News Release: Agreement Threatening Northwest Clean Power Moves Forward Despite Objections (Northwest RiverPartners)

Uncertainty for public utility customers remains a significant concern

February 9, 2024

(VANCOUVER, WA) - - The risks related to the future of Columbia River System Operations (CRSO) remain high as the US District Court of Oregon accepted an agreement negotiated in secret by the U.S. Government and anti-hydropower plaintiffs. Northwest RiverPartners (NWRP), which represents nearly 3 million electric utility ratepayers, continues to express concerns as the Court accepts the five-year stay despite opposition by utilities and other river users.

NWRP, along with all other intervenor defendants in the CRSO litigation, was excluded from negotiations producing the CRSO settlement. The exclusion of stakeholders means that millions of people in vulnerable communities across the region will now bear the brunt of the increased energy costs and uncertainty created by this agreement.

At a time when grid reliability, affordability, and climate change objectives are straining utilities across the country, the Northwest has relied heavily on its backbone of robust hydropower to meet expanding energy needs. In the wake of the settlement, community-owned utilities will face a much more challenging future, as the settlement introduces more chaos into the region’s energy sector.

“We have made repeated efforts to ensure that public power consumers across the Northwest were given meaningful representation over the last two years of negotiations. It is deeply troubling that with the continued pressures on energy costs and grid reliability, communities that will be most impacted by this agreement were left out of the conversation,” said Heather Stebbings, interim executive director of Northwest RiverPartners. “Ultimately, this will cost hundreds of millions of dollars and set us back on our region’s climate objectives while the biggest threats to salmon recovery remain unaddressed.”

To enhance salmon recovery, NWRP has identified and supported habitat improvements, research into ocean conditions and climate change impacts, predator control, investments in new technologies that support salmon, addressing blocked areas, and the Phase 2 Implementation Plan to reintroduce salmon in the upper Columbia River basin. NWRP remains committed to supporting science-based salmon recovery efforts that balance our region's recovery goals with the production of Northwest hydropower to support our clean energy future.

News Release: Secret Agreement Between U.S. Government & Anti-Hydro Plaintiff Groups Represents “Greatest Threat” for the Region (NW RiverPartners)

Proposed US Government Commitments undermines clean energy and climate goals, negatively impacts the region’s economy and food production, raises electricity rates on struggling families, fails to address climate-friendly transportation and threatens grid reliability

 

(VANCOUVER, WA) - - Earlier today, the US Government’s “Commitments in Support of the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative and in Partnership with the Six Sovereigns” (“USG Commitments”) was made public by members of the Northwest Congressional Delegation. The Six Sovereigns include the State of Oregon, the State of Washington, the Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation.

 

Our joint press statement is in response to the public release of the USG Commitments. The USG Commitments spell out the terms of a proposed settlement over long-standing litigation surrounding the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) and the lower Snake River dams.

 

The USG Commitments are an outgrowth of a process that was supposed to support the collaborative development of “a durable long-term strategy to restore salmon and other native fish populations to healthy and abundant levels, honoring Federal commitments to Tribal Nations, delivering affordable and reliable clean power, and meeting the many resilience needs of stakeholders across the region.” This document fails to meaningfully address any of these requirements. Instead, it undermines the future of achieving clean energy mandates and potentially raises the rates of electricity customers across the region without addressing the true cause of salmon declines – the warming, acidifying ocean.

 

In a joint statement, the executive directors of Northwest RiverPartners, the Public Power Council, and the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association expressed extreme concern about the transparency of this process and the USG Commitments’ impacts on millions of Northwesterners, “Our organizations have repeatedly looked for ways to find common ground with the plaintiffs’ concerns during the mediation process, submitting numerous inputs, documents, and studies. Instead of working with all interests, the US Government took months to hold secret negotiations and refused to share any details with us, let alone allow our participation. It is not surprising, then, that this proposal turns its back on over three million electricity customers as well as the farming, transportation, navigation, and economic needs of the region. By purposely excluding our respective organizations from the negotiations, literally millions of Northwest residents were deprived of fair representation in this process.”

 

Kurt Miller, executive director of Northwest RiverPartners, said of the secret agreement, “These USG Commitments would be devastating to the millions of electricity customers across the region that depend on the affordability and reliability of hydropower. As written, it hands the keys to anti-hydro parties whose stated objective is to dismantle the entire system. The outcome would gut the region’s decarbonization efforts. Higher energy prices will hurt the same vulnerable groups negatively affected by climate change.”

 

Scott Simms, CEO and executive director of the Public Power Council, said, “PPC and its non-profit member utilities believe these USG Commitments pose the single greatest threat to the vitality of the region’s hydropower system we have ever faced. We are calling on the entire Northwest congressional delegation to stand up for the region’s electric grid and the communities dependent on clean, reliable hydropower.”

