Recently, the state of California took the extraordinary step of walking back its clean-energy laws and federal environmental regulations as the state’s electricity needs threatened to exceed available energy. Without this quick action, Californians faced brownouts. Overreliance on wind and solar failed in California, increasing carbon emissions as the state now has to temporarily operate carbon-emitting gas and diesel generators to support the grid.
This is not just a California issue; we have already had near misses in Washington. During the heatwave this past summer, the region’s largest federal energy supplier, the Bonneville Power Administration, urged electricity consumers in Eastern Washington to conserve energy to avoid brownouts. While the lower Snake River dams saved the day, the incident was a shot across the bow — a California-esque warning that if we aren’t smart with our transition to a clean-energy future, we will be left in the dark, literally.
Washington’s updated State Energy Strategy outlines ambitious goals to use clean energy to electrify other sectors of our economy to reduce carbon emissions, namely transportation and buildings. This will significantly increase electricity demand. The strategy states, “The modeling suggests that electricity demand in Washington could grow by 13-20 percent over 2020 levels by 2030.”
At the same time demand is projected to increase, Washington utilities are mandated under state law to eliminate carbon-emitting energy resources such as coal and natural gas. In addition, there are calls to remove dams that generate carbon-free electricity and are critical to integrating intermittent energy resources such as wind and solar.
