Both PUDs are members of Energy Northwest, a Washington state joint action agency committed to producing electricity from carbon-free generating resources.
Columbia’s power is generated at a sustaining cost of 4.2 cents per kWh, competitive with natural gas and hydropower and less expensive than wind and solar power.
The nuclear energy facility, located in Richland, Washington, is the largest source of carbon-free electricity in the state after the indigenous supply of clean hydroelectric power. Columbia Generating Station has an exemplary record of safe and reliable operation, producing enough baseload, low-cost, carbon-free electricity each year to supply a city the size of Seattle. The replacement of Columbia Generating Station by a similarly reliable source of electricity would add at least three million tons of carbon to the atmosphere each year which would adversely affect efforts to reduce our state’s goals for carbon reduction.
Both PUDs formalized their support of Columbia by way of a resolution endorsing the nuclear plant’s contribution of safe and reliable baseload generation through its lifecycle for the Northwest’s clean energy mix.