 

Neil Maunu, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, said, “We are extremely disappointed in the flawed process that led to these USG Commitments, which would eliminate shipping and river transportation in Idaho and eastern Washington and remove over 48,000 acres from food production. These USG Commitments threaten the livelihoods of farmers, ports, and barging operators and present river system safety concerns in a way we’ve never seen before.” 

 

The USG Commitments go well beyond creating a roadmap for breaching the lower Snake River dams, establishing a plan that could demolish the capabilities of the entire Federal Columbia River Power System. The document repeatedly requires the USG to consult and defer to plaintiff organizations without any requirement of engaging those reliant on the hydropower system and its many benefits. The USG Commitments notably exclude sideboards that would ensure the region’s clean energy mandates are reached before any actions are taken that would reduce the CO2-free generation provided by the dams. Further, the operational changes to the hydropower system are untested, leaving many questions about potential impacts. Contemplated additions of new “replacement resources” appear not to come close to the reliable performance features of clean, renewable hydro projects.      

 

These USG Commitments also fail to address the severe impacts of dam breaching on the region's ports, farmers, river users, and barging operators. Barging has remarkably low occurrences of injuries, fatalities, and spills, proving to be the safest cargo transportation method, surpassing rail and trucks. Barging stands out for its superior fuel efficiency and minimized emissions, underscoring the critical importance to this region and the fight against climate change. In addition, shifting commodity flows from barge to truck and rail – caused by the removal of navigation locks at the dams - will increase harmful emissions by over 1,251,000 tons per year. (FCS Group)  These harmful toxins are the equivalent of adding one large coal-fired power plant to the grid every two to three years.

 

The USG Commitments ignore scientific studies and rely solely on one unscientific NOAA policy document to justify spending billions of dollars. Climate change, especially the warming ocean, threatens salmon populations in rivers up and down the North American West Coast - whether or not dams are present. NOAA Fisheries’ own peer-reviewed study predicts Chinook salmon populations will approach extinction within the next four years if the ocean continues to warm at its current rate. The Northwest’s hydropower system is the greatest tool available to fight climate change. Destroying or diminishing the hydropower system to chase false “solutions” is a lose-lose proposition for both people and salmon.      

    

About Northwest RiverPartners

Northwest RiverPartners is a not-for-profit, member-driven organization. Members include community-owned utilities, ports, labor, agriculture, and businesses from across the northwestern United States. The organization is focused on raising awareness about how the Northwest’s hydropower system betters communities and the natural environment and encourages science-based solutions that help hydropower and salmon coexist and thrive. http://nwriverpartners.org

    

About the Public Power Council

The Public Power Council, established in 1966, is an association representing over 100 consumer-owned electric utilities in the Pacific Northwest.  PPC’s mission is to preserve and protect the benefits of the Federal Columbia River Power System for consumer-owned utilities and is a forum to identify, discuss, and build consensus around energy and utility issues.  For more information, please visit us on the web at www.ppcpdx.org.       

 

About Pacific Northwest Waterways Association

The Pacific Northwest Waterways Association is a non-profit, non-partisan trade association of ports, businesses, public agencies, farmers, and individuals who support navigation, energy, trade, and economic development throughout the region. Learn more at www.pnwa.net

Wind Advisory: Gusts 20-30 MPH, Possibly 50 MPH

 ...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 7 PM THIS EVENING TO 7 AM PST

SATURDAY...

* WHAT...South winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph
  expected.

* WHERE...Southwest Interior, Everett and Vicinity, Tacoma Area,
  Hood Canal Area, Lower Chehalis Valley Area, Central Coast,
  Bellevue and Vicinity, Seattle and Vicinity and Bremerton and
  Vicinity.

* WHEN...From 7 PM this evening to 7 AM PST Saturday.

* IMPACTS...Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects.
  Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may
  result.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Winds will be strongest near the water.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Use extra caution when driving, especially if operating a high
profile vehicle. Secure outdoor objects.

The Lost Romance of Election Night

By Jeff Green

Written October 29, 2020

Election night in Shelton used to be an all-American experience full of drama, anxiety, pride, pathos and triumph.

People from all over Mason County swarmed the courthouse and climbed the stairs - or took the rickety elevator - to the courtroom on the second floor. There they’d pack the wooden pews, or stand in the back and along the side walls.

Not long after the polls closed at eight o’clock, poll workers from various precincts started to arrive carrying locked wooden boxes full of ballots. Election department employees would unlock the boxes and prepare ballots for counting by a machine set up right in the midst of the courtroom.

Between ballot counts, every hour or longer, people chatted, moved around or tried to devine meaning through their pocket calculators.

As the evening moved along, the courtroom grew hotter and stuffier from body heat and the ancient steam radiators whose regulators had long ago been stripped and no longer worked.

