of this industry,'’ the governor said this week in an interview. “The state government can be a model for the private sector.

SALEM -- Gov. Ted Kulongoski wants all the electricity used by state agencies to come from brand-new renewable sources such as wind and sun power -- and he wants that done in an ambitious four years.

Eight months after the Oregon Renewable Energy Act was signed into law, Pacific Power - the utility with the most customers in Central Oregon - is already working to meet the state's mandate to deliver 25 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2025. The utility, which provides power to 29 percent of the state, is building wind farms throughout the Northwest and hopes to generate 3,400 megawatts of energy by 2013. ...Representative Chuck Burley, R-Bend, believes customers will end up paying more for their energy, primarily because they will be financing the construction of new, renewable generating facilities. "Overall, the ratepayers will end up picking up the tabs on these things," Burley said. Burley said he supports renewable energy, but he voted against the act because it didn't include caps on rate increases.

Some of Oregon's largest industrial companies are warning the Legislature that a much-touted renewable energy bill could harm their competitiveness and cost the state well-paying jobs. The manufacturing sector, which accounts for 10 percent of the state's work force, should not be put at risk in an effort to promote renewable energy and fuel, and development of an emerging clean-technology sector, these companies say. They say the bill lacks adequate protections against unexpected rate increases, to which energy-intensive companies are particularly vulnerable.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski may veto bills he worries could slow Oregon's efforts to boost the green economy and reduce global warming. One of the measures would trim a program that subsidizes green energy projects by reducing tax credits for large wind farms. The other would allow older biomass plants to be counted toward the state's renewable energy standards adopted two years ago.