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I-937 pits environmentalists, timber companies
(News Tribune, The (Tacoma, WA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Oct. 21--Should Washington voters require the state's largest electrical utilities to conserve power and harness certain kinds of renewable energy to meet growing demand?
That's the essence of Initiative 937, one of four statewide questions on the Nov. 7 election ballot.
The question also is the latest in a decades-old series of political confrontations between greens and big timber.
Environmental activists who want to safeguard air quality and prevent degradation of fish habitat are among key backers of I-937, which would promote wind and solar power and limit reliance on hydroelectricity.
Lined up in opposition are pulp-mill owners who would like to market energy produced by burning pulp byproducts as renewable. Also opposed are some utilities whose managers believe the initiative will unnecessarily drive up costs.
I-937 advocates want to add Washington to a growing list of states -- 20, plus the District of Columbia -- where electrical utilities are required to tap into alternative power sources.
"The question is, where are we going to get the next 15 or 20 percent of our power?" said Chris McCullough, I-937 campaign manager.
One of the goals of the initiative is to protect air quality.
Although most of Washington's electricity is hydropower, which doesn't pollute air, regional power forecasts suggest available hydroelectric capacity soon will be exhausted. Statewide electricity demand is growing more than 1 percent annually.
McCullough and other I-937 backers say the state is vulnerable to future smokestack pollution from fossil-fuel generators.
For example, Energy Northwest, a group of Washington public power suppliers, including Tacoma Power, recently applied for a permit to build a $1 billion, 600-megawatt coal-gasification plant near Longview, in Cowlitz County.
Backers of I-937 want each large utility to depend in part on wind, solar, geothermal, wave energy and certain kinds of biodiesel and biomass fuels.
If a majority of voters agree, the initiative would require the state's 17 largest utilities -- those serving at least 25,000 customers -- to strive to fill a percentage of their sales growth with certain types of renewable energy.
TARGETING THE LARGEST UTILITIES
Together, the affected utilities account for more than 88 percent of the statewide electrical load. They include all three investor-owned companies -- Puget Sound Energy, PacifiCorp and Avista -- as well as Tacoma Power and Peninsula Light Co. in Gig Harbor.
If I-937 passes, it also would force those utilities to conserve power.
The initiative sets target dates for delivery of alternative energy. By 2012, the large utilities would have to derive 3 percent of their electrical load from renewable sources, 9 percent by 2016 and 15 percent by 2020.
The measure would permit utilities to pass on increased costs to consumers. But if renewable energy turns out to be too expensive, utilities would not have to meet the deadlines. I-937 sets a cost ceiling at 4 percent of annual retail revenues.
"The cost cap really is important," said Mark Crisson, Tacoma's director of public utilities. Tacoma Power analysts estimated the utility would hit the 4 percent cost cap about 2015, when new renewable energy sources would comprise about 5 percent of the utility's load.
Tacoma Power is officially neutral on the initiative. The utility's newest board member, Bill LaBorde, is active in the pro-I-937 campaign.
PacifiCorp, in Portland, and Avista, in Spokane, contributed to the campaign against I-937. Locally, consumer-owned Peninsula Light Co. gave $5,000 to defeat it.
Almost 60 percent of the No on I-937 contributions reported to the state Public Disclosure Commission have come from companies such as Weyerhaeuser or timber trade associations.
At $100,000, Weyerhaeuser gave more to overcome I-937 than any other anti-937 contributor.
Total cash contributions to No on I-937 amounted to $359,500, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission.
In contrast, I-937 supporters have raised more than $1.2 million in cash. Washingtonians for Cheaper, Cleaner Energy, the initiative's official backer, boasts support from wealthy individuals, the Sierra Club, the National Audubon Society, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the American Lung Association, among others.
WHY TIMBER groups OPPOSE IT
Advocates say I-937's conservation requirements alone would result in statewide savings of between $660 million and $731 million over a 15-year period.
They dispute assertions by critics who say the renewable requirement will cost customers as much as $370 million annually.
The No on I-937 campaign relies on a Washington Research Council wind power report that disregards the initiative's 4 percent cost cap on renewable energy. The research entity was founded by the Association of Washington Business, which opposes I-937.
At Weyerhaeuser, corporate spokesman Frank Mendizabal said I-937 is "bad public policy."
But he also said Weyerhaeuser probably would support the initiative if its language did not specifically exclude black liquor as a source of renewable energy.
Black liquor is a byproduct of the wood pulping process. It's a mixture of hazardous chemicals and lignin, the plant material left over after cellulose used for paper production is removed from wood chips. Pulp mills usually burn black liquor to produce steam.
Weyerhaeuser and Longview Fibre, also a contributor to No on I-937, harness pulp-mill steam to produce electricity.
Llewellyn Matthews, executive director of the Northwest Pulp & Paper Association, said the black liquor exclusion is hurtful to her industry.
"We're going to continue to use it for energy," she said.
McCullough, I-937 campaign manager, said proponents refused to include black liquor as a renewable energy source because emissions from black liquor recovery boilers include toxic compounds.
"Defeating the whole initiative over that doesn't make sense to me," McCullough said of the pulp-mill owners' opposition.
EFFECT ON UTILITIES VARIES
How I-937 would affect the bottom line for utilities varies, depending in part on whether they produce and market hydropower or purchase it.
For example, Tacoma Power now generates more electricity than its customers consume. That's not expected to last forever, but the initiative would force the utility to speed up conservation efforts and development of sources of renewable energy.
"You're basically obligated to buy something you don't need," said Bill Gaines, Tacoma Power superintendent.
In Gig Harbor, Peninsula Light CEO Rob Orton said he would prefer to rely on hydropower to satisfy growth. Peninsula Light has 29,000 customers and demand is growing more than 2 percent annually, he said.
As it is, publicly owned utilities such as Peninsula have first rights to purchase cheap hydropower marketed through the Bonneville Power Administration.
"We have an entitlement to it, and I'm not anxious to give up any piece of it," Orton said.
Under I-937, only efficiency-driven upgrades to hydropower systems would count as renewable energy.
"They don't like hydropower because it kills fish," Orton said of initiative backers, some of whom have lobbied for removal of Snake River dams.
Orton also scoffed at air-pollution concerns. "The fear that we're going to build a bunch of coal plant because utility managers are unfettered nuts is just ridiculous," he said.
Susan Gordon: 253-597-8756
susan.gordon@thenewstribune.com
Copyright (c) 2006, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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