As the former executive director of the Washington PUD Association, I was very disappointed to read about the suspension of the landfill gas project being sponsored by Cowlitz County and the public utility district.
Washington’s goals for reducing carbon and keeping the lights on requires that the state develop an all-of-the-above energy portfolio that includes the renewable natural gas this project would have produced.
In 2015, the state passed a law allowing this type of project to be built. It did not anticipate that the state would impose conditions on the project that would make it financially unsustainable. Perhaps the state should establish a rule that requires it to perform a “hypocrisy” analysis before it allows the left hand to ruin what the right hand tries to accomplish.
The Cowlitz public utility district and the county should be commended for the forward-thinking behind this effort. This project is a good one and the state should do everything it can to support it.