The courtroom’s large windows were thrown open and the chilly November night air cooled the stifling courtroom by two or three degrees. It was great to stand near the windows and feel the cool air.

After the machine spit out each count, the county clerk would write the ballot sub-totals on butcher paper affixed to blackboards. The room quieted and you could hear her marker squeak as she wrote the numbers for each candidate. Supporters cheered or groaned depending on how the numbers fell.

Most people were there for the local races. Some races were settled early as one candidate would pull away and keep increasing his or her lead.

But the best races were those where the lead changed back and forth - and back again - during the night. That was when election watchers were in their element; their nerves frazzled, their pulses racing.

And then, it was announced the final count was being tallied on the machine. Sometimes that was well after midnight. The room fell silent. Most held their breath as the clerk wrote the totals on the boards.

Sometimes the courtroom exploded in whoops and cheers from the backers of winners, while those favoring the runners-up sighed and started putting on their coats.

Eventually, everybody went home in the late-night or early-morning cold. It was always exciting, always a spectacle, always electric to watch the returns roll in.

In today’s vote-by-mail era, there are no precinct workers. Gone are the wooden boxes, the butcher paper, the buzzing of the vote-counting machine. The courtroom is dark and empty on election night. 

These days printed results are handed out to the few who show up at the county commissioners’ chambers and posted online shortly after eight.

The process is fast and accurate but mechanical. All that’s missing is the humanity and emotions and pulse-pounding atmosphere on election night of year’s past.

Jeff Green passed away in 2022.

News Release: NW RiverPartners Reacts to Latest Delay in Lower Snake River Dam Talks (NW RiverPartners, Vancouver, WA)

October 31, 2923

(VANCOUVER, WA) - - The United States Government announced Wednesday that it would be producing for comment a draft package of “actions and commitments” that it developed in secret with plaintiffs’ groups.  We have been provided with no other details other than that we will have 30 to 45 days of “engagement” in a “conferral” process to review the document(s). This action is more of the same by only including ratepayer advocates after the fact.

Kurt Miller, executive director of Northwest RiverPartners, responded, “The US Government, led by the Council on Environmental Quality, is keeping those who keep your lights on in the dark. As a nonprofit representing more than three million ratepayers throughout the five-state region, Northwest RiverPartners will be reviewing these documents in the context of climate change, grid reliability, affordability, and science.”

Key questions:

Do the proposed actions and commitments help the region meet its climate change policy objectives?

We already feel the effects of climate change in our region, with our most vulnerable populations bearing the hardest burdens of those impacts.  During the 2021 heat dome, we lost over 500 people due to the high temperatures.  We can only meet the challenges of climate change by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.

Today, about a third of Washington state’s electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels.  To reduce emissions, we need every renewable energy source available.  In the NW, our biggest renewable energy source is hydroelectricity.  Study after study indicates that we cannot meet our emissions reduction goals without fully employing every one of our hydro assets.  Removing any productive renewable hydro facility before reaching our climate change goals means burning more fossil fuels. 

Do the proposed actions and commitments support grid reliability for the region?

The Western Electricity Coordinating Council has forecasted that all subregions of the Western Grid will be at risk of blackouts as early as 2025.  And efforts to further decarbonize our economy are driving electric demand growth like we’ve never seen before.  Different evaluations of growth in load demand range between 50% - 140% by 2050, depending on where you are in the region.

At the same time, as we are increasing demand, we are retiring supply in the form of dispatchable coal and gas assets.  NW RiverPartners performed an analysis that indicates that the region must add 160 GW of new clean energy capacity in the next 20 years to meet our decarbonization objectives.  That is over double our existing generating capacity. These numbers assume that all our existing hydro assets remain in place.

The Bonneville Power Administration, University of Washington, and Stanford University have performed analyses that indicate that Pacific Northwest hydro – unlike some other hydro in the West – will continue to supply the region with much-needed reliable power into the foreseeable future.

Do the proposed actions and commitments support energy affordability?

A study commissioned by the Bonneville Power Administration in 2022 examined replacement resources and cost impacts associated with the removal of the Lower Snake River dams.  The analysis identified cost increases of up to 65% for public power customers.

Public utilities are not looking to make a profit or pay a dividend to shareholders.  The rates our consumers pay are tied directly to the cost required to deliver them energy.  Our public utilities serve millions of customers throughout the region daily, many of whom struggle with their bills.  Electricity is an essential human service. As we respond to and try to mitigate the impacts of climate change, our most vulnerable populations will be most exposed and most impacted by the costs of dealing with it.

Do the proposed actions and commitments have a scientific basis in salmon recovery?

• Mounting scientific evidence shows that the greatest threat to salmon survival is the impact of climate change.  NOAA scientists have determined:
• “Our analysis showed relative resilience in freshwater stages, with the dominant driver toward extinction being rising SST (sea surface temperature), which tracked a ~90% decline in survival in the marine life stage.”
• “This recent downturn in adult abundance is thought to be driven primarily by marine environmental conditions and a decline in ocean productivity because hydropower operations, the overall availability and quality of tributary and estuary habitat, and hatchery practices have been relatively constant or improving over the past 10 years.”

Northwest RiverPartners Names Heather Stebbings as Interim Executive Director (Northwest RiverPartners)

Stebbings will manage the transition to the organization’s next leader

October 24, 2023

(VANCOUVER, WA) - - Northwest RiverPartners announced Heather Stebbings as interim executive director starting November 15th. Stebbings will overlap with outgoing Executive Director Kurt Miller to ensure a smooth transition. Miller recently accepted a role leading the Northwest Public Power Association.

Most recently, Stebbings served as PNWA’s executive director. Heather has worked closely with Northwest RiverPartners in the ongoing federal mediation process over hydropower operations. She is a strong advocate for preserving the lower Snake River dams for the many communities that depend on the dams for clean, affordable energy, transportation, and irrigation.

“We couldn’t be more excited about Heather joining Northwest RiverPartners as its interim executive director,” said Rich Wallen, Northwest RiverPartners’ Board Chair. “Heather is an experienced and respected leader. Her familiarity with the region’s hydropower infrastructure benefits will provide important continuity to RiverPartners during this transition period.”

Stebbings has over 15 years of advocacy and public policy experience in support of the Northwest’s hydropower infrastructure, including 13 years directing communications and government relations for the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association.

“Northwest RiverPartners is a critical voice in the region to preserve clean, affordable hydroelectricity. The work to educate the public and policymakers has been incredibly effective under Kurt’s leadership. I’m excited about the opportunity to have a hand in making sure those efforts continue,” said Stebbings.

The Northwest RiverPartners board will form a hiring committee to recruit and hire a permanent executive director to continue advocating for hydropower on behalf of millions of ratepayers.

Kurt Miller Named as NWPPA’s Incoming Executive Director (Northwest Public Power Association)

October 17, 2023

(VANCOUVER, WA) - - Yesterday, the Northwest Public Power Association Board of Trustees selected Kurt Miller to be the association’s next executive director, effective Dec. 1, 2023. Miller is currently the executive director of Northwest RiverPartners, a regional hydropower advocacy group. The previous NWPPA executive director, Scott Corwin, vacated the position in August to lead the American Public Power Association as its new CEO. Kieran Connolly has been serving as interim executive director in his absence.

“What is so terrific about Kurt is that he brings both enthusiasm and talent to the association,” said NWPPA Board President Doug Schmier. “I am excited to start working with him on the issues that greatly affect our NWPPA membership and watch him guide us into the future. And I would like to thank Kieran for his tenure as interim and everyone on the search committee for their time and insight. Through the process, we found our next executive director and are confident in saying he is the absolute correct person for the position.”

Miller comes to NWPPA with over 30 years of experience in the public power industry and has been the executive director of Northwest RiverPartners since 2019. While there, he developed a five-year plan based on successful advocacy models, bringing together government affairs, public relations, and grassroots/grass-tops infrastructure to improve public policy outcomes. He improved the financial health and capabilities of the organization by increasing the number of members by 25% and revenues by over 50% in four years. Miller also established himself as a national thought-leader and spokesperson for hydropower, speaking before the Western Congressional Caucus for both the House and the Senate and serving as a keynote speaker at Hydropower International.

“I couldn’t be more honored to be named the new executive director for NWPPA. I am excited to build on NWPPA’s legacy of providing a strong value proposition to its members,” said Miller. “I believe there are opportunities to leverage NWPPA’s strengths to provide new benefits to our members across the Western states and Canada.”

Prior to Northwest RiverPartners, Miller worked for Portland General Electric for 20 years. At PGE he worked in multiple areas, including organizational change management; customer training and education; smart grid technologies and new customer programs; and power supply trading analytics. His achievements there include leading the successful completion of the region’s largest smart grid implementation project; leading the largest organizational change management effort for wholesale operations; and developing PGE’s Business Case for Diversity and twice chairing PGE’s Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. Prior to working for PGE, he founded the first successful wholesale electricity brokerage office in the United States.

Miller started his career working as an economist for the Bonneville Power Administration. Miller graduated magna cum laude from Willamette University with a Bachelor of Science in economics. While there, he also received the Theodore Shay Prize in Economics. In addition, he has an Accelerated Leadership Development Program certificate from PGE and a Utility Executive Course certificate from the University of Idaho. In 2022, Miller was a speaker at Van Talks in Vancouver, Washington, where he shared the importance of thoughtful energy policies.